“Finally, A New Project”

Hello, My lovely friends and followers

I hope you are all having a lovely start to a new week. I had a pretty mixed up week off, last week. We all had to be tested for Covid-19, because of a work contact, but we are all fine. I am waiting to have Wisdom teeth out and feeling a bit off colour.  Finally sort of feeling up to a bit of a new project.  Anyway…………………I decided to make a Journal Cover.

I have purchased a few of Dyan Reaverly’s Art Journal Dyalog inserts. There are a few different ones and while I wait for them to arrive, I thought I would make a cover for them. If you aren’t sure what they are hop on over to her Channel  “HERE” and have a peek.

 It will be an art/junk/planner/journal. It’s a whatever I want to use it for……………………It is a smaller version of my large one, that is also more portable. It’s good to have options, as sometimes you don’t have the time or energy to create on a large scale………………

 

 

I gathered a few supplies and started the cover. I used a cereal box and cut it down to roughly 9 x 6″ which should fit the inserts, as the box had a large spine.  Then I used Gesso on it for stability and so I could add wet mediums over the top of it. I had some really pretty napkins that I hadn’t used, so they were just right.  I removed both layers of the underlying tissue away from them, to remove the bulk. I then, used a wet paint brush to paint on water to make it easier to pull apart the sections I wanted t use.

I loved the text part of another napkin so I used that over the spine of the box and added the other lovely floral parts of the napkins to cover the front and the back. I used my home made Mod Podge/glue sealer under and over the top of the napkin. 

After it was dry and I trimmed off any excess napkin, I rounded the corners and inked around it with black ink. I decided I wanted a more squishy cover for this one. To give it a whimsy feel and a bit of texture, I machine stitched around the edge .You can see the form of the spine that was already there from the cereal box. This makes it easier to make a journal and not have to worry about separate pieces and making a spine……………….You could also strengthen the journal with extra cardboard if you wanted too.

I didn’t want to much embellishment on the front cover, as the napkin is busy. I cut a piece of cardboard, stamped a title, then machine stitched around it for a bit of interest. I just layered it on a bit of scrap cardboard, painted with a bit of gesso and sprayed with some ink, plus some muslin for texture.

I sprayed the inside of the cover with some ink, but I may cover it with some paper or do a bit of mixed media on it. For the binding, I decided to use elastic and then I can take one of the inserts out when I want to work in it. I decided on three holes and I just threaded the elastic through. You need about 4x the length of the spine for a good fit.

I don’t really measure anything, I just eyeballed about the centre and then one hole each side. I punched them using my Crop-O-dile hole punch then I set some eyelets so the holes in the cardboard wouldn’t break.

I also put some elastic through the middle of the spine to create a closure for it to keep them snug inside. I just threaded a few beads and a metal quote embellishment on to it before threading it through the hole. On the off chance that my inserts don’t fit in it, I can just make it into a junk journal to collage in.

I hope you have enjoyed my little how to on this journal cover I made. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. This was a fun project and I am looking forward to  playing in my new journal soon.

I am working on another project, so stay tuned for another post during the week.

Stay Safe and Well

Hugz

Kerri  x