Right, and don’t get me wrong, I do, but for stupid personal superstitious reasons I haven’t bought one in a few years. Now, I think the time has come that I can give it another try Bought a two-pack of the smaller plain black books & already pimped one up for myself (using hand-painted and doodled upon cutouts from an old discarded book), and even filled in the first two pages. *insert a round of cheering-on here, please!*

Now that I showed you mine, show me yours! Especially if you’d like to win a (similarly) decorated “little black book” that came with mine! So… You have until midnight on Monday, Sept. 6th to leave a comment with either a scan of your own sketch book/notepad or just write about your “on-the-go” scribbling habits. Either way it will earn you an entry to receive a small plain Moleskine decorated by yours truly (I’ll send it anywhere USPS ships). Subscribing to the blog (and mentioning it in another comment) is another extra entry. Spreading the word about this giveaway (via Twitter, your blog or any other venue) is highly encouraged and appreciated. Ready, set… GO!

Some of my favorite Moleskine Links:

The results are in the pudding, so to speak:

Yesterday, I settled in front of tv, with re-runs of Harry Potter movies with my girls, and lazily, instead of doing a creative project with them, grabbed the papers, trusty x-acto knife and started cutting. The size and shape of the papers suggested that they could become perfect bookmarks, especially if I overlay 2 colors and glue them together. What do you think?

I also put together a really neat new Etsy Treasury – with beautiful prints and illustrations literally “Jumping Off the Pages” of old books.

Apparently quite a few Etsy sellers enjoy messing with the yellowish papers as much as I do.

Also, as much as Orange is not my favorite color when it comes to fashion, in other applications, it’s warm and sunny and full of positive emotions for me. So, why not create an orange Treasury, I thought…

One more orange-related thing is a blog that I frequent, Orange You Lucky!. Ukrainian-born Canadian illustrator and pattern designer, Helen Dardik will surely make you smile every time you visit her cheerful and bright online home

That’s it, folks. Orange you glad I didn’t pick banana for today’s post? (sorry, couldn’t resist repeating one of my kids’ favorite jokes). Enjoy!

First one is Doodle Diary, Art Journaling for Girls by Dawn DeVries Sokol It’s wonderful little (perfect size to carry around in the bag or a backpack) gem, meant to inspire artistic journaling in girls of any age. Short, fun prompts on every spread will give the much needed jolt of creativity to anybody who is willing to try their hand in this exciting contemporary art form. Some pages come with beautiful colorful backgrounds, and a few even have the drawings already started for you, but it doesn’t feel stuffy or intimidating, on contrary, it makes you wanna grab your favorite pen and start doodling right along Great job, Dawn, my girls and I will have a great time using it!
The second book is the one I got yesterday’s project idea from.  Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun by Carla Sonheim Beautiful collection of fresh, creative ideas to make drawing more fun. Wonderful, simple exercises that don’t require any fancy art supplies or equipment but will surely lit your imagination on fire and get your creative juices flowing! Gorgeous colorful illustrations/samples by themselves would inspire anybody with even the slightest artistic inclination. Also, every chapter has a “featured artist” section with a short interview and work samples of some amazing illustrators and artists. Now, that is exactly how I found this book, Geninne Zlatkis is one of the featured artists and she mentioned it on her blog, which I check out with religious regularity. I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to get into the habit of drawing and have fun in the process. I am also planning to check out other books in the Lab series.
So, the project I chose is called Scribble Drawings, and it’s a quite common creative activity which was perfect for my girls this quiet summer evening. Ok, so it was quiet for about 10 minutes after they stopped arguing who’s got the best scribbles and before they fought about who did the best drawing, but still…
I made 6 random scribbles on separate scraps of paper, turned them face down and distributed evenly between the two of them (you see, I was trying hard to avoid the “fairness” debate…) Armed with a large pack of markers, they had to figure out what they “see” in the scribble, add to it if needed and color it in.

The results were very creative and fun, especially combined with lengthy explanations that accompanied them If you do this activity with your kids one day, I’d love to see the results (just send me a link!). Enjoy!

Please jump over to the wonderful Bewitched Bookworms Blog to read review of my beloved Incarceron that I wrote together with lovely One Pushy Fox:

Not only that, you can try your luck in winning my signed illustration of this amazing book, together with some other cool freebies!

I’m also obsessively listening to Edith Piaf crooning the Inception “kick song”… On a loop. Which you probably already know if you saw my obsessive Twitts today. Here, join the party:

What else. Once in a while I hide in the back and keep adding details to my Sapphique illustration. I am totally in love with it, but a little afraid to spoil it with a face… What do you think?

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wonderful story! At first I was a little worried that it’s gonna be yet another “summer/winter” forbidden romance (which it is, but also so much more!). Great idea with the Iron Fey and all their technological advances! Lots of cool imaginative imagery and characters (I’m in love with Grim) in this book. A few little things made me scratch my head a little. Meghan’s attraction to Ash at first seems forced and unrealistic. Sort of like he says “I’m here to kill you” and she dissolves into a puddle at his feet and says “I’m all yours”. Just doesn’t really make sense to me (maybe because I have never been a teenage fae?;). And also, at the very end, why in the world is there quarter of a page of Meghan contemplating the Iron King’s initial offer? Seriously? Why would she even consider it, after everything she’s seen and been through?
Other than that, I’m very happy that I read it. Looking forward to the next installment

View all my reviews >>

Excellent sign that I liked the book, tons of little pesky images are roaming inside my head, looking for a way to get out onto a piece of paper. So far only King Oberon managed to sneak out and show up in my sketchbok, but the Iron Fae folk is right behind him, I’m sure.

FINALLY, I just started reading Sapphique, the sequel to my beloved Incarceron. Did I tell you that I practically had it smuggled into the US from Europe which makes it even more exciting? It is such a pleasure to read a book that takes over your mind in a way that you keep wondering about it, even when you’re not reading! Love it so far. Oh, and speaking of… I am proud to announce, I am beginning to write a full blown review of Incarceron for one of my very favorite blogs – Bewitched Bookworms which will run it, together with a giveaway some time in the beginning of August? I’m very excited.

I have so many more Paper Jewelry ideas swirling around in my head… And so little time… Next week I’ll be away on vacation, so I’ll either have more time to be creative, or none at all, it’s a bit unpredictable. In any case, I’m sure I’ll come back full of fresh inspiration, pictures and memories.