Journal Cover

Recently I was invited by a friend to attend a craft class at the home of a friend.  She and I had attended a couple of quilt shows together and were introduced to the work of Angela McIntyre of Laughing Cat Designs Etc. 

We loved her work, so my friend decided to have a class in her home.  There were four of us and Angela for the Saturday class.  We took our machines, and supplies to make our own refillable Journal Covers!  For the sake of time, we made small covers for 4 X 6 inch spiral notebooks, but this same technique could be used on larger notebooks. The class price included the pattern and instruction.

Here is the selection of fabrics that I chose to take with me to my friend's house.  Not the best selection; I will tell you why later.

I was interested in the class, because Angela uses some techniques that I wanted to explore, mainly curved pieces and couching. Although, the curved pieces are not pieced together like normal quilting, they are sewn with an overlapping seam then covered with couched yarns.  If you look close, you can see the yarns are twisted and sewn down over the seams. (Check out the seam on the right side of the pink fabric and you will see several layers of yarn in different colors.) On the other side of the pink fabric, I used some twisted metallic thread and then layered on a lavender tatted trim.  This couching was done after the different fabric pieces were sewn together and quilted to a backing.  You can see some different colored stitching, besides stitching styles.

But, we were not finished yet.  All of this was further embellished with beading.

Angela gave us some tips on using invisible thread for beading.  Looks pretty good, uh?  Well I finished m little journal cover and I love it, except that I used some fancy ribbed satin fabrics that were a bit too thick for the cutting instructions. The extra bulk cause the cover to not fit correctly.  So I cut down the notebook's cover, and made it fit!  As you can see, the pages stick out a little beyond the cover, but I don't mind.  When I buy a new journal,  I will buy a 3 X 5 inch notebook and I think it will fit!   Other than that, I love my cover!

 Thanks, Ritha, for hosting the class!  

P.S.  I added a little ribbon to hold it snug. 

30 Days of Christmas Linky

Last week I had two people leave their link with their Christmas ideas!   I perused their shops and found some things that I just love.

From Edi at Memories for Life I found a photo book that is just right for the season! And it's ready-to-ship!

 wood photo book from memoriesforlife 

Then, Deb from Storybeader has some handmade journals.  I have one that she's made, and I know they are awesome! I love mine!  Hop on over and see what she has to offer!

Maroon Art Journal by storybeader

So what awesomeness have you been up to on your blog this week?   Link here and let us see your Christmas ideas, decorating, recipes or shopping finds (oops, I guess you wouldn't want to show that BEFORE Christmas?)  Anyway, link up, share and visit some of the other participants!  Most of all, Enjoy!

Recently, the Etsybloggers Street Team had a Journal swap. (See several other posts about the project.)
Anyway, I got a beautiful handmade journal from Debby of Storybeader. I loved reading her story and finding out that she lives just a few miles from where my mother's family settled when they came to America. It's a small world, really!

Anyway, in the secret portion of the diary, There was an envelope of pretty lime colored beads. It took me a while to get done, but I had purposed to make a little bracelet for myself to remember Debby's generosity and to remember the Journal Swap project. I had enough beads to also finish a pair of earrings! So here are the results:

Thanks, Deb!

Journal Finished!

I bought blank Journal, for the Etsybloggers Journal Swap. My Journal is going to Laurie Jackson of IndulgeYourShelf Etsy shop. I am anticipating receiving a journal from Debby of Storybeader fame.

My Journal Swap is off to the post office Today! Though I would show you how it turned out---just a little bit of it!

Middle picture is my Etsy shop banners page. Next picture is an assignment that required us to cut up a photo and paste it in the journal--can you tell what it is? And this last picture is my most colorful, yet not my most creative page.

It's been a great experience, now it is off to Laurie! Enjoy Laurie!

Journal Swap

I've elected to participate in a Journal Swap being put on my Etsybloggers team. We have suggestions each day for assigned writing. This is particularly good for writers (us bloggers) since we are always looking for prompts and writing ideas! I especially like several blogs that give you a title, then you come up with the blog entry!

It's only the second day of the process and upon reading my team members blog entries about their first entry, already, I have learned something! The other bloggers are doing their journals in artful ways! I guess I am just a "Straight Laced plain Jane" gal, 'cuz I started with JUST writing! I don't know why, I guess the word 'Journal' conjured up a picture in my mind of a 'diary.' So, now I have to think more out of the box! And prettier!

So I went digging in my magazine pile for a magazine that I bought some time ago. It is a Somerset Studio presentation of "Artful Blogging". It's a visually inspiring magazine for bloggers! Gorgeous! I'll be flipping thru it today to gain some inspiration and to see what I can come up with for an inspired Journal!