Sunday 11 November 2018

And... more handbound diy journals...



A few months ago I posted about a handsewn leatherbound journal I made. This is what it looks like:



I really love my journal. I can art in it, write in it, I even added a little glitter shaker because I love glitter more and more. But I really missed a journal for out and about, one that will fit into my handbag. I might add that I am not really a big handbag gal, I like my handbags to be small yet roomy, and I do not buy handbags because I can make them myself just the way I want them. But my handbag is just not big enough for my A5 size journal, it fits inside, but then the bag won‘t close. 
So I took out my leather scraps and my paper pads and watercolour paper leftovers and now my journal has a little sibling!



The style and layout is the same as for the big one, six little lined paper inserts for writing in and in front the art journal insert from watercolour paper. This journal is 100% handsewn though, I have learned from the last time that my sewing machine can‘t handle several layers of leather. So I used my dremel tool with the smallest drill bit to pre- drill the holes for sewing the scraps of leather together.



In the next picture you get to see the layout with the different inserts from above.



Another thing I did differently is the paper cover around each insert. In my big journal I used heavy cream printer paper, in this little beauty I took my little kids art, cut some of it to size and used that for the covers. Now, I have a lot of kids, they happen to produce a ginormous amount of art I just do not want to keep and yet can‘t quite throw away. So for me to repurpose some of it in this way is better than the recycling bin.
This one is from my youngest son.



And this is from his twin sister.



They really use paint so differently: she uses lots of different colours, with quite dainty strokes. He saturates.



3 comments:

Janina Claywoman said...

These are fabulous, I love soft leather! Well done, they would inspire anyone to create just to use them!!

LindyLu said...

Sweet journals & using the kids' art is genius! Very nice work,Gem.

A Mynah Production said...

I like that it's made of scraps...nothing goes to waste. :) Your kiddos must be thrilled to have their work in your art journal. Most kids want to be a part of what is important to their parents...so sharing in the making of that journal is priceless.