DIY notebooks and junk journals

It's felt like summer returned today. Bright blue sky, sunlight beaming through the windows (showing up all the smudges!) and not a drop of rain. It was one of those days when you feel like getting stuff done. All those little chores that normally get pushed aside.

In between the practical tasks I did manage some crafting. No gelli printing though. I reckon I've made enough seed packets for the time being. I do love some of these patterns and colour-combinations of packets made so far.

The intense saturated colours are good, but I also appreciate the more delicate designs. Ones where the colours look faded and semi transparent.

Love the shimmer that using a gold metallic paint adds.

Moving on from seed packets, I've really getting interested in making junk journals. I've collected up various flyers, vintage birthday cards, magazine pages, as well as blank sheets of notepaper and cartridge paper. Two journals are made, just quite basic ones really, but I spent a fair amount of time today compiling the insides for several more journals. In all, I've assembled eleven signatures of different sizes.

Signatures is a term I've learnt recently. It refers to a set of pages that're nestled one inside the other, and each signature creates a section of a book. A number of signatures are bound together, and a cover added.

Each signature I've made contains four folded sheets of paper, and I'm handsewing them together, a simple line of stitching down the centre fold to secure them in place. I did watch an Arne & Carlos video about junk journals where they used a sewing machine to do the task, but I prefer stitching by hand. It's an enjoyable process, and I can always listen to podcasts while doing it. The Arne & Carlos video is worth a watch, by the way. Loved all the photos and scribbles and odds & ends they pack into their journals. They're like visual diaries.

I've kind of run out of energy after a busy day, so it's cups of tea and another episode or two of Borgen tonight. Oh, and I've got Robert Galbraith's (a.k.a. JK Rowling's) 'The Cuckoo's Calling' to read. A few chapters in and I'm already hooked on the mysterious death of a beautiful model who plummeted from the balcony of her flat.

Enjoy your evening, and hope the sun shines for you tomorrow.

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