The other day I found a very large Sycamore leaf that I had picked up in my neighborhood weeks ago and saved in-between large pads of paper in my studio. I had meant to use it for nature printing a while ago. It was quite dried out by the time I found it a few days ago! I left it out on the counter where I work and when I passed by it again today I said to myself, I think I just have to try printing this leaf anyway!

I grabbed acrylic art spray by Marabu because the leaf itself was so brittle I did not want to pounce paint on it with a sponge. I used Lemon, Reseda (lime green), Gold and Raspberry.

It actually came out better than I expected!

I printed the leaf on a large 11” x 15” piece of watercolor paper. After I saw how nice it came out, considering it was quite dry, I decide to augment the print I made with a little more color (more Marabu Art Spray). And then, it only made sense to turn this lovely print into a cover of an art journal! I folded the leaf printed sheet of watercolor paper in half and used a bone folder to crease it. I selected some old ledger pages that came from Steve’s family, cut them to size and decided to sew them into the cover! Here’s a few pics, click on any photo for a larger view.

The green circle on the ledger page shows “Dr. Deming” -most likely, Steve’s grandfather!

This was a spur of the moment, but fun and satisfying project. I plan to paint, collage, stamp and mark up the ledger pages. It will be a lovely distraction!