book art | Julie Dawn Designs

January 11, 2025

January Snowfall and New Journals

It’s not even mid January and we have had our first snowstorm. I’m sure that is commonplace for many areas of the country, but not so for Texas. Growing up, snow days were few and far between. Several years ago, we even had a white Christmas. I believe that is the only time that has happened, at least in my lifetime.

It’s pretty to look at, but I’m ready for it to warm up. We are supposed to get a week of warmer temperatures, but then we go back to extreme cold, which I am not looking forward to. As long as our power grid holds out, we should be okay.

I have started the year off with a couple of new journals. The themes aren’t new, but the journals are. I try and make each journal I make unique in some way so that no two are exactly alike. I was a vendor in a Hanukkah Bazaar in early November and sold both of these and really wanted to make a couple more. I have another market I’m getting ready for in early May. It’s the Dallas Vibe Artisan Market. It’s over two days and it will be a new venue for me. Fingers crossed it’s a good one.

I made another Wednesday Adams journal, as well as another Alice in Wonderland Journal.

These are fun to make, but I’m going to make a few fabric journals next. I have so much fabric that I feel like it’s time to use some of it up.

I hope everyone is having a good January, wherever you might find yourself.

June 17, 2023

Unicorn Journal

I have been wanting to make a journal like this for quite some time. When this digital kit came available, I knew I had to buy it.

Here is a picture of some of the elements included in it and the signatures I made from the pages in the kit.

So far, I’ve sewn in the signature covers and started decorating the front and back covers, as well as the spine.

I was trying to decide between these two ideas for the front cover:

It was a difficult decision, but my daughter told me the one with more butterflies was better than the one with less, so that is the one I went with. Now I’m working on the back cover and then I will finish decorating the spine. After that, it’s time to add pockets and ephemera to the pages inside and then it will be complete.

September 2, 2020

Practicing New Techniques

As artists, we all have other artists we look up to, learn from and generally admire. One of my favorites is Liz Constable from Book Art Studios. Not only is she an incredibly talented book artist, she is a great teacher and very generous with her knowledge.

I have always wanted to take one of her Dyed and Gone to Heaven workshops, but unfortunately, I could never figure out how to make that work since she is in Auckland and I am in Texas. Up until now, she has only taught in-person workshops, but the pandemic changed all that.

I was able to take both her coptic binding class and her dyed and gone to heaven class via zoom. They were great, and thankfully recorded, because I had to refer back to them more than once. I had done coptic binding before, but this is a new method that took some practice on my part.

Here are some pictures of one of my favorite books I made, filled with scrumptious, hand dyed paper, using a process that I’m sworn to secrecy not to divulge. If you want to learn it, you can visit her website and sign up for her next online class!

View of Journal Spine with Coptic Stitch

July 16, 2018July 16, 2018

Faux Leather Travelers Journals With a Twist

I was fortunate enough to be gifted some very nice faux leather fabric samples a while back. At first I wasn’t sure what to do with them, until I came across a journal in a craft store that give me an idea of how to put them to use. This is one of the first ones I made.

I recently decided that it was time to make a few more. After sewing the covers together, I decided that I wanted to do something besides a plain cover, so I decided to create some vignettes on each one.

Here is how they turned out.

faux leather travelers journals — Faux Leather Travelers Journals

To say I love them is indeed an understatement!

May 27, 2018

Altered Book Cover

This is the start of the cover art for my next hand painted travelers journal made from an upcycled book.

I started with creating background layers created from magazine text and gel medium. After that layer, I repeated the process with colored images. Next came the paint and stenciled image.

altered book travelers journal — Cover in Progress

Once the outside cover is complete, it’s time to add signatures, pockets and envelopes.