Art Journal - Project

HIYA! I promised to show you what has been taking up my free time and today is the day! So I was talking to Ant who told me about his journals and I thought how great it would be to actually make one myself. I found an excellent place that sells all sorts of scrap cut-offs and industrial left-overs (like plastic thingies, leather, pvc piping, material, wood, etc..) you know the sort of things factories have left over after they have made something? well this place collects it and sells it really cheap. They had a big bin of leather scraps that Hubby dug around in for me and I found three nice bits of different coloured leather. Two for the cover of the journal and the other, softer one for the lacing.

I cut the front and back pieces to size, then made slits for the leather cord. Then I used two bits of cord I cut from the softer leather and started lacing. 

And did the same for the back cover.

I used a wood burner to decorate the front and back covers. BTW burnt leather smells funky...

Next I made the straps for the buckles, which are OVERALL BUCKLES! I had to score the leather to make it bend. Also burnt a decoration on them to. The strap is secured to the back cover with split pins. I wanted the straps to be adjustable for when the journal gets full and bulky.

I then burnt around all the edges to keep it neat and strong. I bought some nice watercolour paper, ripped it to size
and threaded it on the leather cord, then secured it with a knot.

The Back

The finished product. 11" X 12"
Now to fill it with lots of arty things..lol!

So what do you think? I am pretty happy with it. It's very rustic and earthy which appeals to the Irish ancestry in me. Hubby loves it to and wants me to make our wedding album in a similar way. And I already have some smaller journals in mind to. Funny thing is, is that it cost me next to nothing to make. The most expensive stuff was the paper!