A Journal Inspired by Two Women

Hello Blogland, I have a journal for you today that is inspired by two of my favorite women. This month Eileen Hull's Inspiration team is all about flowers, so there are some of those as well. My Journal Book combines the die cutting talents of Eileen with the inky, funky style of Dyan Reaveley. I am lucky to be in an industry that has many amazing, talented women. These 2 strong, wonderful, women are forging careers in this crazy art world while having raised families. Let's be clear the raising of children continues even when they leave the nest! Both of these ladies have given me the gift of their time, & advice which has been invaluable! They are truly an inspiration. Plus as an added bonus they have some of my favorite products!!!

 

Journal using Eileen Hull dies & Dyan Reavely paints & stencils.

  

 I Love Journal Books!!!

This book is also a work in progress so this will be a 2 part blog post. I want to add some beading to the spine, as well as pockets, stamping and such to the inside of the book but will leave that for another time. I do have a simple tutorial for you on how this book was accomplished. 

Front cover of Traveler's Style Notebook

Let's Make a Book

I have been keeping a journal or Traveler's Notebook as the style is called, almost everyday since February. It is a combination of inky art journal fun, memory keeping with photos & journaling. I needed another journal cover to be a permanent house for my latest series of Dyalog books. Eileen's journal book is most conveniently the perfect size! I started by cutting my cover pieces out of mat board. A bit of a spritz of water and a background using Dylusions Paints. Then a bit of stencil work using more of the paint. I decided I wanted the front cover to be cool & the back warm colors. 

 

A bit of stencil work adds a pop of cool.

 Pink & Orange for the win.

Here is the back cover once the background was done, ready to add paint with a stencil. Before you ask, yes I painted my black dabber base Vibrant Turquoise. I used Dyan's stencils sticking with the flower theme. 

Flowers can be made from fabric, paper, felt, metal...

Flower Fun

Next up was to die cut & color flowers. Using canvas & crinoline, I cut using Eileen's Heart Petal die. I spritzed these with Dylusions sprays- so vibrant I love these colors! Crunch up the flowers & leave them to dry naturally. This is a technique many of my teammates have done so check out Eileen's Blog to see more fabulous flower construction and also Eileen has an entire series of videos on her Facebook page dedicated to making them using different materials.

For my 3rd and smallest flower I used the wipe up, baby wipe. I quite often keep these & then don't use them. This is a great way to recycle both the wipe & not waste the spray! I cut 6 of the smallest flowers for this one. 

Time to Spritz!

All of the flowers were assembled loosely with a brad to hold them. The final touch was to add some glitter & gold metallic which was easy to do with Marvy Uchida pens. 

I also wanted some funky leaves for my book & opted for the feather stamps from Dyan's stamp set- Flight of Fancy. One of my new favorite techniques is to randomly spritz on a piece of card stock, dry and stamp. You get this cool background for your stamped image.  In hind sight I would have used some of the turquoise as well, maybe for the tips of the "leaves". 

How about some assembly? I glued my book together using SuperTape & also added eyelets down the middle for extra strength. The inside edges of my book were distressed using the paint. The elastic was wound in a fashion to only show on the outside spine at the top & bottom. I want to add beads on the outside spine & find it is easier to do this separately sometimes.  

I added paper to the inside covers using paper torn from the Dyary Book. Handy & quick as these are already printed backgrounds.  This is the front inside cover- I am going to add a pocket. The edges of the paper were distressed with Color Blends Ink.

Here is the inside back cover. I may add something fun here too. 

The back cover is kinda different but I like it!! Way cool with the different paint combos. I may have to add a stamped image there or a butterfly die cut. The butterfly is from A Flair For Buttons. It is a pin & I attached it to the elastic as a reminder to use it somewhere, probably on the closure, I think it will go nicely.  

I love how these flowers turned out! I am not the best at the whole flower thing but I can't wait to see how they will look when I add beads. You can see the cool leaves/feathers that were stamped and cut out. I also added some doodles to help those flowers really pop! Thanks for joining me today. I hope you pop over to Eileen Hull Designs to check out the cool projects my teammates came up with & please join the fan club on Facebook! See you next time.

Supplies:

Eileen Hull Journal & Heart Petal dies by Sizzix
Mat Board by Sizzix
Color Blend Ink by Clearsnap
SuperTape by Therm*O*Web
Dyan Reaveley stamps by Stampers Anonymous
Dylusions Ink Spray, stencils & Dyalog Books by Ranger Ink
Deco Just Glitter & Deco Color Pens by Marvy Uchida
Butterfly Flair by A Flair For Buttons