Our Crafty World: Handmade Journal

Assalaamu alaykum

This is my very first handmade journal MashAllah.

It's cover is made from card and I used wrapping

paper on the inside and outside to make it look

nice. I used patterned ribbon on the edges.

I glued a ribbon on both sides so that I can

tie my journal.

To make a similar journal you will need the following material:

Thick Card

Thin Card

Glue

Embellishments

Scissors

Ruler

Fabric

Lace

Pretty Tags

Patterned Card or Paper

Paint

Tea

Coffee

Wrapping Paper

Embroidery Thread

Needle

And anything you think will make your journal nice!

To make your cover use thick card and fold it in half. Then get wrapping paper and wrap it around the cover and then on the inside.

If you want to add a ribbon to keep your journal closed, wait until after you have sewn all your journal's pages to the cover, you don't want your ribbon to be in the way.

Get a number of pages for your first section (known as signatures) in your journal and dot holes on them where you are going to poke a hole. Make sure the holes will be in roughly the same place as your holes on your cover.

If you want to tea dye your blank pages to make them look old and crumpled, then all you need to do is this:

Heat up your kettle like normal and when it is done pour it into a cup with

the tea bag in it.

Take out the tea bag (when it is still quite hot) and dab it all over your pages. When they are damp turn them over and do the other side.

If you are using thin printer paper then don't dab on them too much because

they will get too buckled. When both sides are quite damp, scrunch up the

pages lightly and then open them out and leave them to dry. It might take some time, but when they are done they would have turned a soft brown

and would look old and crimply.

If you want to do all your pages like this, or many of them then heat up your kettle and get a bowl and put one or two tea bags in. Pour the kettle water

into the bowl and soak all the pages your want in there, (be careful with the thin paper, don't leave it in for so long) make sure your pages don't stick together. Lie them flat separately on a table, then when one side is done then flip them over to dry the other side.

If you want to do coffee then do this:

Get your instant coffee and put it in your cup along with the hot water. Then get a paint brush and dip it in the cup and brush your papers with it. Once it is damp you can add more coffee to your paper to give it a nice, patchy effect. Using coffee makes the pages come out darker too, they also smell nice!

Your pages should be smaller than your cover, because when you add your pages into your book, they will stick out a little. If your pages are the same size as your cover they will poke out a lot.

Watch the YouTube videos below on how to sew your pages to your book. You can design your pages how you want to, you can stick embellishments in or things you brought back from a holiday and write down anything you want.

Here are some pictures of my journal: