Friday, July 6, 2012

Mini Green Journal

I'm on a journal kick!  Not writing a journal, but making them!  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all.  Hopefully sell them!!!  Someday!!!   This posts' Mini Green Journal is really "green."

I started with this:  

Yes, a box of Dove soap.  It was the perfect mini-journal size.  

I started by opening the box and adding some thin card stock to the sides and back of the inside of the box.  I folded over the outer edges, and taped them down with red double-sided tape.  This folding added reinforcements to the outer panels.  I then covered the entire box with discarded butcher paper using mod podge to adhere the paper to the Dove box. 
I chose green acrylic paint to paint the outside of the box, and I put a strip of patterned paper on the inside of the box, which is really the inside of the journal.  

There are 4 signatures in this mini-journal, each with 1 painted outer sleeve, and 3 water color papers in the inside.  I hand-stitched them with colored floss.  




The outer sleeves of each signature was hand painted with acrylic on heavy cardstock.  I didn't add any other dimensional mixed media to it because I wanted it to be crisp and clean.  But I love the acrylic colors I chose and blended.  


For the outer cover, I stamped a beautiful flower and swirl.  I might go back and paint the flower to give it some color, but I kind of like it simple and sweet as is.  


I added a gold, elastic closure to the book at the last minute because I felt the journal needed a way to stay shut. 

This last photo shows the journal from the back so you can see the stitching of the signatures and the stamps and the string of the elastic closure. 



The outer dimensions of the journal when closed are 3.25 X 2.25.  Truly a mini-journal.  This mini-journal took me about 7 hours to make, not including drying time.  I spread the making of it over a few days.  I allowed the outer shell's mod podge to dry completely over night before painting it.  I also allowed each of the painted signature sleeves to dry overnight before cutting, folding, and stitching them together. 

I used 90 lb. cold pressed water color paper for the white inserts so that they will hold up to lots of mediums such as watercolor paints, markers, mists, acrylic paints, etc.  

This was a fun project. 

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