Updates, Quotes, and a Bookish Garden DIY

Fast Updates:

Wishing you all a safe and happy July!

We met some awesome creative folks and had a blast at the event we participated in during the month of June! We are really looking forward to our upcoming conventions.

In this fantastic and inviting collection, the...... review gif

Also:

readersfavorite.com will have three of my available books listed as prizes in the monthly book giveaway. If you are interested in winning some amazing books by great authors you can check out the monthly giveaway here: book giveaway /Rise or here for The Warning Signs: giveaway/the-warning-signs and here: book-giveaway/combo.

Upcoming Event Reminders:

2024

Concealed Realms plans to participate in the Kokomo Quad Con taking place July 20st and 21st. This event will take place at the Markland Mall, Kokomo IN.

We are scheduled to participate at the DarkHistory & Horror Convention. The con this year will be August 31^st -September 1^st, at the Orpheum theater in Champaign, IL.

Concealed Realms plans to participate at the inaugural horror fiesta in Peoria IL on September 14th. This event is set to take place at the exposition gardens opera house

.We are scheduled to participate in the Lafayette Comic Con, Mighty Con on October 26th. This event takes place at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds, located in Lafayette, IN

Gardening Quotes:

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

“There is no point in having sharp images when you’ve fuzzy ideas.”

– Jean-Luc Godard

“I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul,

to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia,

but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.”- David Hobson

“Garden as though you will live forever.” -William Kent

“To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

“There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.”

– Janet Kilburn Phillips

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful;

they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul.”-Luther Burbank

“I like gardening—it’s a place where I find myself when I need to lose myself.”

– Alice Sebold

“If you wish to make anything grow, you must understand it,

and understand it in a very real sense.

“Green fingers” are a fact and a mystery only to the unpracticed.

But green fingers are the extensions of a verdant heart.”

– Russell Page

“Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old,

because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized.”

– Allan Armitage

Definition of : Bookish

Dictionary.com

Adjective

A.) “given or devoted to reading or study.”

B.) “of or relating to books; literary.”

– www.dictionary.com

Merriam Webster.com

Adjective

“fond of books and reading”

– merriamwebster.com

A few words: I want to apologize for not being present on social media over the past few months. I really enjoy interacting with my creative friends and I miss it a lot. Unfortunately, I have had to shift my priorities temporarily due to unforeseen circumstances. I will return as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Creative Pursuits-Bookish Garden DIY

It’s July! Every year around this time, I get excited about updating my garden. It is a great way to get outside and find new ways to express my creativity. This year I decided to add some new fun lights and whimsical statues, but as I was digging in the dirt and admiring the unfurling leaves, I realized that I wanted an interesting way to mark some of the differing plants that grow throughout my yard.

During my search for inspiration in creating plant markers, I stumbled across some great garden images filled with ideas. One image stood out to me. It was a backyard library, only instead of real books the gardener had recreated their favorite covers on stones and bricks. I loved this bookish art idea and decided that I needed some book bricks of my own, only instead of a complete “library” of my favorite books, I would use or create titles that depicted the plants growing nearby. As such in this creativity post, I will share the process I used in creating these bookish plant markers.

Bookish Garden Project:

Since I do not have a large yard, my “garden” wraps around the sides and back of my house with stonework separating the planting areas from one another. In the differing sections I have an assortment of things growing ranging from wildflowers to raspberries.

I decided to create Twelve brick books to stack or place in four main areas of my backyard, where these fruits and flowers grow. For example, in the stack below I placed “Butterflies, Hummingbirds, and Bees” at the bottom and “Wildflowers” at the center, because my butterfly and bee houses rest within the wildflower patch to the left of where the stack would be placed. Likewise, I have a small patch of “Blackberries” growing to the right, so I placed that brick book at the top.

Step One: Preparing-

To start I chose twelve bricks in three different sizes. When choosing the bricks you want for your project remember that they don’t have to be brand new. You could bury broken ends in the dirt or mask other imperfections while you are painting, incorporating them into the design.

A. Decide on the titles for your books.

Note: I planned to do a mix of real and fictional works. Ex: “The Birds and Other Stories” by Daphne Du Maurier is a real title and author, whereas “Blackberry” is a simplistic title I made up as a marker for my blackberry plants.

B. Before you move onto the next step, make sure your bricks are clean and dry to ensure that the paint will adhere to them properly.

Step Two: Priming-

Prime your bricks using an acrylic or oil based primer. I prepped my bricks using two coats of white primer.

Note: If you use white primer, you can skip A in step three.

Step Three: Painting-

A. Paint one side and both ends white for the pages of the book.

Note: I applied painters tape over this section after it dried to help keep the edges precise before moving on.

B. Spray the other sides of the brick the colors of your choice to form the binding and cover of the book.

Note: You will still see texture after you’ve primed and painted your brick.

Step Four: Design-

When the aforementioned steps are completed and the layer(s) of paint are dry, you can begin to add the details to your pages and cover.

Note: I removed the painters tape and added page lines first. I attempted to use fine tipped sharpies for this but I found that acrylic paint markers worked best for the look I wanted.

A. Draw Page Lines on the white “page” (the top, bottom, and side) sections using a fine point Sharpie or paint marker, to give the illusion of pages.

B. Use a pencil to draw your bookbinding and cover design, before going over it with a sharpie, paint marker, or paintbrush.

Note: Since I knew I would be stacking the books in a certain manner, I did a mix of simple and more elaborate designs. Sometimes simple is better, depending on the look you want. During the planning process, I had decided that I wanted my book’s to maintain a more homemade look overall but I tried an assortment of techniques, including using stencils and paint stamps.

Step Five: Sealing-

Seal your bricks. Be sure to do this in a ventilated area. Spray two to three coats, allowing your chosen sealer to dry between layers.

Note: I used a spray sealant for this step.

Step Six: Final Product

Once the sealant has dried and you are satisfied that your work is protected from the elements, place your brick books in your yard or on your patio where you can enjoy them.

I stacked mine near the plants that they were meant to represent.

Final thoughts

I had a lot of fun creating these brick books and I think they make delightful bookish additions to the garden patches in my yard. If you would like to check out some other tutorials, be sure to take a peek at the projects that I shared in these previous posts: mushroom-diy, Book Charms and Updates, updates-quotes-and-halloween-ideas, fearing-snakes.