10 Handmade Art Journals You’ll Want to Make

Dear Wonderful, Artistic You:

Handmade fine art journals inspire me. They offer so much creative control and choice. You lot tin determine the shape, size, and density of your art periodical, and whether, and how, it is bound. You may apply traditional bookbinding methods, or recycle materials such as onetime books or your ain art.  I hope this post will inspire yous to try a number of these techniques. Allow's offset by looking at one of my favorite handmade journals.

"Waiting" is a book I made many years ago, when I was waiting for someone who never actually took the place in my life I was hoping for. (Does that sound familiar?) I love this volume because with the combination of mag cut outs, my ain photos, special papers, and a few words, I really feel it captures my longing, misplaced hope, and disappointment. Handmade books and art journals are an amazing fashion to express your feelings.

For the base of the pages, I cut rectangles from a paper-thin shipping box. I and so layered a diverseness of tissue papers, handmade papers, and a sparse canvas of bark "paper" I found at the art shop. It has an incredible smell, giving the book some other sensory dimension. Its texture is rough and yet smooth, and I love how the images and the bawl play so well together, both in theme and colour.

The other element that is special about this volume is that I left it unbound. It'southward a great metaphor for what happened (and didn't) in the relationship. I like that the beautiful ribbon is what holds all the pages together.

Handmade Journal Tutorials

one. Unbound Handmade Periodical: An unbound periodical,  like the one pictured above, is unique. You tin can tie it with a ribbon or cord, house it in a box, a shell, or any container. You can see cute examples of books independent in Altoids tins, seashells, and buttons (aye!) on my Pinterest board, Hand Made Books.

2. Booklet: For a simple newspaper bound book, hither's a nice lilliputian infographic on binding a booklet.

3. Tiffin Bag Journal: Tiffin bags and grocery bags are cheap (or complimentary) and make a fun foundation for handmade journals. My lunch bag tutorial appears at the very bottom of the Fine art Tutorials page.  The House that Lars Congenital, a fun, artsy DIY weblog has a 5 – minute tutorial on making a periodical from computer newspaper and paper grocery bags.

Judy Wise, a talented paper artist, takes the paper bag journal a pace further by wetting and drying her pages, you'll see the gorgeous transformation. You lot could exercise this likewise! What would you do with yours?

4. Coffee Sleeve Journal: Coffee sleeves are another wonderful candidate for repurposing paper-thin. Check out this post I did on making mini-art journals with coffee sleeves and a single canvas of estimator paper.

5. Alphabetize Card Journal: Another fun and very easy way to make a journal is using index cards. I show you how in this tutorial.

6. Accordion Journals: Accordion journals are a relatively simple form of handmade periodical that you lot tin can make as circuitous as y'all wish. You can incorporate holes for a tunnel periodical, or drop downwards doors, or pockets – the possibilities are endless! I teach how to make accordion journals and these gorgeous piddling paintings in my course, Fluid Fine art. Click here to learn more than.

seven. Bind It All Journal:Alisa Shush never fails to instruct and inspire me. She has a wonderful postal service on making your ain handmade journals with no sewing, using a gizmo called a "Bind-it-all."

8. Custom, Hand Sewn Book with Signatures: To brand a traditional, hard-bound book, James Darrow'due south detailed and user- friendly tutorial on bookbinding is a must.

9. Hand Sewn Gratuitous Form Book: Spotter this super inspiring video most New Zealand volume artist, Liz Constable – you will LOVE her creations. I got tons of ideas virtually techniques to try in my journal making.

x. Journal Quilt: For folks who like fabric, thread, and sewing, yous will want to soak in these "journal quilts" from The Dyers Hand. You'll exist moved by the art, but even more so when you lot read how these gorgeous pieces helped her heal from the death of her husband.

eleven. Junk Periodical: "Junk journals" are a great way to apply bits of old fine art pieces, beautiful papers, and magazine photo collages. This is a new handmade fine art journal, and I'm super excited nigh it considering it brings together several pieces that never found a home. For this one, I used my sewing auto to stitch disparate bits of collage, newspaper, pretty cloth, and old drawings into "pages," which I then sewed to the back encompass of my book.

[bctt tweet="How can newspaper, cloth, cord, and images make such magic in an fine art periodical?"]

I am rather obsessed with beautiful paper and textile. Are you? I honey when they are and so high quality that information technology's difficult to tell which it is. For example, the gorgeous red paper featured on this journal embrace looks well-nigh like leather to me. I think I had coated it with gel medium to harden it years ago when I first worked with the image.  Paper Source Sale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Paper Source*  or my local fine art store are where I usually indulge in handmade and high quality printed papers. Exercise you lot have a paper addiction?

You tin can follow me on Pinterest for fifty-fifty more handmade art journal inspiration.

My Favorite Shop Bought Journal Correct Now

Of course if you lot are feeling more inspired past the idea of making the art than making the journals, you can buy a periodical at your local art and arts and crafts store or online fine art store. My current favorite journal is this 1 from

I honey the tan pages – everything automatically feels more rich and "cocked" on them.

What are you in dear with creatively correct now? What are your favorite ways of putting handmade journals together? Have I missed whatsoever wonderful handmade art journal techniques that should be featured? Be sure to let me know in the comments.

Creatively Yours,

Amy

*Links with an with an asterisk (*) are affiliate links. If you choose to click and buy something, I volition receive a small committee, while you pay the same price. Please know that I only link things that I really love. Thank you for your back up!

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Source: https://mindfulartstudio.com/10-handmade-art-journals/

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