butterfly journal | Julie Dawn Designs

I love summer. It’s by far my favorite time of the year, especially if we are lucky enough to take a trip to the beach. That is like icing on the cake for me.

Now that school is back in session and September begins tomorrow, it’s time to gear up and make more journals. My youngest is driving, which is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, so I am finally free of carpool lines. The only thing I miss about that is I used to read while waiting for school to get out. Now I don’t do that as much anymore, so I need to find time to fit that back in somewhere.

I have made a few new journals since my last post. I’m also teaching a four hour workshop a the Craft Guild of Dallas in September on how to hand stitch a bird. It’s a cute little sparrow that one can make as simple or as detailed as one likes. All you need is some fabric and needle and thread.

Here are some of the journals I recently completed:

This is Song of the Marsh. I love this kit and haven’t made one in a while. It’s always been one of my favorites. I also used images from the Graphics Fairy premium membership site.

I just LOVE Halloween, so when I saw this digital Wednesday Adams journal kit, I knew I had to purchase it and make a journal from it. I love the way it turned out.

This digital kit is just so cute and fun, so I had to buy it and make a journal out of it. I really need to stop buy digital kits, but someone always comes out with something new that is just so great that I have to buy it.

This is a junk journal in one of my favorite styles to make. I could make these all day long. It’s also a great way to use up fabric scraps.

I made one similar to this that is in the gallery at the Craft Guild, so I wanted to make another one because it’s just so cute. This one is kind of a hybrid junk journal, as it contains mostly white, blank papers, with a few colored papers scattered throughout.

This is yet another digital kit that I fell in love with and had to buy. From the images on the cover, I’m sure you can see why.

The last two are these two beautiful fairy journals. I just love the grungy look with the pink and peach tones.

That’s all for now. I hope everyone had a great summer!

coffee and tea dyed papers — Coffee and Tea Dyed Papers

My obsession with dyeing papers has not waned. This is a stack of various papers that I dyed in coffee and tea to use in a new journal I created. This time, I used all sorts of papers, including drawings, book pages, scrapbook paper, etc. instead of just plain paper. I did not dry these outside, but baked them in the oven instead. I love the texture that the heat gives the paper. It’s a more labor intensive process, but it works great if it isn’t hot and sunny outside.

eco dyed papers — First Batch of Eco Dyed Papers

Next, I tried eco dyeing for the first time and I quickly fell in love. This is something I’ve wanted to try for ages, but it just sounded too complicated. I finally discovered a method that was simple enough for me to give it a shot and I’m so glad I did. The first time I did it, I didn’t use watercolor paper, but mixed media paper and the paper did not hold up as well. I also didn’t have a large enough cover, so there is a lot of dark space on the pages.

I learned from my mistakes the second time around and I love the way it turned out!

Below are pictures of the journal I made using my dyed papers.

tea dyed junk journal page — Tea Dyed Book Page with Fabric Tab

junk journal pages — Pocket Made From Scrapbook Paper

junk journal pocket — Pocket Made From a Security Envelope

fabric book tags — Beginning to Add Fabric Tabs and Ruffles

This entire process was new for me. The journal construction itself was a completely different method than I have used before.

Full disclosure – I originally created this journal with the intention that it would be donated to a silent auction at our church, but I became too attached to it and had to create another one to donate.

Until next time….

Tag: butterfly journal

Sad to See Summer Go

My First Junk Journal