I am more than a little excited about his journal that I just made for Scarlett. It was perhaps the biggest challenge that I’ve set myself up for in a long time and I see that my long dormant binding skills are surfacing and succeeding in looking good.

I need to make sure that I get a lot of pictures of this journal before I mail it out because it is one of my better journals.

I like the technique so much that I’m making a bunch of covers with the pink hide- all distressed but with different colors. I’ve got another going I the pink I used originally. I’m working on ideas in my head to use blues and purples. I saw a bunch of paste paper covers today and I was wondering what the hides would look like if I ladled on paint and medium mixed with water and then sandwiched it together, or used some plexi to smoosh the paint into the leather. I’m going to try it and we’ll see how it looks.

We’ve got a nasty storm hitting us right now and I’m gonna turn off the compy so I don’t fry this one.

The custom journal for Scarlet is 95% done. I have finished distressing the covers, working on the spine and I’ve sewn it. I’ve also scalloped the edge of the flap and added the thong to tie it shut. I’m pretty darn happy with it. My roommate referred to it as girly. I think that’s compliment.

Sometimes it’s good to challenge one’s self with a project that is just a little outside of one’s style, and I think that this project was just that. Let’s face it, I don’t do pink and this project was bathed in it. My style is somewhat masculine and tough so to do a girly journal was difficult. Now that I’ve done it I’m pretty happy with the results and may do some more. I think that I may try to work them a little differently.

A review of the key points of this journal:

Feminize my style a bit

Pink- Hand distressed

1 and half inches thick, with 250 pages

LINES!

And what did I learn:

I can make my style more feminine- color is a good way to work it but also there are little touches that make thins more “girly”

Hand distressing, while time consuming, is not expensive but makes great results and is wonderful looking. I could order white leather and hand distress it using paint. ANY COLOR!

250 pages is nothing I could have easily made this 300 pages

Lines are easy.

Next paycheck from the day job I’m going to purchase several white hides, that way I can distress them to any color I need. I’m so jazzed by my success with this project that I think I can try it on a white hide. Acrylic paint and sponges are my friend.

I’ve got the leather distressed. I need to add a layer of varnish to protect it, but so far so good. I think it looks really great. I’m not letting much of the orginial color show through but the red colors I picked out match it really well. The pink was much lighter than I had imagined.

I didn’t realize that I don’t have my acrylic paints here. I just have a few here and there. No matter I had to simply drive out to michaels and pick up 2 containers of craft paint. Traffic was hellish but I came back within a half hour and had my paint.

I’ll post a picture up of the dried cover. I’m going to give it a good half hour to dry.

Today I start the pink journal. I expect to make great progress on it. I have the day off so I can’t ask for better timing. Today I will dot he following:

Cut the cover.

Distress the cover.

Back the cover.

Measure out and punch the spine.

Eyelets!

(Clean my table and desk.)

Hopefully I will be able to start the sewing tonight or work on it tomorrow.

I’ve officially been asked to leave the day job early on Monday (Double time!), so even if I can’t finish the sewing tonight I will be able to work on it Monday. The really great thing is that even if I’m not able to work on any one of these things today I have Tuesday off so I can get everything done and get it in the mail Tuesday or Wednesday!

I finished this journal early on Friday. I found the cute little alphabet eyelets at Michaels and they were perfect for this journal. The lettering was perfect- classic and the metal was not too shiny, which wouldn’t have gone with the theme or style.

So I finished it or so I had thought. When I emailed the buyer, I found that I had accidentally substituted an R for his real middle initial M. It was very easy to remedy and the journal still looks great. I’m really happy with the spine too. I love the 5 groups of thread across the spine. I think it looks fantastic. The light thread shows up so well too. I spent a little extra time and effort on this journal and I think it shows in the details.

It’s also the first time in a long time I used ¼ inch spacing in the sewing; usually I use a half-inch. I really think the quarter inch works really well and had the proper weight in comparison to the half-inch especially for the smaller sized journals.

You’ll also notice that the pages are lined. I think I’m officially going to offer this service, some people really want it and now that I have the lines on the computer it won’t be hard for me to make them in my standard sizes, 4.25”X5.5” and 5.5”X8.5” (making a roughly 6”X9” journal) I won’t be able to do other sizes because of the limitations of my printer. It is something for me to think about when this printer dies that I should get something that handles larger sizes of paper. This printer more than does what I need it to do now that I’ve got a computer with a little more oomph.

Anyway, I’m really really happy with how this journal came out, and I think that knowing a little bit about the man receiving it really helped the design.

I just put this journal up on eBay you can find it here:
Journal

I was checking out my eBay auctions and then searchingmy search words to see what came up and I realize I really need to pic my gallery pics much more carefully. I need to make sure that they aren’t too dark, unlike the gallery pic for the chocolate brown watercolor sketchbook

it’s here:Cocoa Sketchbook.

I’m pretty sure a dark gallery image disappears into nothingness when looking at those tiny little pics.

I’ve been working on the custom order this evening. I managed to get the pages sewn in and the thong attached now I’m just dealing with the matter of the initials. I initially toyed with the idea of “branding” them in with my soldering iron, but I did it on some samples and it just doesn’t work for me. While I’m thinking of this issue I have to remind myself that anything I attach to the front has to be as flexible as the cover. I could attach something stiff but it will mess with the fold and bend of the leather and I don’t really want that. It also has to fit with the feel of the book. Which won’t be a hard thing to do, but still, I wish I were able to use something I have on hand. Though a small “appliqué” of leather with the initials eyeleted down to the cover would work….

I’ve created the appliqué that will sit on the cover held with glue and eyelets. Tomorrow after work I’ll figure out how to get the initials on there in a way that will be super sturdy. I may head to the supply store and get supplies, I get out early so it should be good.

I’ll also upload some pics tomorrow.