PAPER, SNOW AND HAVING FUN!

I have already thanked my brother Norman for sending us the Alberta clipper we had on the weekend.  Truth be told, it wasn't as bad as the weather forecasters had predicted.  Before the weekend started we were predicted to get from 10-15 cm of snow with lots of wind.  We did get snow, and the wind, but nowhere near that amount, so we lucked out.

It was a great weekend to spend some time learning how to make junk journals.  I watched several tutorials on how to make the journals themselves, and then a bunch more on how to make the embellishments that go inside the journals.

I decided to start a junk journal for a gift to my little soon to be 9 yr old granddaughter - Zhanna.  What girl of her age wouldn't love somewhere to write her thoughts, paste some pictures, store her treasures, create some artwork of her own?

I found an old book and tore the pages out so I could use the cover and the spine.  First I covered the old cover with some fabric - purple - Zhanna loves purple.  I set that aside to dry and started on some embellishments for inside the journal.

Junk Journals have lots of pockets for papers, tabs, pictures etc, some pockets are hidden in envelopes, so that I where I started.

Here are a the envelopes I got done this weekend.  I made all of these using the pages I tore out of the book that I used for the cover.  I will go through them individually so you can see the pockets inside them.

This one is the first one I did.

 This is the front of the envelope., the envelope flips up to reveal the 2 pockets inside. 

I chose this picture for the front of the envelope because of the title of the story from the page in the book, entitled "Christmas Cookery".







When you open the envelope this is the inside with the two pockets...  I added some blank paper to write something for the journal, and a couple of cards with Christmas images on them.

This was the second one I did, and my personal favourite.  Again I used the book pages to make the envelope and the pockets,  The picture of the girl is just a piece of wrapping paper that I mounted on to some card stock and glued to the front of the envelope.  I made the paper flower on the front as well and used my sewing machine to do some fancy zig-zag stitching around the whole piece.  I love the vintage look of this one.

The inside has two pockets, where I added some journaling paper, and a little book I made with with blank pages inside...a  mini-journal.

Here are the two mini-journals I made to pop in pockets here and there.  check the size on the ruler beside them.

 

Here is the third pocket envelope I made.  Again I made the envelope from pages I removed from the book.  I decorated the top with some scrap paper, a piece of lace, a ticket I found in my craft drawer and a handmade flower, consisting of fabric, paper and ribbon.

This is the inside.  I attempted to age the book paper with paint - I'm not sure I like how it turned out, perhaps I need to get some distressing ink to better do this.  However, I promised myself I would not spend a lot of money on special supplies for this project, but instead use what I have in my studio already.  So for now, I will continue the way I am going.

Again the pockets have some pretty paper for journaling on.

This is an open pocket that I made.  It has some templates for drawing animal heads, some tracing paper, and some colourful journaling paper.

These envelope pockets will be glued into the junk journal pages, here and there.  They add some character to the journal, but also some alternative ways to journal, and a few secret places to tuck notes and things.

Today I am going to attempt some corner pockets and some library card-type pockets for the inside of the front and back covers.

Now that the outside cover of the journal is dry, I will also start to create the pages for the inside and think about how I am going to decorate the cover back and front.

I have to tell you, that I absolutely loved doing these projects this weekend.  It's just paper - so if you mess it up you chuck it in the garbage. 

I think these little flip pocket envelopes would make awesome greeting cards, perhaps you could use the pocket for inserting money, or gift cards, itune cards etc.

Great possibilities using recycled materials and much nicer than using store- bought;  made and distributed by some huge corporation that cares not one whit about you!

So time to get the glue out, and start my day!

Please enjoy your day, whatever you are up to.