Making my own!

I decided I wanted to try and make my own art journal.  Art journals can be on the pricey side, depending on the size and brand that you buy.  I bought the large Dylusions journals and they are normally priced $24.99, but I had found it on sale for 50% off on Amazon! I bought this Artist's Loft watercolor pad at Michaels for 40% (weekly coupon) of $6.49.  Much cheaper.

I ripped out the sheets and trimmed off the gum edge.  I then folded them all in half.  I took 3 folded sheets and put them together to create my signatures.  The definition of signatures, in regards to book binding is "one unit of a book comprising a group of printed sheets that are folded and stitched together".  I ended up with 7 signatures of 3 half folded sheets each.

I took some old cereal boxes and cut two of them down to the size that I wanted.   I didn't have any sandpaper, so I took the cereal box piece outside and scrapped it on the concrete to rough it up.  I was improvising! 

I then tacky glued them together, with the rough one on the outside.

I covered it in gesso...

  and then painted it white.

I have seen several different ways to bind the signatures together, but I was going for something simple. 

I took embroidery floss in different colors and did a simple stitch down the middle of the page. I think it's called a running stitch. 

I chose black, purple, white and turquoise.  

I tore up dictionary pages and glued them down on my cover.

I used my palette knife and spatula and painted a ton of different colors on my cover.  I started with the darkest colors and then worked my way up.

I used some of my handmade stamps, bubble wrap and my new onion skin stencil and completed it.   It is super bold and bright and messy, but I really do love it!

I found an easy tutorial showing how to use twine (or any type of string) to bind my signatures to the cover.  I measured out enough blue twine to go around the spine 7 times for each signature, with enough length on each end to tie it off.

I simply wrapped it tightly around the spine 7 times.  You have to make sure you do not overlap the twine, but lay them side by side.

I then slipped one end of the twine under the pieces and tied it off with the opposite end.  

You then take your signatures and one by one slide them under each of the strings.  

This is what the top of the journal looks like with all of the signatures in.  With this method, it is not necessary to stitch your signatures together, but I had already done it, so it just helps to hold them together.

Here is a top view of all the signatures bound in the journal.

I am really pleased with how it turned out. I now  have an extra smaller journal!  The cover measures 7 inches wide by 9 1/2 inches tall and the pages are 6 inches wide by 9 inches tall.

I might have to figure out a way to attach a ribbon in the middle to keep it closed, but for now it works!