From Notebook to Journal

About a week ago I got an idea and this is what came of it.

I went to the local dollar store and bought a composition book. My idea was to turn it into a journal and it only took a couple of hours.

The first step was to glue (with diluted ModPodge) white drawing paper to the front and back to cover the printing. My fabric was thin enough for the patterns and printing to show through.

Next I cut a piece of fabric approximately 16”x11”, then cut it into two pieces 8”x11”. I did it this way so the pattern continued from front to back.

The next step was to glue the fabric to the front and back. I positioned it just a little bit in from the center of the spine and used ModPodge to glue it down. Undiluted ModPodge would not saturate the fabric and would dry faster.

The fabric was about ¾” bigger than the cover to allow it to be folded to the inside. The corners are done first and then the edges folded over it. This gives it a nice finished look.

Then a piece of cardstock was cut to be smaller than the size of the inside of the cover. It was then glued (with ModPodge) to cover over the edges of the fabric. This gives a nice clean finish.

I thought it was boring so I found some fun scrapbooking paper and cut wedges to glue on the inside cover. I used Alene’s Original Tacky Glue for this step.

For the outside spine I cut a piece of contrasting fabric approximately 3” wide and about 2” longer than the length of the spine.

The ends were folded and glued. Then the sides were folded about 1/3” to 1/2” and glued down.

Then this was glued to the spine. It hides the edges of the fabric on the cover and gives a nice look to the book. It is important to keep the book closed when doing this step so the book will close properly when finished.

Then it was time to decorate the cover.

After a bit if trial and error I finally decided what to do. This means I laid a lot of different things on the cover to decide what looked best. I cut things out, I glued things, I dug through my stash of supplies. I spent at least an hour trying to make up my mind.

Finally, I tore some strips of the same fabric I used for the spine. I glued them on the front and back cover to create some interest.

Some copper wire mesh was laid on and then I found a polymer clay piece that I had made several years ago. It had been made to wear as a pin, but it is a bit large. It has stars on it so I found some other individual clay stars in my stash that I had made.

Since I keep parts from watches for my Steampunk projects I found some springs that match up to the designs on the fabric. An old button was glued into the center of one of the spiral springs. A small glass bead was glued into the center of the smaller one.

I decided to stop there. I did not want it to be overdone. I like how it came out and it is now ready to be used as a journal.

I did consider gluing some type of paper to the front sheet of writing paper to create a title page. I haven’t done it yet but it may happen later. Especially if I decide to give this away as a gift.

The whole reason for this project was to look for ways to create journals that would sell in the new Etsy shop I am designing. I am planning to open a second shop later this year that will be exclusively metaphysical.

 This project is fairly easy and could be a fun one for the kids. They could glue paper, ribbons, fabric, beads and much more to the cover of this inexpensive notebook and have a nice journal for their creative writing or personal diary. It’s perfect for one of those rainy afternoons, or here in Arizona it’s perfect for those extreme days when it is just too hot to go outside.

How would you decorate one?

Til next week.

Terri

1KrazyRtist

http://www.etsy.com/shop/1krazyrtist