Mixed Media Book Cover for art journals

Next week is my birthday and my mother is coming to stay with me again for a good part of the week. I'm looking forward to the mess we will be making while crafting together. So far I have made three art journal booklets for her with a pamphlet stitch. Each made with 5 folio's.

For next week I want to make her a book cover so she can bind the 3 signatures together in a book. It will have to be something she can decorate herself and I want the signatures to be removable, so it's easier to work in the booklets.

I saw a blogpost and youtube video's from Paula Phillips (JournalArtista, Mixed Media mini books) where she did just what I was looking for. An easy to make bookcover with removable signatures. Go check her out, her booklets and journal pages are beautiful and inspiring, I started playing a bit with this idea and made a test cover for my own pamphlet booklets.

I didn't make progress pics, because I got rather caught up in the process of making this. I learned a lot while doing it and there are several things I will do differently when I make the cover for my mother. I will try and remember to make progress shots when I make that one, just let me know if you would like a tutorial on that.

I do, however, have some close up shots for you.

I made the cover from a cereal box. The side of a cereal box is just wide enough to accomodate 3 of the signatures I made as art journals. They tend to get rather thick....

I reinforced the spine with extra cardboard, which made it nice and sturdy and pierced 6 holes in it. Eventually when my journals are finished I will bind them in there. In the mean time I will attach them with elastic bands as Paula did, but I have yet to find elastic bands that are large enough and thick enough to hold the signatures. I may have to make them myself.

I wanted the closure to be a plain button, to wrap something around and when lookig for this I also found these tiny little buttons. I thought they were really cute. I altered the buttons with some gold Rub 'n Buff and some copper wire. The button for the closure is attached to the cover with the wire and the tiny ones are attached with some sillicone dimensional glue. All them little buttons do tie in nicely with the Simon Says Stamp and Show: The Button Challenge, where they ask us to use a button on our project.

As you can see above, the three signatures fit snuggly inside the cover. I tied them in temporarily, to test it out.

I had a ball when decorating the cover. Here you can see the back and you can see some of the layers shining through. I started with collaging and taping. Then painting and stencilling. Stamped all over it with my new Stampers Anonymous stamps (love those) and went back with white paint.

The inside is treated fairly the same way, but I kept it simpler so I can add to it when the signatures are all finished and bound in the book.

I added a charm, I made several months ago as a test, a tassle and a leftover tiny button to the spine.

Layered some ephemera, lace and a photo of a lady, playing the piano, with some copper filligree bits onto a dictionary page. These were then attached to some card board and stuck to the cover with some foam, to give it more dimension.

On the dictionary page you can see the word "Vaardigheid" underlined with the key. This is Dutch for "Skill". Which I found appropriate as there are many, many skills that are involved in art journalling. As it's all about learning and growing your skills. In art, but also, I find, on a more personal level.

So I will leave you with that thought and I hope you enjoyed my cover as much as I did making it. I'm of now to make the cover for my mother, but she'll have to decorate it herself =). I wish you all a lovely day.

Linking this to:

• Simon Says Stamp and Show: The Button Challenge 
• Pan Pastel UK: Challenge 23 - Anything goes
• Our Creative Corner, june challenge: Recipe (As I realised the challenge is still open and I used fabric, lace, ribbon (tiny flower), metal, inks and paints. This will be my second entry for the month june)