10 Handmade Art Journals You’ll Want to Make

Love Wonderful, Creative You:

Handmade art journals inspire me. They offering so much creative command and choice. You can decide the shape, size, and density of your fine art journal, and whether, and how, it is bound. You may employ traditional bookbinding methods, or recycle materials such as one-time books or your own art.  I hope this post will inspire yous to try a number of these techniques. Permit'south start by looking at one of my favorite handmade journals.

"Waiting" is a volume I made many years ago, when I was waiting for someone who never really took the place in my life I was hoping for. (Does that sound familiar?) I love this book because with the combination of magazine cut outs, my ain photos, special papers, and a few words, I actually feel it captures my longing, misplaced hope, and disappointment. Handmade books and art journals are an amazing manner to limited your feelings.

For the base of the pages, I cut rectangles from a cardboard shipping box. I so layered a variety of tissue papers, handmade papers, and a thin sheet of bark "paper" I institute at the fine art store. It has an incredible smell, giving the book another sensory dimension. Its texture is rough and nonetheless smooth, and I dear how the images and the bark play then well together, both in theme and color.

The other element that is special about this book is that I left it unbound. It's a great metaphor for what happened (and didn't) in the relationship. I like that the cute ribbon is what holds all the pages together.

Handmade Journal Tutorials

1. Unbound Handmade Periodical: An unbound journal,  similar the one pictured higher up, is unique. You can tie it with a ribbon or string, house it in a box, a shell, or any container. You lot can see beautiful examples of books contained in Altoids tins, seashells, and buttons (aye!) on my Pinterest board, Mitt Made Books.

ii. Booklet: For a simple newspaper bound volume, hither'due south a nice little infographic on binding a booklet.

3. Lunch Pocketbook Periodical: Dejeuner bags and grocery bags are inexpensive (or free) and brand a fun foundation for handmade journals. My tiffin bag tutorial appears at the very bottom of the Art Tutorials page.  The House that Lars Congenital, a fun, artsy DIY weblog has a 5 – minute tutorial on making a journal from figurer paper and paper grocery bags.

Judy Wise, a talented paper creative person, takes the paper bag journal a stride further by wetting and drying her pages, y'all'll see the gorgeous transformation. You could do this too! What would you do with yours?

iv. Java Sleeve Journal: Java sleeves are another wonderful candidate for repurposing cardboard. Check out this post I did on making mini-fine art journals with coffee sleeves and a single sail of figurer newspaper.

5. Index Card Journal: Another fun and very easy way to make a journal is using index cards. I show you how in this tutorial.

6. Piano accordion Journals: Accordion journals are a relatively simple form of handmade periodical that you can make as circuitous every bit you wish. You can incorporate holes for a tunnel periodical, or drop down doors, or pockets – the possibilities are endless! I teach how to brand accordion journals and these gorgeous little paintings in my class, Fluid Art. Click here to larn more.

vii. Demark It All Periodical:Alisa Burke never fails to instruct and inspire me. She has a wonderful post on making your own handmade journals with no sewing, using a gizmo called a "Bind-it-all."

viii. Custom, Hand Sewn Book with Signatures: To make a traditional, hard-leap book, James Darrow'due south detailed and user- friendly tutorial on bookbinding is a must.

9. Hand Sewn Free Form Book: Spotter this super inspiring video about New Zealand volume artist, Liz Constable – you will Love her creations. I got tons of ideas well-nigh techniques to endeavour in my periodical making.

10. Journal Quilt: For folks who like cloth, thread, and sewing, you will want to soak in these "journal quilts" from The Dyers Mitt. You'll exist moved by the art, but even more than and then when yous read how these gorgeous pieces helped her heal from the death of her husband.

11. Junk Journal: "Junk journals" are a neat way to utilise bits of former fine art pieces, beautiful papers, and magazine photo collages. This is a new handmade art journal, and I'm super excited well-nigh information technology because it brings together several pieces that never institute a home. For this i, I used my sewing machine to sew disparate bits of collage, newspaper, pretty cloth, and old drawings into "pages," which I then sewed to the back comprehend of my volume.

[bctt tweet="How can paper, fabric, string, and images make such magic in an art journal?"]

I am rather obsessed with beautiful paper and fabric. Are you? I dear when they are so loftier quality that it'due south hard to tell which it is. For case, the gorgeous red paper featured on this journal encompass looks nearly like leather to me. I call up I had coated it with gel medium to harden information technology years ago when I first worked with the image.  Newspaper Source Auction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Paper Source*  or my local art store are where I usually indulge in handmade and high quality printed papers. Do y'all have a paper habit?

You can follow me on Pinterest for even more than handmade art journal inspiration.

My Favorite Shop Bought Journal Right Now

Of class if you are feeling more inspired past the thought of making the fine art than making the journals, you can buy a periodical at your local art and arts and crafts store or online art store. My current favorite periodical is this one from

I honey the tan pages – everything automatically feels more rich and "artsy" on them.

What are you in love with creatively correct now? What are your favorite ways of putting handmade journals together? Have I missed any wonderful handmade fine art journal techniques that should be featured? Be sure to let me know in the comments.

Creatively Yours,

Amy

*Links with an with an asterisk (*) are chapter links. If you choose to click and purchase something, I volition receive a small commission, while you pay the same price. Please know that I only link things that I really beloved. Thank you for your support!

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Source: https://mindfulartstudio.com/10-handmade-art-journals/