Saturday Step by Step - A Romantic Journal

Hi everyone and welcome! Having been asked for some time the basics on how I put my Travelers Notebook size journals together I thought today would provide the perfect opportunity to share a complete tutorial. This latest journal was created for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge 'To Everything There Is A Season'. It was inspired by the Prima Marketing Inc 'Love Clippings' collection, and uses fall colours in a different way to share the fading beauty of the last roses of season.

A heads up at the outset, this tutorial is long so you get all the measurements and details, hints, tips and tricks to be able to replicate the cover and basic journal pages yourselves.

Let's begin with the cover; start by cutting two Journal cover pieces with the Eileen Hull Designs die and mat/mountboard. Use Paper Clay in the Prima IOD moulds to create plaque pieces and while still wet use a strong wet glue to attach them to the front journal cover. I tend to squash them together a little to compensate for some of the cracking that inevitably happens as they dry and shrink. This is fine! Perfection is over-rated ;)

(click on any of these images for a closer look)

Glue the two cover pieces together and when dry paint the whole journal with Dina Wakley's White Gesso.

Mix Dina Wakley Media paints - Rosy and White - together in equal measure and paint the whole journal.

When dry mix a little Umber paint with lots of water to create a dark wash and cover over the journal, dabbing away the excess with a dry paper towel. This creates shadows in the moulded pieces and a mottled look to the rest of the cover.

To add some warmth mix a little Cheddar and White paint together and brush unevenly over the whole cover.

Finally use the White Gesso again to dry brush over the edges and raised areas of the cover for a chalky finish.

At this point I added a strip of self-adhesive canvas to the inside of the spine to strengthen it even more. Then take pieces of 2mm wide elastic threading them around the inside of the journal before pulling through the precut holes into the centre of the cover.

Tie the ends of the elastic together to secure and trim. Repeat with two more pieces of elastic through the remaining holes. There are other ways of adding the elastic but I've found this method to be speedy, and it allows for A4 and 8.5x11 papers without the need for cutting.

Using one sheet of paper from the 'Love Clippings' A4 Collection Kit, trim in half and lengthwise to fit the inside of the covers.

Sew around the edges of the paper and glue into place on the insides of the journal. Use the cut off pieces to create pockets.

Now to create the inserts, including a twist in the tale and an idea for extending the value of your A4 Collection Kit; take whole sheets of uncut A4 paper and score/fold as shown - no cutting required! This should also work if you have a double-sided paper collection in US size 8.5x11 I believe.

The two pages above are great for using as the outer pages of each signature (group of pages). The ones below are a little narrower so are better for inclusion in the centres of each signature. There are lots of smaller ephemera pieces included in the pad which are ideal for cutting into corner pockets.

If you stick down the outer smaller folds at the top and bottom you can create full length tuck spots on this next sheet.

Waste not want not... use the strips at the top of each sheet of paper to create little banner pieces that can be used to decorate your pages/pockets! I've kept it really simple for this tutorial but it's at this stage you can go mad with all those trims, charms, stamping and ephemera to really make it personal.

OK, so at this point I had made enough for three signatures, six pages in each, all from the one A4 Collection Kit. Having put them together and popped them inside the journal cover I discovered that the signatures were too chunky to allow for the addition of photos/ephemera etc. which is kinda the point of making a journal!

So, I figured out a way to turn three signatures into six - enough to make two whole journals and all from just one A4 pad!!! Take regular copier papers (we get it in A4 size in Europe but you could use your 5.8x11 and trim a little off the top to fit too). Having made a mix of die inks in warm water (in a clean cat litter tray) add your paper, leave to soak for a while and when coloured to your liking hang each sheet over the washing line to dry.

Now this is my kind of housework! I used a mix of yellow and red Ken Oliver Color Bursts in my water but you could use any inks you fancy. I found I had enough liquid in this tray to transform 110 sheets of copier paper - that's enough for 11 journals!!!

So now I used three sheets of dyed copier paper in between three of the original double-sided Collection Kit sheets (six pages in all) to make three signatures/inserts. You can use exactly the same instructions for folding the copier paper as for the paper pad sheets, with the larger ones on the outside and smaller ones on the inside of each signature.

Sew each signature together, making a hole through the centre/middle of each sheet and further holes about 1.5 inches apart. You can add more or less holes with bigger/smaller spacings if you like.

I start threading waxed cotton through from the outside centre hole weaving in and out all the way to the bottom, back to the middle, up to the top and back to the centre again so the ends can be tied together on the outside of the signature and trimmed.

So here are the six finished inserts! All from one A4 Collection Kit remember with the addition of that copier paper. There are also enough smaller ephemera pieces to make the pockets and tags/mats to be included inside as well as a whole sheet of coordinating stickers. And remember, you can go to town by adding to these basic pages with all your trims, charms, stamping and ephemera to make them even more special/personal.

To finish the cover I added a length of sari silk through the centre hole in the journal spine for wrapping around the cover as a closure. Linda sells a whole heap of adorable charms in her store including cabochon ones into which you can pop off-cuts of paper from the pad to coordinate. I threaded some through the sari silk and knotted it to keep them in place.

There are sticker letters in this particular Collection Kit too so I used those for the wording on the front plaque, adding a little Glossy Accents over them to make them shine.

To finish the cover I added a heap of flowers; I've not done a tutorial for those too because a) this tutorial has already taken up half your day! ;) b) there are lots of fab tutorials already out there for flowers and c) you could always save yourself a whole heap of time by using the coordinating Prima flowers which Linda also stocks!

For those who are still keen to know, I used the Tim Holtz Small Tattered Florals die set to cut the flowers/leaves from white card that had already been unevenly coated with White Gesso. They were dyed unevenly with a paint brush and a number of Distress Stains, including Tarnished Brass for that slight shimmer. The little flowers are from Tim Holtz Bouquet Findings and are coloured with Scattered Straw Distress Stain.

At this point you will either be ready for a long lie down or eager to make your own journals! I hope it's more the latter, and that you'll see what great value you can get from just one A4 Collection Kit in conjunction with your Journal die. Bear in mind Linda currently has six different Prima A4 Collection Kits in stock as I write this (with four on sale prices!!!) and the brand new 'Zella Teal' collection is available to pre-order, so you are spoiled for choice at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I am going to do a video walk-through of this journal in the coming days for those who enjoy seeing them. Meantime a quick heads up that my talented team mate Kathy Clement has created a completely different journal using the Prima 'Amber Moon' Collection Kit - check it out HERE.

EDITOR'S NOTE; As promised here's a video showing the finished journal!

Jenny xxx