I have been recently enjoying making my own journals. I make so much art work on loose sheets, and follow so many classes that I really wanted to start having a more coherent collection for my work, and well its fun to use up your scraps rather than throwing it away! I have found many online sources to follow, I have had mixed results, but every one I make teaches me a little bit more.
I have been following an artist on Instagram for quite a while, Wendy of Willa.Wanders and really enjoying her work, then I noted she was making journals, gorgeous, fabric covered, wonderfully tactile, full of amazing papers, and that she was selling them. I followed and watched her progress and her business grow. I wasn’t the only one watching and loving her work! She makes one journal a week and has a long waiting list of people wanting them. Enough people asked her, and eventually she gave in and has made a full course to show everyone what she does and how and why she does it. Eventually I decided I couldn’t resist any longer, I had to buy the course. What follows is my finished journal after watching the course. I did find the cost of the course expensive, especially once I got in and reviewed. However there is so much good advise and techniques that really, its such great value, and I will definitely be coming back to it many times to “perfect” my style. The finished journal, on this occasion, follows closely the course content.
The finished journal is 9″ x 6″, has a double layered fabric outer cover. Internally there are two signatures with 15 pages of mixed papers, each signature has a fabric cover, and each page has a tab or embellishment on it. Everything used is homemade by me in some way. Watercolour tabs, fabric tabs from snippet rolls, paper snippet rolls, individual small pieces of art work. It has a fabric tie closure, held in place with a button. Overall the colour theme is “floral and green”.
The Donna Journal
Front Cover 
Back Cover 
Spine 
Spine Embellishment 
Closed Book 
Inside front cover, 
Signature Pages 
Inside Back Cover 
Signature Pages
The Donna Journal was made entirely by myself, I used the teaching methods of Wendy’s course, and I absolutely will develop my own style going forward. Everything used came from my stash of papers, fabrics art pieces and embellishments.
I would say this took me, at a very rough guess, around 15 hours to gather materials, put them together, stitch them on the machine, and ultimately to complete the journal. That is a lot of time and effort, into one book. BUT it is, in my opinion, a lovely piece of work to claim as my first real, could be sold, journal. I have no idea how to price for something like this, I have been trawling popular selling sites and to be honest its not helping me to form an opinion on what I could charge if I wanted to sell these, I’m sure I will work it out eventually!
I couldn’t resist buying the course any longer, I have long coveted the Willa Journal, I have desperately wanted one, and honestly, having watched the course, and spent a LOT of hours making my own, I can totally see WHY everyone covets a Willa!
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.
