handmade journal | 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.

August 31, 2024

Sad to See Summer Go

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!

January 16, 2024January 16, 2024

Three New Journals

Happy January! We are at the beginning of a new year and winter has arrived in Texas in full force. We have been below freezing for a couple of days now and had a light covering of snow yesterday. I abhor winter weather so I’m more than ready for a warm up. I hope everyone is keeping warm in their corner of the universe.

I’ve recently created three new journals for a February event at the Craft Guild of Dallas. Prior to this I was having quite the time even getting started on anything. I seemed to be stuck. I would think of things to make, but I just couldn’t find the energy to get started. Once I got the email about the show at the gallery, I decided it was time to get out of my creative rut. Without further ado, here are the three journals I came up with for the show.

The first one is called Shabby Pink Roses. It measures 8 1/2 inches high by 5 1/2 inches wide. It contains 2 signatures with 100 pages each, front and back, of hand deckled white paper and has a ribbon closure.

The second one is called Feline Serenade. It measures 8 1/2 inches high by 5 1/2 inches wide. It has two signatures with 100 pages each, front and back, of hand deckled white paper and has a ribbon closure.

Last but not least is Be Mine. It measures 8 1/2 inches high by 5 1/2 inches wide. I has two signatures with 100 pages each, front and back, of white hand deckled paper and has a ribbon closure.

Each of these journals has a pocket on the front cover that has a cute bookmark and a couple of other goodies as well. All three of these will be available for purchase for $42 each at the Gallery at the Guild throughout the month of February, starting February 4th. Here is a link to their website that should have further information as it gets closer to the opening date. http://www.thecraftguild.org

I also have to give a shout out to the Etsy shop that I purchased all of these beautiful digital images from that helped me create these journals in the first place. It is called PrintDigitalByJen and has the most amazing designs and they are also very affordable and print out beautifully. https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrintDigitalbyJen?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1523535685&from_page=listing&page=4#items

As always, thanks for reading. That’s it for now!

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.

May 29, 2022

Collaged Journal Covers

There are a couple of things that I really love when it comes to journal making – one is the chance to combine fabric with paper and the other is the chance to collage.

Collage was how I first got started in art. To be honest, I don’t draw well. I can sketch, but it takes me forever so that is how I started with collage. I realized that I could make a flower, for example, out of paper scraps far easier than I could draw or paint one.

Now I found a way to use collage in my journals. I make these adorable, one signature journals that have a fabric base which is then covered in a decorative scrapbook paper or other decorative card stock type of paper and then I build a collage on top of that for the front cover.

These are relatively quick to make compared to some of my other journals and it’s also a great way to use up fabrics that I can’t really use for covers or something else.

It’s really hard to pick which one is my favorite and I’m also happy to report that all of these journals were sold at the recent Craft Guild Spring Show.

Until next time….