A Handmade Journal – Done!

I’m very excited to announce that my handmade art journal I started on September 1st is complete!  You can see the first post – here, the second one – here and the third one – here.

I learned a ton creating this journal and I hope you have enjoyed my instructions.  🙂

One of the things I learned when putting my book together during this last part was I learn much better with a video than a book.  It really helped me to SEE it being done!  I know there are free YouTube videos on the subject such as from Sea Lemon but I discovered one through InterweaveStore.com from Paige Martin that was excellent!  The downloadable  video was about the price of a book – $20 but worth it!!! (IMHO)  I highly recommend her video called “Stitch This Book:  Long, link and Coptic binding for beginners and beyond.” If you are serious about creating your own art journals and sketchbooks, I found her instructions to be the most complete from start to finish.

Here are the supplies I used for this last “chapter” of my art journal:

I found the small curved needle was helpful when stitching the Coptic stitch with the waxed linen thread.  I have included two different awl sizes.

The larger handled awl was great for punching (screwing) holes into the journal cover and the smaller awl was better for punching holes into the paper “signatures.”  An old telephone book was great for protecting your table during the hole making.

I also found that using a scrap piece of paper – I used an old file folder – was excellent for marking my holes in my signatures so that they were accurate and would match up with my holes in my journal cover:

I put the creased watercolor paper (signature) in the middle of the phone book as you can see above.  I darkened my holes with a Sharpie pen so you can see them but I don’t recommend you do it because it can bleed to your nice paper.

I’m not going to show you how to do the Coptic stitch because I believe there are some excellent videos on the subject.  I recommend you go slow, keep your tension tight on the waxed thread and remember this is your first book!  It will become easier with practice!

I put my completed art journal under some heavy books so it will relax a little before I use it.

I hope to show you my first entry in my new art journal soon!

Cheers Friends!  🙂

P.S.  Would you like to see more art journal making instructions?  I’d love to hear from you!