Altered Journals

Warning - sunglasses needed! These are the BEFORE pictures! These very bright journals were 30 cents in the clearance bin at Michael's. Really, not hard to understand how they ended up there, but I could see they had potential.

Since the covers were very shiny, I started with a coat of gesso to make sure any paint or paper would stick.

I covered this one with some wallpaper. I used the paste activator I used when wallpapering a real wall as adhesive. I dabbed on some white acrylic paint to tone down some areas. Then over stamped some flowers onto the vintage image, and added a strip of embossed edging swiped with Distress Ink - Old Photo. I glued on some small vellum flowers over the flowers in the image. Some ribbon and a grouping of flowers (stamped with text and with Distress Stickle centers) completed this one.

This UTEE embossed image didn't photograph all that well. I used some great black paper that feels like fabric and a brass hinge (rescued from a belt by my friend Shiela) and a few buttons. I sold this one today to a young girl - a budding artist who really wanted her mom to buy this for her. She held it carefully, rubbed her fingers over the embossing, and held it to her chest. Her mom thought it was for older girls, "like when you're 10". They left the craft fair, then a few minutes later, mom returned alone for the journal. She said, "Lilly will be 10 in January, so I'm getting it for her birthday". What a good mommy! I'm glad my journal is going to make Lilly happy.

This embossed paper looks like leather, so I made this one a more masculine style with a piece of map for the background and these great Tim Holtz stamps. I made photo corners from punched squares cut in half and sewed on a ticket. I added a metal tag to the compass stamp so the man with the umbrella knows where he's headed.

This one is covered in mulberry paper and embellished with a tag I've had for ages. First time I've added a ribbon bookmark.

These journals reminds me of the "Trash to Treasure" section on HGTV's Decorating Cents.