Journaling card

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I’m in the process of making another journal and I’d like to include a few journaling cards, those are basically cards with a nice picture on the front and where you can write on the back. What we need:

1 – thin chipboard from a cracker box, junk mail or heavy card stock as the base.
2 – old book pages that are discoloured, you can always pour coffee on it to make it look old.
3 – tracing paper, as frosty as you can get, the one in the photo is from our local dollar store and works great as it is not too see through, but enough to do the trick.

4 – images, I get them from various magazines.
5 – small embellishments like a stamp, die cut, leaf or a postage stamp ect…

I cut the chipboard to the size of the image and glue this to my book page.
Then I apply the tracing paper and give it a good burnish with my brayer.

Trim the book page and tracing paper and glue the image to the other side.

Select one of the embellishment and glue this in a bottom corner.

Last I would add lines to the back side of the journaling card.

A video of the making of this journaling card can be seen below:

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje

Dried Leaf encased in journal page

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I have dried some flowers and leaves this last fall and decided to add it to a journal page.


I store the dried leaves and flowers between a folded piece of wax paper, insert in a ziplocked bag and place this between pages of a book to store them out of the air and flat.

I use some sort of light but sturdy plastic I had saved from a package of stickers. After measuring the leaf I cut two layers a bit larger than the leaf.
I then measure it so I can cut a hole in my page.

I select the two pages I want to use for this, glue close to the spine/fold of one of the pages to put them together so they won’t shift when I cut the hole for the leaf.

Once the hole is cut I carefully slide the plastic containing the leaf between the two pages until it is positioned where I want it.

I bring this to the sewing machine and sew very close to the edge of the paper to secure the leaf. I glue the rest of the page closed.

If you are interested, please watch the YouTube video how I go about making this.

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje

Three Pocket Unit

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A three pocket unit I made from one long strip of paper using book pages.
First I cut 3 book pages to 3″ wide and cut the empty space off the bottom.

Next I’ll glue the bottom of the first strip to the top of the second strip overlapping so the text block meets. Repeat with the third strip.
Fold about 1/2″ from the bottom of the page over to the back, this will be the top of the unit. I like to have the script upside down. If you prefer to have the script right side up, cut the empty space off the top and fold over 1/2″.

I’ll fold accordion like, starting at 4 1/2″, see photo on the right.

Fold the strip up and crease. Now fold the strip down but leave about 1 1/2″ from the top to form the first pocket and crease.


Fold the strip back up about 1/4 inch below the bottom fold and crease. Again fold the strip about 1 1/2″ down from the first pocket to create the second pocket and crease.

Bring the strip down and up to make the last pocket, make that fold 1/4″ below the bottom of the second pocket which is 5″ from the top and crease, bring the strip up about 1 1/2″ and fold back down.

Trim the strip at the bottom of the unit, although I didn’t do that in the video.
Next add some trim to the top of each pocket and glue in place.

Last I sew around the perimeter of the unit, I will have placed a quarter folded piece of paper in each pocket to make access to the pocket easier.

If you are interested, please watch the YouTube video of the making of this pocket unit.

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje

Small junk journal made to fit my purse

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When people ask what my interest is, I often reply by saying: well, among other things, quilting, sewing and making junk journals.
Then there is a bit of silence before they ask the question: what is that, a junk journal?
I always had a hard time explaining what it is, so I made this little journal to fit in my purse, so I can show them what a junk journal actually is.
Next you will see most of the pages that I included in this mostly for show journal.

The cover is from a mixed media page I did, collaging, stamping, stenciling and painting.

Pockets along the bottom with a tag made from scrap strips that are woven together to make a new tag or bookmark. I usually include a calendar page.

A Tim Hortons bag is used as a pocket, in it I had collaged a doily with a paper napkin to be made into a pocket as well. On the side you can see the penholder which is paperclipped to the page.

I also like to sew a piece of torn fabric along the edge of some of the pages. And an old bias binding wrapper made into a small booklet.

This coffee dyed paper turned out really neat with the gridded pattern, it was laid to dry on on of those mats we stand on when there is a hard surface like the basement. I also include a piece of a map which goes in the centre.

On the right you see one of the many different pockets one can make from book pages.

The blue paper is the first digital collage I did, I hope to do more. I added a coin envelope in the back pocket.

If you are interested, please watch the YouTube video of the flip through of this journal.

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje

Scalloped Circle Wound with Thread, an Embellishment

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I saw this cute little embellishment on someones craft table and had to make some myself.  They are simple to make, but you need a scalloped hole punch.  I find I use this punch the most in my crafts.
You also need some yarn or embroidery floss or the like.  Some cardstock, glue, scotch tape and scissors.

You need two punched circles, one pretty one, it’s best to not use a multi coloured paper, stick to one colour or monochromatic coloured paper, as in, variations of one colour.
The second one is used to back the pretty one to make it sturdy.  Glue the two together.

Tape the end of the embroidery floss to the back of the circle with scotch tape.  Start wrapping the yarn around the circle, always the same amount of scallops apart.
When you have come back to the beginning, tape the end also to the back of the circle and you’re done!!

You can watch the video here:

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje

Start to Finish Junk Journal, Travelers Notebook. Part 5 and 6, Covers.

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I’m way behind with my posts, so I hope to catch up today.
The next two videos cover the making of the cover of the notebook insert I’m making to go in the Travelers Notebook.
I’m selecting cardstock material for the cover, that can be anything sturdy, like designer paper, wall paper, giftbag or the like.

blog 5 - 6 cover (2)I’m choosing a Gelli print on sturdy paper and a coffee dyed piece of cardstock for the cover.
You want two pieces, one pretty one for the outside, and the coffee dyed one will hold the pages.
I’m going to use cheesecloth stamp to mute the red colour of my paper, and I did a bit of embossing with powder and heat tool.

I sewed the pages to the cardstock which is the inside cover, I then sewed the two covers together, please watch the videos for all the details.

Part 5:

Part 6:

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje

 

Start to Finish Junk Journal, Travelers Notebook. Part 3 and 4, Making and Sewing the Pockets.

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Part 3 and 4 are all about the pockets.  Selecting paper for the pockets, what works and what doesn’t.
Initially I had thought that cardstock like material would be a good paper to make pockets out of, nice and sturdy, right?  Sure it is, but it is much thicker than regular paper, even when that paper is doubled up for strength, it is still a better choice than the cardstock.

So I went with papers from my collection.  I used a folded in half book page for the pockets on both sides of the first page in the journal.

A while ago I thought it was neat to dye papers and crumple them up when wet, unfolding and then letting them dry.  Yes they give a nice texture, but completely useless as journal material as you can hardly write on it.  So I cut some 2″ strips for the pockets.  I folded a 1/2″ over along the top edge to give it a sturdy feel.
As I am going to sew the pockets to the pages,  I also sewed a decorative zig-zag along that edge to keep the edge folded and for decoration as well.

I also love making these double pockets, handy for smaller things.  I used gelli prints for this, (maybe I’ll tackle that in a future video?) because they are nice, and with the added paint to the paper makes them a bit thicker as well.

Of course I had to add a Tim Hortons paper bag to the journal.  I added a piece of paper to both sides of the opening as it was a bit flimsy, and the bottom of the bag was cut so I have another pocket on the other side of the bag as well.

The calendar page got a small pocket in the corner as I didn’t want to use up a lot of the image.  This pocket is just a square piece of book page that I folded on the diagonal.
You can watch the video how I go about it here or on You Tube.
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Part 3:

Part 4:

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje

Start to Finish Junk Journal: Travelers Notebook. Part 8 and 9, working on the cover.

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I like to use fabric for my covers, an upholstery type for the outside and a cotton for the inside.

I lightly glue each to cardstock, wait for the glue to dry then sew all around to secure.

The inside cover gets 4 holes, 2 at each side, I used grommets inserted with a crop-a-dile, I’m not sure I like the result as the back of the grommet split and has sharp edges.

Weaving the elastic through the holes that will keep the journals in place.

Adding pockets to the inside cover, also a pen pocket which I always find handy. Selecting a bookplate and button for the cover. Gluing the 2 covers together and sewing to secure.

All done, I even sewed a piece of fancy twine around the edge of the journal.

You can watch part 8 here:

And part 9 here:

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje

Start to Finish Junk Journal, Travelers Notebook. Part 1 and 2, Collecting and Assembling papers.

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Join me in the making of a Travelers Notebook.

Travelers notebooks on the left, regular size junk journals on the right.

I researched the size of a regular Travelers Notebook, and came up with some different sizes, so I picked the 8.25″ tall by 4.3 wide size. (21 cm by 11 cm).
Today we are collecting pages, as this is a junk journal, anything goes.  I selected some dyed papers I had done a while ago, I then run them through the printer to add lines.
Some book pages, a dictionary page is always interesting, ledger paper, ect.

From left to right: Sprinkled with dye powder, lined, 2 book pages, construction paper, lined, sketchbook paper, paper bag, lined, colouring, graph paper, dyed, packaging, sewing pattern paper, lined, calendar page, ledger paper, lined and book page.

I cut everything to size and fold each paper in half.

collecting papers blog (6)

The book pages will get a light coat of Gesso that I will spread with a credit card to keep the layer thin so it can be written on even though some of the text shows through, it also gives a nice texture to the pages.

After placing all the pages in each other to make up a signature, I might shuffle them around to get a pleasing look when leafing through the pages.
Some of the pages will be wider than the the size I want, so I will do some trimming with a ruler and rotary cutter.  You can also use an exacto knife and metal ruler.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Thank you for watching
Till next time
Geesje