This is the second journal I have handmade on my own – I LOVE it! I took a class in which I learned how to reuse an old book cover and paint, collage and bind it, into a beautiful work of art that anyone would be proud to carry around, work in or just look at.

I have spent a lifetime looking like a church lady just because my hair is curly and my figure is prim. I have a practical bent that talks me out of outrageous clothing and flashy cars. But when I get to my art table I can see no reason to be practical. If I were going to be practical I would just go buy the sturdiest journal that would serve my purposes.

So for this cover I painted the binding tape a mix of Lumiere’s metallic rust and halo pink gold acrylic paint. The book boards are the same metallic rust, and the grid tape is painted Golden’s Copper Acrylic. Then I decided to make dingle-bobs on the binding thread and to put them on the outside. They will probably tangle and be in the way, but oh, they look so cool. I got my husband to help me drill a hole in some Austrian Pfennigs and used one of them as a dingle-bob, I also used some bronze beads and charms from Vintag. Oh and I had a pearl laying right there so I tied it on too.

This journal has hand-painted pages in it and I will show them in another post…I must go get some journaling done so I can finish my current journal and start using one of my new ones.