A Very Kelli Journal

Thought I would share the latest finished project from my studio, on this very hot humid Monday.
I received a sketchbook from Chloe, for Mother's Day, full of glorious thick, textured, watercolor paper. I decided it needed a cover, that has "Me" written all over it!
The book is small enough that I can fit into my tote along with my favorite markers and pencils. I love that I can take something to doodle in, wherever I go.
Sketching or doodling is one of the things I wanted to get back into this year. I have fallen out of practice, and have forgotten how much I love to do it. I have never considered myself very good at drawing. I just find it fun and relaxing---it's right up there with stitching!

For the cover, I used a mix of vintage and new fabric that I had in my stash. The bird pieces you see on the front and back are from my good friend, Hope. She knows I like birds. They worked perfectly for this project.
I didn't have a plan at all, when I started, I just added bits and pieces that I loved. I even added a pocket on the back!

The photo below is of the inside front flap.

And here is the back flap. I'm still practicing my free motion embroidery on my sewing machine.

I thought I would also share the few pages I have started on, inside. The photo below is of a page I had a lot of fun with. Not a whole lot of doodling, but I think that is OK too. I have a thing for pretty paper and love to use it whenever I can. I started the page with a rose cut from fabric, and sewed it to paper. I then added other bits of paper that I like. I left room for writing---which I will fill in---someday.

Here, I added an old book page that I had doodled on.

The page below, was inspired by this quote from Mark Twain. Love the quote so much, I'm adding it to my quilt as well.

Last, but not least, are my doodled elephants. On one beautiful day, a couple weeks ago, my girls and I sat outside at the patio table and doodled together. We had all our markers, crayons and pencils spread about, filling up the whole table....
And I was loving every minute of it!