Making a New Journal

I purchased this book at Dollarama some time ago for $3.00. It’s part of an urban fantasy series for ages 10-13 year olds but none of that really mattered to me because I planned to deconstruct it, alter the cover with fabric and turn it into a junk journal. It’s a nice small size, 7 ½ inches by 5 inches with a 1 inch spine. I wish now that I had purchased more of them at the time, but hindsight is always 20/20, isn’t it?

First task was to remove the text block, then cut out any images I might want to use and harvest words or phrases I can utilize for later projects. Next, I had to choose the fabric I wanted to use from my stash. I cut a piece the size I needed and ironed on the thin interfacing to the back to give it strength and also prevent the glue I would use to from seeping through.

Then, the tedious task of gluing it onto the book cover, starting with the spine, began. I used 3-in-1 glue which is good on multiple materials. Slowly I moved from the spine, across the front and back smoothing out any bumps with the bone folder for a smooth even finish. I had to wait for it to dry before mitering the corners and folding the fabric to the inside of the book and gluing it down. Once again I used the bone folder to smooth it down evenly.

Book corners were added for decoration and also to protect the corners from wear and tear. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Now to choose the papers I want to use and get them ready to sew into the inner spine that will be glued into the book cover. Stay tuned for my progress.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I thought I would try again this weekend to coffee dye some copy paper for upcoming journals. I was not going to do it outside this time. Aside from being way too hot, I did not want papers blowing all over the place as they were drying again.

I began on Friday evening, two pages at a time since that is all my indoor drying rack will hold. Rather than hanging over them begging them to dry quickly, I just walked away and did other things. The next time I was in the kitchen I would turn them over and head off to other tasks in the house.

The progress was slow but steady. By Saturday evening, I had lots of pages coffee dyed and ready to go into the book press to flatten them. I continued to coffee dye on Sunday and have managed another stack of papers ready to put in the book press.

When not stressing about getting ALL the paper coffee dyed NOW, I have come to appreciate the saying ‘slow and steady wins the race’. I accomplished more than I expected. I won the race.

Coffee Dyeing Paper

It was a warm day yesterday, really warm, but there was a bit of breeze in the morning. The perfect day for coffee dyeing paper outside on the front porch, I thought. So, I got all my supplies out, the clothes drying rack, a TV table, a bin with coffee in it and some security envelope papers to start with.

Well, it did not go quite as expected. The breeze, while pleasant, also blew the papers off of the clothes dyeing rack as they dried. They were scattered all over the porch and some even ended up in the grass in the front yard.

Anyway, I did manage to get them all coffee dyed and dry enough to put in the book presses to flatten them. Twenty-four hours later, see some samples of them below. I will use them for collages and embellishments in future journals.

I was hoping to do some full sheets of copy paper for journal pages to, but that will have to wait for another day.

Looking for Paper Ephemera

I am searching for vintage paper ephemera. I am having little to no luck finding any. Sure, there are a lot of sellers who sell ‘vintage’ receipts, letters, postcards, tickets, etc. that they have found and scanned to sell but printing off digitals does not feel 'authentic'.

Where do these junk journal makers find all this great stuff? Old hand written letters, postcards, tickets and vintage books are the kinds of things I'm looking for. I don't know of any antique shops in my area that might sell this. More importantly, I'm not sure how much is a reasonable price to pay for this kind of ephemera.

I wonder if estate sales might carry some of these things. I never thought of that before. The thrift stores will likely have vintage books but not the other items I'm looking for.

If anyone out there has this type of old paper ephemera that you are willing to part with, keep me in mind.

A Poem for My Son

I’m finding all sorts of goodies while sorting through old boxes of stuff. I came across a copy of a poem that I wrote for my oldest son many years ago now. He was in grade school, maybe 10 or 11 years old. He came home one day bemoaning the fact that he had to write a poem as his homework that evening.

He complained that there was no way he could write a poem. I assured him that he could if he tried. He looked me square in the eye and asked me if I could do it. I had to admit that I could and proceeded to start writing something down. I hate being backed into a corner like that by a child. Here is that poem…it started out slow but I picked up momentum by the end.

We both got a good chuckle out of it, and then he went to his room and started writing. I wish I still had a copy of the poem he wrote. It was about our cat, Jack. This cat had personality and was quite the character. His mother was a black and white long haired cat. His father was clearly a Siamese cat. And as you can see, he was quite mischievous.

The poem about Jack, as I remember, was equally as amusing as mine, and he received high praise from his teacher the next day. He also took a copy of the poem I wrote to school without me knowing. The teacher called me later that day so we could share a laugh together about it. Nice memory.