Cutting and sticking

Has it rained all day? I think so!
What better day then to spend playing about, cutting and sticking.

To record our travel adventures I spend a lot of time putting together a book. The text is the journal, that I keep whilst away, typed up and printed out. The photographs I print out to the sizes I want them. I design each page and then cut, stick and generally play about. I know it could all be done on the computer and I do make a book (printed beautifully by Apple) of all the pretty pictures. That’s the coffee table book that other people can look at if they want. This is for us, as it records all the little things: people we meet, things that happen, the bits we want to remember that mean a lot to us, but very little to anyone else. I could do even this on screen, but somehow I love messing about with actual paper and card, using bits and pieces that I gathered whilst we were away and just generally cutting, arranging and sticking.

I also love the books I use. They are beautifully made of handmade paper, by this wonderful company based in India. They are actually meant to be sketch books, and I generally use a much larger version, but the paper is just the right weight to take the photographs and it’s so lovely to work with.

And it is nice to be actually doing something, instead of sitting at a computer. One day I will give in and design these journals on screen and someone else will print them, but until then I will spend rainy days playing about with bits of paper, scissors, glue and double-sided sticky tape!