Falcon Travelers

Angels on my mind…

Monique

September 21, 2015

For quite some time now, I’ve had angels on my mind… even from before I went on holiday in July.

Early July I received an question from Janet to make and paint a set of 3 Traveler’s Notebooks using a gorgeous image of an Angel standing in water under a stormy sky.

It took me some time to get myself to work on it…obviously there were the standard set-backs…like my camera dying on me and the repair man taking his time…but then there was also some definite procrastination involved, due to fear of not doing it justice….especially since I felt it had a deeper significance to Janet.

Now I love drawing and painting angels, but drawing and painting on a canvas is something entirely different to drawing and painting on leather. The leather has to be wet when painting and that makes it very susceptible to dents and impressions…

However, I got past my fear, got up the nerve and started the painting and now here they are…

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3 lovely angels, flying in the face of stormy weathers, coming through heavy waters and emerging as a figure of beauty on the other side. Continue reading

Starry nights and long and winding roads…

Monique

2 comments

September 10, 2015

Well maybe not so winding, but long it is, the road I painted on a custom requested Traveler’s Notebook.

Before I went on holiday I got a request for a custom traveler’s Notebook with a picture of a gorgeous view of the milky-way in the sky and a road leading toward a soft sunset in the far distance. The view of the milky way was so beautiful, I wished we could see the stars here like this, but I’m afraid there’s a bit too much light pollution going on in our crowded little country.

The Traveler’s Notebook is well underway to its new home so here are a few pictures of it.

It started out looking like this. Continue reading

Live Long and Prosper…a birthday present

Monique

4 comments

June 7, 2015

Last year I made several Traveler’s Notebooks using a masking technique. I knew the technique very well from my art journaling and since I hadn’t seen anyone use this on leather I thought I would give it a go.

My goal was to get a lighter lettering (or other) onto the notebook.
Up to then I had only been able to get darker images into the leather using stamps. The masking would allow me to keep parts lighter (like this).

The masking technique worked fabulous and I bought a silhouette portrait to explore the possibilities of this further.

Somehow live got in the way, with my job, combined with the Etsy Shop and family life… the machine just sat there gathering dust…. (so sad)

However now that I’ve quit my job to make TN’s full time and my sister in law’s birthday (a huge star trek fan) was coming up, I forced myself to MAKE IT SO …
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Painted leather Traveler’s Notebook covers, on the outside….

Monique

2 comments

May 27, 2015

Or…why I don’t paint the inside of my covers with the same acrylics based leather dyes I use on the smooth outside.

I’ve gotten a few questions from people asking me if I could paint the inside of the leather Traveler’s Notebook covers. The answer to that would have to be yes, of course I can paint the inside of the covers, however I choose not to do it. For a reason, a very good reason in my mind. =)

I do dye the insides of the covers with alcohol or oil based leather dyes. So there’s plenty of color to be had …

for instance, the above Nebula Traveler’s Notebook, has a purple inside =)

To explain why I choose not to paint the inside, I would first have to explain something about the vegetable tanned leather I use.
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Painted Traveler’s Notebooks…

Monique

no comments

May 22, 2015

Á while back I discovered you can paint Leather Travelers Notebooks with acrylic paint, my all time favorite medium. Regular Acrylic paint will work, however special acrylics for leather are better and give a much nicer result.

Since then I have made quite a few Traveler’s notebooks that were painted, among which are my painted lady and some nebula’s. I tend to show some of the TN’s I make in my facebook group, Lady Falcon Traveler’s Notebooks and on my instagram, @LadyFalconTN, but somehow seem to forget to post them here…

So without further ado, here’s my latest Weir Tree TN. It’s an A6 Traveler’s Notebook and it has one, larger/older , brother, or sister, in the world =)

These are hand painted and since the leather doesn’t take kindly to pencil, I can’t sketch it out before hand.
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Very short Blogpost…

Monique

6 comments

May 9, 2015

I’m going to try something new today….I’m going to write a short blogpost… That’s right, very short…
However, It is a rather long video =)

It’s a flip through of my Traveler’s Notebook (s), both my personal planner and the TN I took with me on holiday to Italy with the Travelogue and the doodling booklets.
I hope you enjoy

Have a lovely weekend,
xx Monique

IG: LadyFalconTN
Flickr: Traveler’s Notebooks
Etsy: MorganLeFaesTrinkets

A little trip and a travelogue to log it

Monique

6 comments

May 4, 2015

Last week I went on a little trip to Italy with my family. We had lots of fun and mad loads of pictures. Over the years I noticed somehow those pictures are taken only to be never looked at again, or if you do look at them, you can’t remember what was going on, or even where it was.

So the past few years I’ve taken to making a travelogue from all my trips. Sometimes quite elaborate, but usually just a brief journaling page per day with what we did and a few pics to go with it. Sometimes I draw, sometimes I don’t. I just go with the flow.

This year I made a new template for my travelogue and made it available in my Facebook group, Lady Falcon Traveler’s Notebooks

It started out looking like this

and ended up looking like this =)

Not as chunky as some I did before, but lovely and messy, just the way I like it.

A6, Fieldnotes/Pocket or Passport booklet making tutorial

Monique

3 comments

February 5, 2015

Just a quick post today, with a video tutorial I made about printing and making A6, Fieldnotes (Pocket), Passport sized booklets when you onlu have A4 sized paper.

I don’t think this will work with letter sized paper, because the dimensions and proportions are not completely comparable to A4 paper. However, the templates for FN and PP booklets might work.

If you do get it to work, please let me know =)

I also have a few pictures of the little passport I made.

Announcing the winner.. and a painted passport TN

Monique

10 comments

January 30, 2015

This will be a very short blogpost, with just the video announcing the winner of the giveaway from the previous blogpost Traveler’s Notebook.

So a short blogpost and a short video, that would be a first right? =)
Maybe even a bit too short…

How about a little eye candy then, my newest addition to my Traveler’s Notebook family. Meet my super cute wallet passport Traveler’s Notebook.

When I started I didn’t know if it was going to work…
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CLOSED My very first Pyrography Traveler’s Notebook and a giveaway

Monique

48 comments

January 18, 2015

At the beginning of last year I saw some beautiful Traveler’s Notebook that were made with a technique called leather burning, pyrography. Inspired by this I set out to gather all the materials needed to give this a shot. Made a trial piece in leather and then somehow never got any further.

I guess I was just scared to ruin it and didn’t trust myself enough to just go and do it. Well last week I gathered all the courage I could muster and went for it. Fail or no fail, I was going to make a Traveler’s Notebook with pyrography.

And I did =)

Now I’m definitely not an expert at this technique, but I had fun doing it and I think it turned out rather nice. =)
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