handmade journals | Julie Dawn Designs

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!

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….

September 16, 2020

My Obsession

I recently was given the opportunity to take a class online that has previously only been taught in person. I was never able to take the in person workshop before because it was in Auckland, and unfortunately, that was just a bit too far for me to go. Then the pandemic hit and lockdowns ensued. I haven’t found too many positive things that have come from this nightmare we are all currently living in, but Liz Constable of Book Art Studios decided to teach her classes online for the first time ever, so I guess that was my silver lining.

Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to sign up for anything and everything she has made available. Her Dyed and Gone to Heaven class has led to my current obsession – hand dyeing papers.

I’ve always coffee and tea dyed a good portion of my papers, but her technique took me in a direction I never knew was even possible. I can’t divulge the process, it’s a highly guarded secret and you can only learn it by taking her class, but I can tell you it’s amazing and has taken my paper dyeing to a whole new level.

Here are a few examples:

Finding dyes has been more of a challenge than I expected. Apparently, tie dyeing has been very popular during this pandemic, so the supply of Rit and Tulip dyes at local craft stores is quite low. I have experimented with food coloring, both powdered and gel, as well as India inks and other inks as well.

I really love the results and I’m also super excited that Liz is teaching the second class, Dyed Again, online as well. I signed up for that one and I can’t wait to learn even more amazing techniques for turning ordinary paper into something extraordinary.

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!