I took a journal workshop in Chicago @ CREATE with Dawn Sokol. In the class we learned how to make our own books from old hardcover books by removing the original pages and stitching in our own page stock. I made a book with two "signatures", meaning two sections of stitched pages.
Of course, I had to make it complicated. I used a variety of oddities: watercolor paper, maps, old pattern sleeves, and even some polyester sheer that I laminated with paper through a thermofax screen.
In addition to learning how to construct a book, which thrilled me, Dawn introduced me to Sakura gel pens. The ones we were given in the workshop were the souffle pens. The ink behaves as puff paint after you write on a surface. Very cool.
I ordered a couple of additional packages when I returned home, and just got around to playing with them a few days ago.
One of the pleasant surprises was the set of opaque pens: I found that I could write on a boarding pass that I "ruined" by heating and turning the paper black. No problem now: I wrote on the page with my white pen! The other happy surprise is that I can write on the laminated areas of my sheer and the script shows!
I tried various other types of pens and markers and the script didn't show up.
Take a look:
Here is a page with writing using the Sakura Souffle pens
Here is the laminated sheer, turned to left
Here is the laminated sheer with Sakura opaque pen scribblings.
Pretty cool stuff
