My name is Cathy and I am a journal-aholic.
There is absolutely something about a new journal. A new blank, not-yet-used journal.
I am a journal-aholic - there is no question. I have shelves full of blank journals I have purchased over the years. I love having so many different options to choose from and I love having them on my shelves.
But sometimes, just sometimes, I want a journal in a specific size - one that works with what I am using it for. Or sometimes I want lined pages and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I want both blank pages and lined pages in the same book, and sometimes I want colored paper or don’t want colored paper - you know what I mean.
So I came up with a simple solution - well it wasn’t really my idea but more about that later. In any case, it involved making my own, just the way I wanted them. And I did. And I made some for you too.
Those of you who know me, know that I love color - I also have a stash of beautiful colored papers. But it’s never satisfying enough for me to just leave them as is. I love using the papers as a base and then creating collages over the top.
The center of this journal cover here on the right is actually from a magazine cut out. The colors in the image fit so well with the background color of this beautiful color washed cardstock paper.
A couple of stickers, some washi tape and some words “counting my blessings”, turned this into what I thought would be a beautiful journal cover.
Here’s another good example of simple collage. I’ve had these beautiful bird cards forever. I can’t remember where I purchased them but I have had them forever just waiting for just the right place to use them.
The cardstock paper background already had that vintage look with the text showing through - I couldn’t have improved on that!.
So I added the bird card, and I thought wow, it really doesn’t need much more.
Some delightful ribbon just below the card kind of mimic-ed a branch for me. As I leafed through my book of texts - I just fell on “learning to fly” - well, that choice was easily made.
The brad color I picked was topull on the blue framing the card. The brad is also there so you can wrap the journal in the provided string!
This one fell together so easily - sometimes these things just do.
(This one is already sold - sorry - that’s why it’s not in the shop)
Okay but I digress from what I really wanted to tell you about these journals. Are you familiar with Midori? Midori is a japanese stationary company (okay Midori is also a liquer but we are not talking about liquers right now okay?) and THE Midori, is a lovely, supple, leather journal “cover”. It really is just a cover.
It is true that Midoris come in beautiful leather and in a really unique size. But the best part of the Midori is the binding method used to turn it into i into a full on journal. It is such a simple concept but it’s a great idea. The cover (which is really all a Midori is - at over $80.00) has an elastic binding at the spine that wraps right around the cover. To include paper inside, you slip any “book” right under the elastic and voila - you have a complete journal.
It’s a brilliant idea and I have to say I have no shame in stealing with pride when an idea is this good. And I did.
So I took the covers I had made and used the concept of the elastic binding. I have to say that although now it seems simple, I went through a lot of iterations of that binding to figure out exactly how I wanted it to wrap around and how I would “tie” the elastic to make sure it didn’t come undone and then I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add beads, or not add beads, so I did a bit of both.
I used clear elastic (you know the kind you use for jewelry making) because I didn’t want the elastic to show over the beautiful papers.
But as you may know, this elastic is very difficult to tie and secure. So I used a crimp bead to “tie” the elastic, a bead, and then another crimp bead. And it worked beautifully.
I realized that this idea created all kinds of opportunities to use beads and dangle things off the spine.
So many fun options…
And because I was making these I thought, why not include 2 elastics, then I could include two “books” inside - line pages, unlined pages, or maybe some colored pages with the lined pages …. so yes, all of my journals come with 2 elastics.
Can you tell what fun I had making these? Between the colored papers, the collage, the elastic binding concept, the beads, and just the process of working out how I wanted to do this was a real joy. I had several projects all in one.
Oh and I forget to mention that I also laminated all the covers - this made the collage work just somehow come all together. I love the laminated feel of these plus it will make them extra durable to use over and over again. Some are glossy and some are matte but they just have a good feel all around.
And one final thing. Because I was in “laminate” mode, I remembered that I had also created all of these bookmarks - I think I showed you these in another post.
So I bundled the books with a bookmark and my tiny little notebooks, and made a fun trio which I thought would make great little christmas gifts already packaged up for you.
So check them out in the shop - they are all there waiting for you.
Let me know what great creations have you been up to lately. I’d love you to share your ideas with me.