Saturday 1 December 2012

Finishing my journal

I am thrilled.  I have 15 double sided pages of art journaling.  Some pages I really love and some I'm not so fond of but know that I can go back and do something with them.

If you've been making your journal in a similar way to me then you will have 2 sheets of randomly coloured and stamped backing paper.

Here are mine:



To make the covers of my journal I cut two pieces of card one eighth of an inch larger than the pages.

Then on one side of each card I put doublesided tape around the edges and down the middle as in the card on the left.   I removed the backing tape and then using a glue stick went over the whole card including the tape.  This is another of Dyan Reaveley's amazing tips.  It means if you don't put the paper on quite right you can remove it because the glue from the glue stick puts a slight barrier between the tape and the paper. 

I cut the first piece of backing paper in half and smooth each piece onto the taped and glued card.  I gave it a little time to dry and then cut off all the excess paper.

I turned the card over and did the same on the back with the second piece of backing paper.

At this point if you have any bits of the paper that isn't covered sufficiently you can add extra inks or paint.   Then ink around the edges to colour the card.  You could do this before you stick the paper down if you wish.

Now you need to decide which sides of your cards are going to be the outside of your journal.  I decided that those in the first photograph will be mine.  I rather like those 3 hearts.

Get a narrow strip of paper about an inch wide and the same length as the height of your pages.   With a ruler I worked out where to punch the holes for the book rings and punched them out of the strip.  This acts as a template for the covers and the pages.  The number of book rings needed depends on the size of your book.  I wondered about putting 5 in this journal but in the end settled on 4.

Rather than evenly space the four across the whole length, I put two closer together top and bottom.

I punched the holes in the pages and then placed the template on the back cover aligning it so that there was an even space at each end.  Remember I cut my cover slightly larger than my pages.  Then I used the back cover as the template for punching the holes in the front cover.

Do you remember these?   These are the leaves I die cut and used as a mask on November 17th.  I stamped with a script stamp.  I decided they wouldn't really show up on the cover of my journal.

So I sprayed them with gold mica ink and orange mica ink.  (These inks are no longer produced so please don't ask what make they are.  Thanks)

Then I had a rummage (that's a technical term by the way!) in my stash and found some bits and pieces of papers and things and moved them around until I was happy with it.  I inked the edges of the torn papers with Distress Ink.

You're probably wondering about that piece of cotton I used to mop up the paint and inks.  Well as you can see it matches the covers beautifully.
Actually, I could have ironed the piece of cotton and used it to cover the card for the covers.  If you do that I suggest you put a piece of parchment paper between the cloth and the iron to prevent messing up your iron.

What I decided to do was rip up the cotton to make ribbons to tie to the book rings.  You could use ordinary ribbon if you prefer.  And you could add charms or beads to the ribbon.

And a close up.

I am so pleased with my finished journal.  I hope my blog posts walking through the making of my journal has been helpful to you.

Please share your finished journal through the Linky on the Attitude of Gratitude blog.

It's been a pleasure to spend the last 31 days with you.

Thank you
Bernice

8 comments:

  1. I adore the front of your journal Bernice, especially the envelope, leaves and of course the music paper!

    My journal won't be finished for a while yet as I have used a little handmade book another crafter sent me in a RAK and it has 7 pages left to be filled, plus the inside covers AND the cover.

    I didn't use backing paper like you but have bits and bobs from spraying sessions so might be able to make up a cover with them. Take it as the last technique!

    Perhaps I will be busy today after all.
    Thanks again for the course.
    BJ

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  2. Oooh its a lovely cover - cant wait to see the finished book in real life - let me know when you are free for a coffee/play.

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  3. Those covers are absolutely fantastic and I think the way you reused the ribbons too was inspired and finishes it off. No wonder you are proud. Great job.

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  4. Awesome! I've been journaling in my moleskine so no need for me to bind the pages but now I wish I could. :)) It's been a great month. Thanks for the challenge! :)

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  5. Oh I love how the cover turned out and how you used the cotton as ribbons...very clever. I really enjoyed all the pages in this challenge...they were all very inspirational.

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  6. That cotton is such a wonderful complement to your super journal - I will be getting out some cotton rather than paper towels from now on! It's been lovely to see your process.

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  7. Bernice, your finished journal is just amazing! Your covers and ribbons are so beautiful! Thanks again for putting this together and for sharing all your techniques! I learned so much and am happy to say that forming a habit of gratitude has led to more joy in my heart! God bless you!

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