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I've made a lot of books over the past few years. When making a particular size book you may have to trim off the tops or sides of the folded signatures leaving you with a good amount of extra pieces that are too good to throw away.  My December goal was to make a bunch of small books and use up all these off-cuts. Below are a few of these books. They range from 3 inches to 2 inches tall.   While making these books I had to do more trimming so I had off cuts from the original off cuts. The books below are just under 2 inches tall, and yes, it's a challenge working this small but mission accomplished. 
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 Do you have favorite holiday projects you return to every year? I sure do! This is the season when I can't wait to bring out my scrapbook, origami, and painted papers to start making paper origami ornaments. While I have my favorite go-to's, I also enjoy discovering and trying new models. This year I came across ornaments that were made from individual flowers from the Kusudama ball. It reminded me that I had made these flowers before and still had a few up on a shelf in my studio.
The flowers you see above, the ones from my shelf are made from repurposed maps. I originally intended to complete a full Kusudama ball but only managed half, plus an extra flower before I ran out of steam. Each petal is made from two pieces of paper and each flower has five petals Even for me who usually has a lot of patience for origami models that use many repeated folds it was a little much. That's why I loved the idea of making just one flower into a special ornament with the addition of ribbon and some embellishments.    To make these ornaments I used six petals instead of five. This gives the flowers a fuller look and allows for using two different types of paper in one ornament. Depending on how they're hung, the ornament can either look like a flower or resemble a bell if suspended upside down. I've included this year's ornament tutorial below. I hope you'll give it a try and make some Kusudama flowers too! Let me know how it goes—I’d love to see your creations! 
Each year since I began my Monday Sketchbook Collage practice, I changed something from the previous year's work to keep it fresh and interesting for me and hopefully for those following along with me on social media too. This year, I decided to work in individual concertina sketchbooks, one long strip of paper for each month and one five-inch square panel for each Monday. Click on any image below to see additional images and follow the process for that month's collage. January  February
April
May  June
July  August
September
October  November
December
Going for 'icy' with a touch of sparkle on December's collages. That magical feeling of the first snow creating a winter wonderland.
Week 1  Week 2 Dug right into the stitching this week and figured out a different way to use the silver thread to add a little metallic shine, stitching lines that look like little bursts of light.  Week 3 While adding the silver thread bursts to this panel I went back and added a couple more to the first 2 panels as well as adding more stitches to the ones that were already there to make bursts that were more visable.  Week 4 On the last Monday of 2023 I made this last collaged panel of my December Concertina Sketchbook. These monthly concertina books were challenging at times and more time-consuming than the Monday collages I've done in previous years but lots of fun too. It was especially satisfying to see each finished strip on the last Monday of the month. Now the challenge is to figure out how to bind all twelve concertinas into a book, of some kind and to decide how I'd like to approach my Monday collages in 2024.  Completed 4 panel concertina 
I hadn’t added any stitching to these end-of-the-month leftover scrap collages until now but this one collage you see below just seemed to need that extra touch.
You can read more about these monthly concertina sketchbooks and how they got started here.
Week 1 I thought rusted papers sounded like the perfect thing to use for November, of course, with a few bits of turquoise thrown in too.  Week 2 What would I do without the French knot, it's my very favorite polka dot.  Week 3 I've been lucky to have friends who gift me rusty things like the 2 1/4 inch washer that made the large print in the middle of this collage. That's a big washer!  Week 4 Rustic and weathered-looking rusted papers.  Finished 4 panel concertina  Small collages made from the scraps left on my table at the end of the month.
 You can read more about these monthly concertina sketchbooks and how they got started here.
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AuthorHi, I'm Kathy an artist working in the mediums of collage, eco-printing, rust printing, and slow stitching who loves to teach. I enjoy sharing my process and guiding you on your creative journey. Archives
January 2026
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