Another Chunky Journal Flip-through

I have another YouTube video out in the wild!! OMG what’s going on with me huh! This second video is another journal, it’s probably has twice the pages of the last one, and so the video is a bit longer. It took me quite a long time to put the journal together, and felt equally long doing the video and edit and subsequent upload requirements!

At this time the journal is in a finished and ready to be used state, it is quite heavy, and is sitting at 5cm (2″) thick and approximately 16cm x 27cm (6.5″ x 10.5″).

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The journal cover and signatures were made sometime in 2020 as part of a tutorial by Jolene at Live Art Journaling and Self Development. I can’t remember if the tutorial was part of the Facebook group or YouTube videos, either way, it’s free and available for anyone to view and take part.

The cover is made of collage papers that have been sewn and then sealed with (I think) Mod-Podge. Internally the cover is fabric. It has 4 signatures, each with 8 double sided pages. Most pages have a small tab on them with a sticker. The journal pages were made from found papers, magazine pages, white papers or palette papers. Each page had clear gesso applied so they have a tooth to them for whatever I plan to do with it. I finished it and it sat there for months doing nothing.

Each of the pages in the signatures have now been “decorated” with papers and items from my stash. Found papers, collage materials, stickers, ephemera and pockets I’ve made from tutorials and left laying around. I used thread for the binding that I bought from the local sewing shop, its not waxed, and typing this I realised I normally run it through a candle before using it to bind, but I forgot. Oh well! Each signature is threaded onto a ribbon that is in the spine of the cover and can be removed if needed to be to worked on. Over the last year I have watched many YouTube videos, it’s impossible to say where where my inspiration for it has all come from, but some of my favourite watches are The Paper Outpost; Septeria18; ShanoukiArt; Its Only Paper; ShabbyDabbyDooDah; 49Dragonflies; Joie de fi; Ms.Paperlover; Kia.Creates; Gi Kerr and Johanna Clough. There are bound to be more but in trying to fill this list I’ve realised I have over 200 YouTube subscriptions and I kind of got sidetracked ….. 🙂

So, onto the pages themselves. I have created tucks, flaps, pockets, space for writing, applied stickers, tried to create a style for each page, some pages have jewels on, others have pieces of my actual artwork, Many of the stickers and journal page items come from either Under the Rowan Trees, The LollipopBoxClub and Kia.Creates subscription clubs.

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I’m pretty new to this style of journalling, so I haven’t actually done any writing yet, but hopefully having the journal made and ready will encourage me to add the text, and extra bits as and when I want to.

For now the journal will sit on the shelf looking pretty and waiting to be used, but I wonder if this will spur me on to making more for me and maybe eventually to make well enough to sell. Hmm there’s a thought!

Oh and I cannot finish this page without saying a HUGE thank you to my lighting crew. We did a practice run of filming after school yesterday, and although he should have been doing homework, @owlsowner helped me by holding Dads garage torch on one side, whilst our lounge lamp with a daylight bulb was on the other. We had fun creating the video and trying to get the best setup. All that hard work paid off and we produced a video, for practice at least. Its all learning right ?!?!? And well you know what, I may teach him how to use the editing software and he can be my video editor too!

Well until next time, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy watching the video. Please feel free to send feedback to help me get better. I am an eternal learner, so you can only help me 🙂

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Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.