DIY: Journal

A few weeks ago, I awoke to a wonderful phone call that told me that I had a two hour delay. I get pretty excited about two hour delays, as that means two extra hours in my studio! What better way to start the day. So I wanted to spread my joy, as I do understand that while I"m celebrating two extra hours to myself, many others are struggling to scrape the ice off of their windows, are driving in the bad conditions, and or now have kids at home for two extra hours, which can be good or bad depending on your work situation.

So I posted on facebook, that the first two people to comment would receive a fun package. One was a former student of mine. Most of what I create is for women, so I needed to think for a little bit about what I could make him. As he is interested in art, I decided to make him a sketch book.

Today I"m going to show how to make fast and simple sketchbook or journal.

Supplies:

- paper of your choice for pages

- Decorative paper

- glue stick

-rubber band

-paint brush, or stick

-magazine pages

-scissors

- hole punch

Here's what your finished product should look like. I made this one for male, so I didn't want to go to crazy with the color. But you could really do some fun things with the cover, by using different papers, fabric, as well as washi tape.

I made the whole book with scrap materials, except the paper for the cover. You are going to make flaps that go onto the end of each page. This adds some fun color to the page, and also make the pages in the journal turn better. The length of the flap or tab should be the same length as what you wish your journal to be. You can really make any size that you want. The paper should be about 3 inches in width, then folded in half.

Choose the paper that you wish to use for your journal. I once again chose to create this piece with scarps. I took a printmaking class in college, and had a pile of prints that I wasn't going to use for anything, but they're on really good paper. Take your paper, and cut to double the size that you want your page to be, as the paper will be folded in half. For example I wanted each page to be 4x4 so I measured my paper to be 4x8. After you have selected your paper, cut it and fold it in half. You can use as many sheets as you want.

Time to add the tabs to each one of your pages. You are sandwhiching the paper, between the magazine paper tab. As you do this you want to leave some empty space where it is just the magazine page. Once again, this is to make you pages turn easily. Glue a tab onto each page.

You should then have a stack of all of your pages folded in half with a glued on tab.

Time to make the cover. Cut two pieces of matt board the same size as your pages. So mine would be 4x4. Then select some decorative paper of fabric that you wish to use for the cover. Then wrap the paper around the matt board just like you wrap a present, and glue the edges down.

Now you need to put tabs on your cover just like you did all of the other pages of your book.

Take a whole punch and punch two holes in the tab of each page. You should only be punching through the tab, not the tab and the paper.

Now you need a nice stretchy rubber band, and something that is straight and the length of your book, I used an old paint brush. You could also use a pencil, stick, or tounge depresser. You are going to thread the rubber band through the holes that you punched, so that both ends of the rubber band end up at the front cover.

Thread your paint bursh, or whatever you choose through each end of the rubber band. It should hold the rubber band in place, hence holding the whole book together.

YOU'RE DONE!

Pin It