I've been wanting to venture into the art journaling and hand-bound books for a long while. I finally decided to just go for it.
For this one, I took an old sketchbook with a battered cover and only one page used. I erased the pencil on that page and am gonna use paints on all the pages here shortly (probably after I'm done posting!). I used a sheet of red scrapbook paper on the cover, bits cut out of magazines, markers, and microns on the cover. I intend this to be a journal we make with my stepson (he's 3!) while he stays with us for two weeks.
Last night I was playing FFXIV and decided to take a break. I wanted to do something, but it was too late to start a new painting (my first thought), so I decided to finally bite the bullet and try making my own book. It's a lot easier than I thought! Not like, super-easy, but I dunno what all my trepidation for the past 5 years has been for. I'm SO glad I did it. It's not perfect, certainly, but it's not bad either.
Exterior:
Interior:
I gave it to my husband to fill for me. With sketches, poetry, haiku, or whatever he wants.
I had cardboard inserts from some origami paper packs. I made sure they matched in size. I cut some basic copy paper and glued it to the cover, then I glued origami paper over that, wrapping it and gluing it to the inside. I covered the inside of each cover with a (cut to size) piece of construction paper to hide those seams. There are 7 signatures in all. 4 of copy paper, 3 of card stock (for painting, markers, etc). The end pages are glued to the cover and that's where I'm least happy. I put them in the center at first, not thinking it would, uh, keep you from being able to open the book. So I had to peel them up *wince* and re-glue them. So the end paper on the back cover is kind of messed up, BUT. It wouldn't be a first time attempt at something handmade if there wasn't some kind of noticeable mistake, right?
button to nominate it!
