Have You Considered Making Your Own Journals?

With everything going on and people staying home due to the Coronavirus, now might be a good time to try your hand at making your own journals. The major positive is having journals with paper you love whether it's one type and brand or a mixed journal of various type papers you enjoy using depending on the mediums you like to use.

Although a little time consuming (which might help with the down time at home), it's really not that difficult once you know where to look for instruction and what to do. Once you finish and you hold that journal in your hand, you'd be amazed by the pride and joy you feel knowing YOU created the book sketching and displaying your artwork.

The easiest of the home-made journals are probably the accordion style (similar to what's shown here) where you fold and cut a full sheet of watercolor paper and simply glue mat board either plain or covered in fancy paper to front and back.

Another easy type of home-made journal would be cutting full sheets of paper down to the size you wish to work on and having it spiral bound...either by purchasing equipment to bind your own or later having it done at a print shop or local office supply. I think the postal service or UPS might do it also for a fee but not sure on that. I have my own binding machine so my knowledge is limited to what's offered out there.

One of my favorites and easy to make would be the Traveler's or Midori style journal with paper cut to preferred size and using a thick piece of faux leather for a cover plus elastic bands to hold your paper in place. There are various ways to make the covers from simple leather/faux leather to sewn fabric covers or even hard casings (which I haven't tried yet).   My favorite are the fabric sewn covers I made a couple years ago for myself and as gifts for several people.

Not only were the journals fun to make but I so enjoyed making charms to hang for that little added interest.

For me, I love all of the above type journals but I have to say the most rewarding has been the hardbound fabric-covered, hand-sewn journals I've made. I have several posts I've made about the various hand-made journals but thought I'd write this one......an update summary of sorts with a pdf I've created that helps me remember what to do that others might find helpful.

This pdf is specific to creating 5 x 5 1/2" size journals. Except for how to cut full sheets for other sizes, the rest is basic information for any size you decide to go with. 

The first two pages of the document is a basic outline I created for myself laying out the steps followed by instructions and images.  Besides the tab at the top of my blog named "Bookbinding," there is  a link within the document to my post of the most helpful videos I found to create my journals.  Sea Lemon is wonderful and easy to follow.

Bookbinding 5x55 BooksCOMP 

So if you'd like to find something different to work on.........challenging but fun to do, consider trying your hand at making your own journals for sketching and painting.  

Making a Simple Accordion Fold Journal

There are a few different ways of folding paper to make these accordion or meandering journals depending upon size paper one is starting with and the size of the finished journal one wishes to end up with.

I learned from watching this YouTube video by Cathy Johnson.

For my post here, I'm using an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of bond paper just as a visual example.  In fact I practiced this a couple of times on bond paper before I made one out of watercolor paper.

When I made several mini journals out of watercolor paper, I went all out adding covers as seen in this earlier post.......

http://sbwatercolors.blogspot.com/search?q=accordion

Also.......if you want longer accordion folded journals, you can glue two together making sure the folds remain at the join folding in the direction you need it to continue.  (Hopefully that made sense)

Stonehenge Aqua WC paper - One of the Group's Members

Folded pages (accordion fold journal) #3 and #4.  Same person in our sketching group in two different poses.  This is from our sketch crawl Thursday at the Mote Morris House in Leesburg.

With these two examples, I was testing how well the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils worked on this sampler paper.  Then added the pen and ink last using the Platinum Carbon desk pen.

So far I'm liking this paper :-)

New Line of Paper - Stonehenge Aqua

A few weeks ago I received a sampler package of Legion Stonehenge Aqua paper.  In the sampler pack was a sheet of 300 lb CP, 140 lb CP, and 140 lb HP watercolor paper.

Taking the 140 lb CP, I folded and cut into a small accordion journal to see how it handled being folded.  Unlike Arches which cracks at the folds, this paper seemed to handle it well.  How long it holds up to being folded and unfolded remains to be seen.

With this little journal, I've decided to dedicate it to practicing sketching people as I learn how the paper handles different mediums.

With this couple, I first used an 0.3 mm mechanical pencil to test how a very thin lead worked on the paper surface.  It didn't do bad and no breakage of the lead.

Next I used my extra fine fountain pen, Platinum Carbon desk pen to see if the nib hung in the paper fibers.  That too handled well even with nib held upside down for thinner line applications.

Final was the watercolor (DS) and I liked how it went down, blended, and lifted.

Note:  As I experiment with this paper, I am mentally comparing with my favorite - Fabriano Artistico.

First impression............Not Bad :-)

First two folded pages scanned:

Madison's Howling Wolf

One of the accordion fold journals found a home with my eldest granddaughter (age 12) and this is her first entry.

Graphite and paper is Fabriano  Bianco

Additional Journals Made

This makes three hand sewn hard bound journals I've made.  Each were done a little differently as I try various methods to see which suited me best.

The first as shown in previous post was using scrapbook paper for end pages and purchased book cloth.

The second here was trying scrapbook card stock paper (little thicker than paper but not a real stiff card stock).  I found when I folded this it wanted to crack a bit at the fold.  Was easier to glue but at the same time wasn't as easy to smooth out wrinkles when glued down.  With this journal and the third, I made my own book cloth taking cotton fabric, iron on adhesive, and tissue paper.

The third journal I decided to go without the end pages.  I think for future books I'll either use the thinner scrapbook paper stock or none at all.  This was easier to put together (text block into book casing) either because I didn't mess with end papers or because it's getting easier with each one I make :-)

After I finished these, I made three spiral journals using the same 140lb cold press watercolor paper.  Two were made with soft vinyl covers and the other was made using mat board.

Even though I would have liked to have covered these with fabric, I wasn't sure how my binding machine would handle cutting through glued on fabric.

So here are the journals I have been working on the last several days.  I made a total of six accordion fold journals with 14 usable pages and three twice the number of pages (shown here).

With the size spirals used (9/16"), I was able to fit 19 pages in the hard cover - 38 front and back and 21 pages - 42 pages front and back (covers were thinner allowing two additional pages).  Hand sewn journals were made with 20 pages - 40 pages front and back.

Accordion Fold Journals

I've been working on various handmade journals..........one type being the accordion fold or what I think some refer to as meandering journals.

After watching Cathy Johnson's No Sew Journal video on youtube, I wanted to make my own.  (Thank you, Kate!!! :-))

Many people make these out of whole sheets of watercolor paper or even half sheets.  I have a ton of quarter sheets I used to make mine.  They make cute little journals with either 14 single pages or six 2-page spreads plus two single pages or one panoramic 2-page spread page.

A few I have glued together two folded quarter sheets giving me 28 single pages or twelve 2-page spreads plus four single pages or two panoramic 2-page spread pages.  (better understood or pictured if watching Kate's video).

Third picture shows the two book presses Terry made for me.

From top left to right; center left to right; bottom left to right:

Scrapbook paper, folded accordion paper, spritzer bottle, Elmers Glue All

Mat board cut just a smidgen larger than accordion folded paper, utility knife, pencil, dish for glue plus sponge applicator (or brush can be used)

T-square ruler, bone folder, scissors.

Left - mat board glued to scrapbook paper (3/4" border around mat board for folding over)

Center - paper cut at angles at corners leaving about a 1/8" paper where corners of mat board are (for tucking in when folding)

Right - Completed after glue brushed on and folded over.....working long edges first and then short edges (tip from another video viewed on youtube).

Placed covers in book press as they completely dried.  Mat board will warp slightly with wet glue so I put them in the book press to make sure they laid completely flat for gluing onto the accordion folded paper.

This shows the two book presses Terry made me plus the finished accordion fold journals closed and opened.

Close-up of finished journals.

In the upcoming days, I'll be sharing my experience making hand-sewn hard covered journal books.  :-)

Other January Sketches

As usual, I'm playing catch-up sharing what I worked over the last couple of weeks in January.

These were all done finishing up the square format Hand.book journal.

Strathmore Soft Cover - Gray Journal

New Handmade Meandering Journal made and gifted by Lin Frye.  Made from Arches 140 Cold Press paper.

What is a meandering journal?  It's an accordion fold journal opening up in various directions.  Lin makes hers with ribbon ties to help keep one side closed while working in one direction.  When finished, you tie that off and untie the other side working on the back folded pages.

The cover is made from matboard and I started adding a little something to the front with white marker.  Haven't finished it yet as I haven't decided what else (if anything) I'm going to add.

For those who would like to know how these are put together, check out this Video by Cathy Johnson

.

Finished the Sennelier Accordion Fold Journal

This particular journal gifted to me last month was dedicated to Terry's and my trip to Venetian Gardens in Leesburg, FL.

Here are the rest of the pages completing this journal:

And yes his legs are really that thin :-)

To see the other pages making up this journal, you can see from this link:  http://sbwatercolors.blogspot.com/search/label/accordion

Another from Venetian Gardens

I'm truly loving this accordion journal!!!  The paper surface is a real joy to work on.

This next journal entry continues with my last trip to Venetian Gardens when Terry and I went last Sunday.

I have several more pages to do with various birds I came across that day.  There are also landscape scenes and other subjects.............lots of tidbits to fill this journal :-)

The right page was done first with pen and ink (Micron) and then using Daniel Smith watercolors.  Then I wrote the bit on the left side.  I felt it was too plain looking so I then used pen and ink to draw the little bird illustration.  That still didn't do it for me so I added a touch of watercolor.  For me it added that little something extra to the page of notes.

Lilies or Lotus - Venetian Gardens FL

These were completed in the Accordion sketchbook that was gifted me Sunday.

What I call Water Lilies are actually Lotus after doing research on the internet.

Pen and Ink plus watercolor. I am really enjoying this paper surface which is Sennelier.  The surface is smooth and very forgiving.  Also lifts color off easily.

 

Sunday Sight Seeing

This past Sunday, I finally met a gentleman in one of my Art Groups through Facebook.  There are several people in my group that live in or near where we have relocated and hope to meet them in person soon.

Lee picked me up Sunday morning and drove me around to various places he likes to sketch.  The locations included Emeralda Marsh, Venetian Gardens, Eustis, Tavares, Mount Dora, and the main heart of Leesburg.  These towns have such a charming quality about them - especially Mount Dora.  Before returning home, he drove me to where he and his wife live and I had the opportunity to meet his lovely wife.  Both are such nice people!!!!

After I was dropped off, I drove Terry out to see a couple of the places Lee drove me to.  Venetian Gardens was one of those places and Terry and I spent quite some time there walking around.  

Here is a pen and ink plus watercolor sketch of the swimming pool building where we parked. This was worked in a new Accordion Sketchbook Lee gifted me he picked up in France.  I enjoyed working on this paper I've never used before.  I've decided to dedicate the front fold out pages to Venetian Gardens and then not sure yet on what I'll dedicate the back sides to.  I'm sure another location here where we live.....maybe Emeralda Marsh or maybe some of the wildlife - birds in particular I've seen already living here.  :-)