Quirky challenge #5 - Secret Garden

Hello all, I hope you're all busy making crafty masterpieces....I've had a very busy couple of weekend I even managed to try some new craft techniques, like making faux leather (coming soon to a blog near you)....pop by to say hello x

Housework? What's housework? Lol

It's that time of the week again, when it's time for the Quirky Crafts Challenge......!!!
This week, the theme is 'Secret Garden' and we have been provided with some beautiful images by our sponsor UNKY

I really liked the image and wanted to keep it simple, but I had an idea to make a journal from scratch and use my image on the front cover.

This is the front cover of my journal.  I wanted to make my image standout, so I decided to use Twinkling H2Os to colour my fairy. Unfortunately you can't see the effect in these photos but they do add a very subtle sparkle to your image and are lovely to use. I then edged the image with Milled Lavender Tim Holtz Distress pad  and put it aside to dry.

The making of this book is really easy but great fun. You can personalise it for yourself or as a gift for someone special and fill it with photos and memories that are important to them.

You can make the book any size you want to, but I decided on A5.

I selected a number of patterned and plain, heavy weight paper/card e.g. I used some of Tim Holtz 'Crowded Attic' paper pad.  

I cut the paper to the size I wanted then started to decorate them.  I used Dylusions Spray Inks through stencils, I stamped some images onto the pages, made pockets, added tags, journal cards, rub offs etc and then, once all dry, I started to put the book together. 

To begin with I arranged the pages in the order I wanted them to be in, then began piecing them together. To hold the pages together, once the glue has dried,  I used a strip of sticky back canvas as the spine of the book, you can see it in the last photo.  You need to make sure that it is wide enough to hold the book tightly together.  If you hold all of the pages in one hand, the canvas when wrapped around,  should have roughly a 3/4inch overlap on the front and back covers. I used spray inks and 

ink pads to colour the spine and cut a scalloped edge on each side.

Once the book had been bound together, I added a few more decorative things to make the pages a bit more interesting.  I cut strips of contrasting paper and stuck them on pages to make borders, pockets 

etc.  I also added mini envelopes, tags, bookmarks, labels and journal cards. I even stamped some images onto some pages. It really gives your book a lot of visual interest and dimension, and of bourse, you can always keep adding things to it as you go along.

This is a really nice and easy book to make from start to finish. There are no fiddly or complicated sections to it, it's all pretty straightforward and great fun to do.  It's an ideal project to use up pieces of paper that you've been saving, like mop up papers and the remains of your favourite papers that you just couldn't bring yourself to throw out...lol 

Happy crafting everyone. Thanks for popping by. Please leave me a comment to say hello - I'd love to hear from you....xx