Sunday, February 26, 2017

Art {Marks} Journal Tutorial

Note: To see the name of the winner of the leather journal, please click here.


Some of you may have followed Rae Missigmans Art Marks Challenge over the past month. It was 30 days of making art marks. To see all of the details, click here. I did not play along but goodness I fell in love with her journal. It drew me in and made me happy. So I caved, and I began playing to make my own journal. I thought I would share my process here with you. Let's get started.

Supply List (link to supplies at the bottom of post)
Canvas (sized to 9"x5")
Various paints, pens, paint markers
Various papers (cancelled checks, paper bags, tags, envelopes, etc.)
Eyelet and setter
Ruler
Pencil
Sari ribbon
3" bulldog clip
Sewing machine

1. Paint your 9"x5" piece of canvas. Have fun with it. I did not gesso this small piece. I usually do but decided against it. I would recommend it though if you have never painted on canvas before. Let the canvas dry.

2. Begin creating your signatures by using cancelled checks, paper bags, tags, envelopes, etc. They will vary in size. Your papers will be used to make three signatures of five pages each which once folded in half will give you a total of 30 pages for your journal. You will see paint on my pages. I used excess paint from creating the canvas cover to add color to some of the pages.

3. Once the canvas is finished, stitch around the edges if desired. I used a zig zag stitch with off-white thread.

4. Next, put three pencil marks where you will sew in the signatures. I started at 3 3/4" from the left (front) side then marked two more lines 1/4" apart from the first line. You will stitch a signature to each pencil line.

5. Sew in the signatures along the pencil lines. I used a bulldog clip to hold the pages while I stitched a triple straight stitch with a regular needle. If you do not have a sewing machine, you can do this by hand or use any other binding technique you enjoy using.


6. Once the signatures are sewn in, add an eyelet and sari ribbon to the flap to be able to close the journal. I also added a charm I had in my stash.

Simple, cute, and fun! Hope you enjoyed this, and let me know if you have any questions. Now to paint the pages inside. Let the fun begin!

Product List (click product tags for more information)

View blog post for supplies


8 comments:

Renee said...

Patter I love this!! I just remembered I have some sticky back canvas in my stash somewhere. That should work shouldn't it?

Patter Cross said...

Hey Renee! Thank you. And sticky back canvas should work; you will just have to cover up the back (stick side) with something. :) Have fun!

Becca Cruger said...

What a GREAT tutorial! I love this idea! Thank you so much for sharing your process. I'm happy to have found this blog through Pinterest and will definitely be following.

Rita Montgomery said...

I love your journal and the tutorial. I was wondering about the signatures.
3 signatures with 5 pages each would give you 60 pages, if my math is correct.
I'm going to make one of these and have 2 signatures with 4 pages each. I think that will work out. Thanks for a great idea.

Patter Cross said...

Rita, glad you like my journal. I love this little thing. :) I think it's my favorite journal. Anyway, you asked about the signatures. When I say pages, I mean physical pages which is 30 BUT that would be 60 front/back pages for art. I always count physical pages in books not front and back if that makes sense. Hope that helps. I find it's the perfect amount of pages. I can't wait to fill this journal up. I did two more pages yesterday. So fast and fun!

nkjohnston said...

THis is gorgeous. However, I do think you probably should be giving some credit to Rae Missigman. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Patter Cross said...

nkjohnston, I mention Rae in the very first paragraph of this post! I also made this journal before she ever had a class. This was not something I stole from her. Her class just opened and if you notice, my post is from February. I created this on my own. I am sorry you didn't see the credit I gave her or the date of my post.

Dorothy Kovak said...

Thanks for sharing this. It looks like a simple version that I could attempt for my first diy journal project. I also like it to be for the purpose of keeping my favorite Scriptures.

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