Handmade Junk Journals

journals ready to be sewn and decorated

One of the pages in the junk journal.

Fabulous old music paper!

This week I had so much fun teaching a class on junk journals.

11 women joined me at a local library to make these fun books.

I was actually nervous the night before -- it's been a while since I taught.

I was worried about the supplies I'd chosen.  A silly concern!

What a gracious group of students.

They used what I provided in their individual unique ways.

While I don't have the venue to do this on a weekly or even monthly basis,

I sure would love to!

The kits I provided to the students

A sample page I made

Below are the fabulous pages my friend Mandy made during class, using the kit from class and a few items she brought with her.

Mandy is a wonderful artist in her own right and it was really fun that she signed up for the class and came out.  I know she inspired many of the other students.

 

Heros

"To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often."

- Winston Churchill

 

Perhaps it's odd to have as heros two men who made their greatest contributions during the 1940's.  But there it is.  Wealthy men, for whom the politics of helping others was their greatest passion.

My junior high and high school history classes included a lot about WWII, the Great Depression.  And both my parents and my four grandparents lived through those times less than a decade before I was born.  It was talked about a lot.  These men were talked about a lot.  It never seemed odd that, despite all family members before me being registered Republicans, these men's liberal views were considered heroic.  

In looks Roosevelt reminds me a little of my Grandpa "G," as he always wrote it.  They are of the same generation.  Also snazzy dressers!  But then I have always been very fond of men's fashion from that time.

I've been feeling a little adrift lately.  Not feeling I've ever settled into one thing, but having changed jobs and careers and homes so many times over my lifetime.  So this quote cheered me up this morning.  And seeing it was another wonderful Churchill quote, I wanted to pay tribute to some heros of mine.