The Junk Journal!

I've been afraid of bookbinding.

Really, really afraid of it.

It seemed overwhelming and I guess I thought of it in my mind as some gypsy magic involving standing on one leg, facing north during a blood moon while holding a unicorn hair high in your right hand. 

But you know what I found out?

It's not. 

It's completely do-able!

So this is my first attempt, and it's not exactly the "pretty type".

It's not perfectly bound. It doesn't have clean edges.

But it's very "me-ish" and I'm excited!

I started by looking around for stuff I already had and salvaged a few things. I figured that's the point of a junk journal right? It's made of your junk? Anyway...

I had a old Strathmore sketch pad that was half full of terrible drawings and wasn't serving a purpose any longer, I ripped the pages out, folded them and started stitching them together into signatures.

After that, I had a large-ish piece of cardboard that I cut down to be a book cover. I wrapped said cardboard in decorative paper (leaving some of the cardboard corner bits exposed - for fun) and then attached a few fabric swatches with hot glue. 

Oh, and I used a lot of a washi tape. - A LOT OF WASHI TAPE.

I had some silk pieces leftover from my wedding, some string, some leathery bits... and I cut those and used them as bookmarks and a means to tie the book together (art journals get fat!).

Now for the pictures!:

I haven't entirely decided it's purpose yet. I know it will be an art journal, but I think I may use it specifically for an intuitive art journal.

Hmm....