A Woodland Journal

This journal features a handsome black bear.  Yes, he's brown.  But black bears come in a wide range of colors including, surprisingly, white.  The white ones live in a remote area of British Columbia and are rarely seen.

If you're interested in black bears, please check out Idaho Black Bear Rehab at www.bearrehab.org.  This is a wonderful organization headed by an amazing woman, Sally Maugham.  IBBR rescues black bear cubs who are orphaned, sick, or injured and attempt to rehabilitate them.  If they're successful they return them to the wild.  They've only worked with cubs until this year when they took in a mother and cub pair.

Anyway, this journal is the same basic plan as the others I've made, but there are a few differences.  First, the button.  I made it from a thick branch of a climbing rose that had died in the corner of our garden.  There are six signatures rather than the usual four.  And each of the signatures includes a piece of 90lb watercolor paper in addition to the usual 24lb paper. 

It's a pretty journal, and I enjoyed painting all the leaves every bit as much as I enjoyed painting the bear.