A sweet gal I know named Deleise wanted to order her friend Amy a “biggish” sketchbook for her birthday. Amy and her husband Josh run an amazing ministry called “The Tapestry Project”, which, as described on the site, “is revitalizing a deteriorating neighborhood through renovation, restoration, and connecting people in need to the resources that will equip them to thrive as a community. The vision is to create model for urban development and community transformation for women, children and families in crisis all across Oklahoma City.”
Deleise knows that Amy is a big dreamer, a strong believer, and a visionary. What better birthday gift than a blank sketchbook to fill with a multitude of ideas?! I was happy to be able to help give back to someone who has done so much for our community.
Deleise asked me to include Amy’s name and favorite Scripture and to make the design “kinda organic-looking”. Even though Deleise and I joked about the vagueness of her request, I actually love it when I get input like this, as it gives me tons of wiggle room to interpret terms like “biggish” and “kinda organic-looking”.
NOTHING is worse as an artist than being asked to do a piece, and then being told exactly how it should be done down to the last detail. Strict guidelines are one big down-side of doing design jobs for corporations, and leaving all of that behind is just one of the many perks of working for myself!
Now I guess I’d better show you the final product before I get off on a rant about Corporate America. 
For “biggish,” I went with 8.5 x 11 pages, blank, so they could be used for both journaling and sketching.
I included her name inside the front cover:
The cover was a crumpled recycled paper which I ran through my ink jet printer to add the verse.
Jeremiah 29:11 is Amy’s favorite verse (and mine as well, actually!) The absorbency of the recycled paper gave the ink a nice soft, stamped look.
Because the cover looked too plain with just the verse on it, I added two brown satin ribbons and held them in place using grass-green brads.
Deleise, thank you for asking me to make this journal! I hadn’t done a sketchbook like this in a long time. Amy, I hope your new book is the perfect place for capturing your vision for the future! All the best!
How about you? What are your goals/dreams/visions for 2010? Maybe you need to get yourself a sketchbook to jot it all down!
