Ladybird book journal

I’ve really got a thing for journalling at the moment… especially junk type journals. Well this was following s class that Lollipop Box Club’s Lisa is doing Patreon and I decided not only to follow the class but to make a similar themed journal as her sample/demo… a journal of things that make me smile.

I had loads of fun with an old Ladybird book, taking it apart (carefully) and then decorating it and putting it back together to make a journal.

I started with this second hand book which I bought off Etsy. I’d love to go to a second hand book shop in real life, but it’s just not possible in lockdown so etsy it had to be!

I carefully removed the pages from the book, it handily came out in three signatures and then added some gesso to the cover.

I chose some patterned papers to add to the signatures and then realised I needed to widen the spine so I cut the spine and added patterned paper to create the wider spine. I strengthened it to make sure it was going to hold and then went to town decorating the front.

I used a lot of scraps I had to hand some bits and bobs I had lying around. I included some things that are favourites of mine… bright colours, the Darcy heart, sari silk ribbon, tags, bookprint and glossy accents on the die-cut smile.

Then I bound the signatures in using the brightly coloured twine.

Really looking forward to working in this journal adding in the things and stories that make me smile. Not sure if I have mentioned on the blog already or not but my word of the year is smile so this seems like a good project to help me achieve my goals of bringing a smile to every day.

On this particular day (I made it a couple of weeks ago) what made me smile a lot was sharing the table to create with my daughter who was working on her textiles gcse work. I got so much pleasure out of watching her create.