Class 1 - Personalizing Your Journal Cover (and making a journal)

This year we have new journals to work in. The paper quality is better, and the covers started off as blank white spaces. That didn't last too long as we all set to work altering them with some creative materials. Here are some of the options we worked with:

1. SCRAPED PAINT: Since each journal spine was reinforced with some matte finish duct tape (which I mentioned in the previous post), I chose paint colours to match the duct tape. For this technique, you need: some acrylic paint and an old credit card or coffee card. I recommend thicker acrylic paint for this, like Buzz Acrylic Paints (available at Opus). Some of the acrylic paint in craft stores is a too thin and lacks enough pigment to give you good colours. If you're going to layer colours, start with the lightest colour first, let it dry and then work your way towards the darker colours. Put a pea-sized blob of paint on the short edge of your coffee card, and drag it across your journal in a straight line, holding the card as flat on the paper as possible. The thinner you spread it, the faster it l dries. If you want stronger colours, scrape on more layers rather than using more paint. Too much paint will soak into the cover and take too long to dry. The colours I used on this one were cadmium yellow, magenta and irridescent blue-green:

Maybe not the *prettiest* cover on the block, but definitely colourful. And you can always collage over it ... 

2. STENCILING: For the second cover, I used the same paint colours, but this time using make-up sponges and stencils. First, I scraped the bottom layer (cadmium yellow), and then I stencilled with magenta paint using a "windmills" stencil and then added iridescent blue-green using a "mini triangle sunburst" stencil. I also added some splotches of magenta in the corners with just the sponge. The trick with stencilling is to put as little paint as possible on the sponge. Squeeze out paint about the size of a pea onto a piece of scrap paper, and lightly touch the tip of the sponge into the paint. To remove some of the paint, pounce the sponge onto some scrap paper till it feels almost dry, but it still transfers. If you have too much paint it will squish under the edges of the stencil and you won't get nice, sharp edges. Again, if the colour isn't strong enough, keep the stencil in same place and re-stencil on top, still with as little paint as possible. 99% of the problems with stencils result from having TOO MUCH paint on the sponge.

Now, that's more like it! Looks like a proper book cover.

*** A note about cleaning up stencils and sponges. I don't fret about cleaning immediately. I keep working till I'm done, then toss the sponges and the stencils into a shallow basin with some hot water and about a 1/4 cup of Murphy's Oil Soap, and let them soak overnight. The next morning, I scrub them *very gently* with a soft nail brush (cosmetic section at the drug store), or a mushroom brush or corn silk brush (cooking store). Sometimes just a good rinse with a sprayer will do it, too.

3. MORE DUCT TAPE! Since I used the matte duct tape to reinforce the spine, it seemed natural to just continue adding more duct tape across the cover. There a couple of advantages to covering your journal cover with duct tape. Firstly, it's FAST ~ you just need scissors. Secondly, it helps protect your journal when it's out in the world. With so many pretty tapes to choose from, I added a strip of each across the front cover. On the back, I covered the whole thing with the same tape ~ and I managed to line up the pattern not too badly, so it even looks like all one sheet:

The front cover is a joyous collection of ALL the tapes!

The back cover is made with just one tape, but lined up to match the pattern.

4. Colouring Book Page: It's all about making your journal uniquely yours, so why not put one of your colouring book pages on your cover? This page is one of my favourites from the Legendary Landscapes Colouring Book, which some of you may remember from our first series of classes when Carrie and Witek came to give us a presentation. I coloured the page first (well, most of it), then cut a section of it for the front cover. I then took the leftover pieces and made a stained glass effect on the back using thin black masking tape. I also had a few pieces left over which I'm saving to go on pages inside the journal, too. I stuck the page down using just a glue stick, and I used an old coffee card to smooth it down *real good*.

I chose the image on the front to feature my favourite parts of the page.

I used some of the leftovers on the back cover, and used thin black masking tape to create borders.

5. Zentangle! You can go all creative on your cover with a Sharpie and do your own zentangle. The you can leave it plain black and white, or colour it. To show you what this would look like, I glued on a colouring page, then added some red masking tape (from Collins Educational Supplies). I couldn't resist adding some red colour using water-soluble crayons as watercolours (using a waterbrush - one of those brushes where the handle is hollow and you fill it with water). I left the back plain black and white so you can compare which you would like best:

The front cover, started off plain black and white ... until I painted it.

The back is still plain black and white, but the red tape really makes it stand out.

Simply finding a beautiful image from a magazine is also an option for covering your journal. And another method we tried was covering the journal cover with fabric. When working with fabric, it's best to use gel medium (which takes a longer time to dry) or to use super strong double-sided tape (I recommend a brand called sookwang). I think a fabric covered journal is very nice, but since this will be YOUR journal, you should go with the method you prefer.

Now ... for your handouts! Pages 3 and 4 of the handouts were all about how to make a journal, so even though I made the journals for the class, you've now got instructions for creating future journals of any size you like:

Two more posts to come on this class .. but this should keep you busy for a little while ... 

~ Penelope