Tiny books (and how to make them)

+ 20 prompts for a 20 page sketchbook

This week I am sharing the pleasures of creating art in tiny books. There are so many reasons to do this.

I'm sharing a book here that I made: it's a little origami book (20 pages) and my intention for this today's newsletter was to record a video showing you how to fold this origami book out of paper. But then I decided life is too short and there are already videos on YouTube! One of which I learned from!

@jessica.mayburyMaking art in this tiny origami book was soooooo much fun! So fulfilling and rewarding! I made this when my son was one months old - its tininess was really lovely then because I could finish a page quickly or come back to it later. Really low-key, no pressure, post-perfection art journaling ♥️ #getmessyartjournal #messymay #junkjournaljanuary2024 #artjournal #minijournal #minibooks #origamibook #mamaswhomake #artjournaltour #flipthroughmysketchbook

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I hereby decree that you too can make some tiny little books if you so wish to record your daily wanderings, observations, new embroidery stitches even, maybe, that you’re learning. Or you could use it to respond to prompt-based art journaling like what is going on right now with Junk Journal January.

Here are some of my pages from Junk Journal January 2024:

Reasons to create small art in tiny books include…

Tight on time

When you don't have that much time, you can finish something really quickly, you have that sense of satisfaction that something's actually finished for once in your life.

Working in pieces

You can also work in a modular making kind of style, as I like to think of it, where you do parts of something and then, you know, set it down, go on with your life, come back, pick it up, keep going. I like doing this because it means then that things can only be finished when you decide that they are. And also that you can flip through your older sketchbooks and think… huh? Actually. This isn't finished.

20 prompt ideas for the 20 pages of your tiny art journal

1. Intentions

2. Shape of the day

3. Stitched

4. Music - make art to your favourite song

5. Mythical

6. Self portrait

7. Quote

8. Bad advice

9. Photography

10. Collage scraps

11. Currently reading

12. Mood in colours

13. Lunch

14. Future self

15. Collage

16. Cut out

17. Stars

18. Skyline

19. Fashion

20. Textured

Are you going to make the book? If so…let me know. Share your stories! Feel like using the prompts? Again, leave a comment and tell me how it’s going.

Other life news & book recommendations

I was on a podcast! In Dutch! Talking about my three favourite comics - in a previous life I founded and ran a women-centric comicbook website and community called, fittingly, Girls Like Comics.

Here’s the episode:

Books I’ve just finished that I want to put your way are:

• The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, by Roland Allen. Extremely great.

• The Distraction-Free First Draft: Unplug, forget perfectionism, and write more than ever using a typewriter by Woz Delgado Flint.

You can follow Woz actually here on substack, definitely do that. Am I using my typewriter more than ever because of her book? YES. Am I writing with prolific abandon in like 5 different notebooks because of Roland Allen? YES.

OK everyone! There you have it. I’ll be back again with art downloadables for my paying subscribers & beekeeping in winter updates,

Thanks for reading,

Jessica