Sunday, September 16th, 2007...12:15 pm
Fabric-Covered Journal
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Page 15 of the Autumn 2007 issue of Seasonal Delights describes How to Make A Nature Journal. We only had room to show you one possibility using scrapbook paper, but we made more than that, including this variation. You can use this a Nature Journal, or a writing journal, or anything you wish!
Fabric-Covered Journal
Supplies you will need:
Wide Ruled Composition book
Fabric
Scissors
Glue
Pen
Optional supplies:
Pinking Shears
Rick Rack
Fabric glue
White paper
Instructions:
- Gather your supplies!
- If you are using a book with a dark cover and light fabric, the book cover may show through. You can avoid this by cutting a sheet of white paper to the proper size and shape, then affixing it to the book cover with glue.
- Cut the fabric to size. Leave 1.5 inches around the edge of the open composition book
- Glue the fabric to the front of the composition book. Don’t use too much glue, or it may soak through the fabric! Line up a short edge of the fabric with the front book binding and let the excess fabric extend evenly above and below the book.
- Flip the book open.
- Fold the fabric into the center of the book, then flip the edge back so that you can mark it.
- Use a pen to mark the edge of the fabric.
- Cut along the pen line. You can use pinking shears to avoid fraying.
- Flip the top and bottom edges in and glue them into place.
- Bend the corners in at a slight angle to avoid overlap or too much thickness in the final step.
- Use glue on the inside of the cover, including strips at the top and bottom for the folded edges.
- Fold the remaining fabric in on top of the glue.
Optional:
You may want to add decorative trim, such as rick rack, to your journal.
- Cut a length of rick rack roughly two inches longer than the book is tall, so that it extends one inch above and below the book cover.
- Use fabric glue on the cover of the book.
- Glue the rick rack in place.
- Flip the edges of the rick rack over inside the cover and glue them in place with fabric glue.
You are finished!
22 Comments
Filed under Project, Bonus, Autumn 2007
22 Comments
September 16th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Great tutorial and the result is truly lovely and useful. Thank you so much!
September 17th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
My girls will love to make this! They love journals. My son would probably get in on this craft.
September 18th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
We make these as well. We bring the cover just 2 inches over in the inside, and then we cut a piece of coordinating cardstock or construction paper to cover the inside of the book. We also glue a piece of ribbon on the inside front cover before we cover it, and it makes a book mark. I have also found the miniature books just like this for .33 and we make little notebooks with these to give to ladies for thier purses. These small ones make good little gifts to give to others when you don’t want to spend a lot. One year I gave every lady one of these with a pen and a few pieces of candy. They turned out cute.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I love the idea of the ribbon bookmark and the little notebooks for gifts!! I will have to keep this in mind for Christmas. :0)
Kelli
September 22nd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Great Journal idea! Could also be a great for a recipe book, craft idea book, etc…
September 24th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Okay now Kelli. This is absolutely TOO CUTE!!!!!! I SO appreciate you sharing all your wonderful ideas!!!
I have GOT to create one of these SOON!!
His,
Mrs. U
September 28th, 2007 at 10:00 am
This is lovely! Thank you for the step by step, easy to follow instructions. We are having a slumber party for my middle daughter’s 10th birthday this next weekend. I think that if we get all of the girls working on these early in the evening, this would make a GREAT party favor gift for them to take home with them. And I’ll include a nice pencil or pen with the journals. What a great way to use up some of my scrap material, as well as an activity for the girls to do, and a nice gift for them to take home!
September 28th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Kelli,
You can paint the binding with acryllic paint. It is nice to be able to match the binding to your paper or fabric.
Love, Heather
September 28th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I agree, bigdogmom130!
Thank you, Mrs. U!!
Lori, what a fun idea for your daughter and her friends!
Thank you for the tip, Heather! I will be doing this for future journals for sure!
Kelli
September 29th, 2007 at 8:42 am
We are using composition notebooks like these for our homeschool notebooking this year. My friend had the great idea to cover the Geography Notebook with paper from a map! I now have my creative juices flowing, thanks to reading this description… The nature notebook can be covered with a fabric with leaves on it… One notebook is states and state capitals, one is Presidents, one is spelling, …I can’t even remember them all. I can look for ABC fabric to cover the spelling notebook… I wonder what I can find for the other books…
Diana
September 29th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Oh, this is so absolutely lovely.
We have secret moms this year in our homeschool group and I think this would be a lovely little encouragement gift.
I think I may copy scripture in different fonts and place it here and there in the book too.
Thanks so much for sharing. Your pictures are wonderful (and helpful!).
September 29th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I LOVE your fabric journal!!! I’ve been making journals now for a couple of years but I’ve always used craft paper, and scrapbook supplies.
I’ll now be anxious to try using fabric.
Thanks for the instructions!!!
September 29th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Where did you get this fabric? I have a dear sister that would just love this exact fabric. Her whole house is decorated in the Arts and Crafts style from the early 1900’s. Thanks so much for the help. I have a Christmas gift to make.
Sarah
September 29th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Great idea to use the books for notebooking, Diana! I hope you will share what you end up covering your books with! :0)
Thank you, Mrs. Amy! I love your idea of putting scriptures on the fronts!
You are very welcome, Kim!
Sarah, I found the fabric at Walmart and I’m pretty sure it was on the $1.00 table. I hope you can find some!
Kelli
September 29th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
A really lovely journal book. I will denfinitely be making some. Thanks for a wonderful and versatile craft idea for both children and ladies. Don’t forget ladies that fabric can be used in scrapbook pages too!
September 30th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Have you tried this with spray adhesive? We use it for lapbooking and other notebooks, but I really hadn’t thought of it for fabric covered notebooks - might be a time saver! Thanks for the inspiration Kelli! The kids both have notebooks for copywork and they could use some nicer embellishment! Blessings! Heather
September 30th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Great project! Your tutorial is clear and easy to follow. I will definately be adding these to the holiday gift list!
October 1st, 2007 at 8:15 pm
I love these fabric covered books. Funny - I just bought that fabric at Walmart the other day. I’m using it to make cloth napkins and table squares. I thought it was so pretty with the acorns. Actually, I thought about you when I bought it. I know you love acorns! I have played with them since I was a little girl.
I’m not sure I’ve told you yet, but I SO love your magazine and these ideas. It was certainly something I needed!
Hugs to you,
Gena
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 am
Kelli,
I love your blog and am enjoying Seasonal Delights immensely! Great projects and recipes
Thank you so much!
October 4th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Sounds neet I’ll have to try it
October 4th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I just wanted to let you know that I took your idea for the scrapbook paper covered journal and used it to make nature journals with my daughter’s Brownie group. It was so easy and the girls (ages 6-8) all loved making them! They were able to make them with very little input from us adults - which made them even more special!
Thank you for such a terrific idea! I’ll be using it for Christmas this year.
Hope
in southern Oregon
October 5th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
This is a great project! Would be a sweet Christmas gift.
Linda
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