Red Leather Wrapped Journal - for Eileen Hull

Hello Friends

During August, Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team are sharing some of their favourites of Eileen's dies.  I have to admit my favourite changes as soon as Eileen brings out a new set of dies!  My current favourite is Eileen's Wrapped Journal die - Sizzix 662816, which I have used with another favourite - Tim Holtz fabric and beautiful soft red Leather...

I have kept it quite plain on the outside, but it is not quite so plain inside!  I will take you through a few of the steps, this is such an easy journal to make...

1)  I buy quite large pieces of leather and so I always cut down the leather with a sharp knife, so it fits the size of the die better.  This leather is very soft so I took extra care. I attached the leather to a piece of mount board and left it overnight to thoroughly dry, before cutting with the journal die.

2)  I chose one of my favourite Tim Holtz fabrics for the inside.

3)  I glued the fabric to the inside of the die cut journal with Multi Medium and let it dry.  Once dry, carefully cut around the journal, cropping the fabric close to the journal.  If you are worried about edges fraying, just use your finger to apply some Multi Medium around all the edges.

4)  I used a harlequin pattern embossing folder that had a repeating pattern and embossed the whole of the journal.  You need to be careful when embossing leather, always try it out on a spare piece of leather, experimenting with the plates in your die cutting machine to get the right emboss.

You can, of course, emboss the leather before you add the fabric, but I prefer to do it after attaching the fabric, it seems to create a better 'bond'.

I like to add a pen to my journals, as I can never find one when I need one!
5)  Take a piece of card, to fit the spine that does not have the string holes in it and wrap it in your chosen fabric.  Take a length of 1 inch elastic and hand or machine stitch the elastic about one third of the way across the covered card.
6)  Place your pen on the card so that you will stitch the other side in the right place, mark it, remove the pen and stitch.
7)  Cut the ends of the elastic off, seal the edges with Matte Medium.
8)  Glue the piece in place along the spine and leave to dry thoroughly.

Create your signatures.  I used the remains of the fabric to cover card measuring 7.1/4" x 4.7/8" and fill with paper of your choice.

String the journal with elastic of your choice.  Eileen shared a video HERE (the stringing sections starts around 54 minutes in) showing a simple way to string the journal so that it will take up to six signatures.

Here is a view of the completed inside.  I added a button to the front and added a simple elastic closure on the front inside flap.

A final look at the completed journal, it is really soft and tactile!  I added a couple of charms to the side for decoration.

Thanks for your visit, I hope you will keep an eye on Eileen's blog HERE, where my talented team mates will be sharing some of their favourite dies this month!

I will be back again on Monday with my Simon Says Stamp project, which also uses one of my favourite Eileen Hull dies.... hope to see you then!

Hugs, Anne xx

Book Club 2 - Eileen Hull - Wrapped Journal 2

Hello Friends

I have shared a couple of Wrapped Journals using Eileen Hull's fabulous new die, this one is my second offering for this month as the Inspiration Team are sharing Journals all this month, and also using Eileen's Color Box Blend inks by Clearsnap.  You will be able to see lots of inspiration all month on Eileen's blog HERE.

I wanted to make a 'manly' style Journal, after seeing my super talented Teamie, Mitsyana's make a while back, I wanted to see if I could recreate the 'look' of faux metal that she created but just using matboard as my base.

For the Journal cover I used Eileen's Wrapped Journal (Sizzix 662816) and a stencil by Autour de Mwa of AALLandCreate - Stencil #28.  Additional supplies were Eileen's Color Box Blends in Ebony, Texture Paste, Pebeo Gilding Wax in Silver and PaperArtsy paint in Snowflake.

After die cutting the Journal I applied Texture Paste through the stencil and left this to dry naturally.  Once dry I applied the Ebony Colour Box Blends with a paint brush (these inks work just like paint) and left it to dry.  I mixed Ebony ink and Snowflake paint together until a lovely gray colour was achieved and this was painted onto the inside of the Journal.

To create the faux metal appearance I used my finger to apply the Gilding Wax and once dry I buffed it up with a soft cloth.

I selected my embellishments, one of Tim Holtz's small pocket watches, one of his skull and cross bones charm, a word band, a hitch fastener and a couple of brads.  The chain, hitch fastener and brads were coloured with silver Alcohol Ink and the word 'salvaged' was coloured with Distress Crayon before silver Alcohol Ink was applied to 'age' it.

Here is a close up of the embellishments once attached.

For the inside of the journal I created four signatures and also added some pockets and tags, using Eileen Hull's new Framelit dies - Credit Card Sleeve & Tags (Sizzix 662810) and some Tim Holtz design papers.

A close up of one of the tags inside a Credit Card sleeve.

Finally, a view of the completed Journal, I am really pleased with the way this one turned out! Huge thanks to Mitsyana for the inspiration!

As I said earlier, all month long Eileen's Inspiration Team will be sharing projects HERE, where you will find lots of inspiration, as well as on Eileen's Fan Club page on Facebook.  There are nearly 3,000 fans in the Club, all sharing projects, hints and tips.  Eileen offers wonderful prizes once key milestones are reached and 3,000 is the next milestone..... just saying!!

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon.  I have some fabulous news to share with you in August....

Hugs, Anne  xx

NB.  I put some links in for the UK where Eileen's

and AALL products can be purchased.  I do not receive any commission 

from any of the companies named, I simply share the details to assist 

you in finding them.

Book Club 2 - Eileen Hull - Wrapped Journal

Hello Friends

Eileen Hull's long awaited Wrapped Journal (Sizzix 662816) is about to be released and I, for one, cannot wait to get my hands on the new die (the Inspiration Team only had access to the prototype up to now).

Eileen's Inspiration Team were given die cuts to make samples for Creativation and this project is one of the first ones I made.  As some of you know, I love leather and felt and this one is made from 3mm pure wool felt.... it is very tactile...

Starting with the die cut and some beautiful 3mm felt, acrylic paint, strong glue and a piece of lace, cut the felt to fit the die cut.  Felt can be cut very easily with this Bigz XL die, this felt is quite thick and I used a Premium Crease Pad to prevent the score lines from cutting right through.  This is not necessary, it is just my preference when using thick felt (or leather).

The lace was added to the felt first, it was stitched and glued in place.  A few French knots were added, as an accent, using red embroidery thread.

Paint the inside of the die cut before gluing this onto the felt die cut and leave overnight to dry.  Attach the closure string (made with Eileen's Twist & Style Tool) by gluing it between the felt and the journal die cut.  A heart shaped button was added to the front for the closure string to fasten to.  String the journal with elastic to hold four signatures.  

There is a lot of room in this journal and you can make quite large signatures.  Signature covers can be cut from Eileen's Passport die, they fit beautifully in this Wrapped Journal.

For this Journal I created three signatures and one pocket insert.

Here is a view of the back of the finished Journal.

This whole journal goes together like a dream, it is a lovely shape, it can be made thick or thin depending on the thickness of the signatures and it is such a handy size to fit in a purse/handbag.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing my first Wrapped Journal, there are more to come!  Thanks so much for your visit and I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs, Anne xx