Pocket Notebook Gratitude Journal with Eileen Hull

Join me today in making a Pocket Notebook, Gratitude Journal. As most of us head into an uncertain September, I thought that putting the focus on gratitude would be a good idea. With a student that is not looking forward to online school, this is the perfect project to help her find joy. I cajoled my teen into this project with an eye on her mental health. So grab a cuppa cause this is a photo heavy post!!

Gratitude Journal

The idea is to take a photo everyday of what she is grateful for. She can also use past photos. This is to encourage her to find the happiness, that for the moment might be on hold, but something that can be looked forward to returning in the future. I want my teen & myself to focus on doing what it takes to get through these insanely trying times. The Eileen Hull Inspiration team theme this month is the great outdoors so I designed my cover accordingly. 

 

Collage with Napkins

If you follow my blog you know I love making fabric covers! They are so nummy & pliable, just feel great in your hands. Another thing I love is using napkins & tissue to collage. I do a lot of that in my art journals but haven't so much on the covers of my books. This is a technique I thought my daughter would be interested in too. I simply cut 2 covers from foam adhesive using the Pocket Notebook die cut. Grab a bunch of napkins, &/or decorative tissue paper.

 

This journal comes with the possibility of 5 signatures but I made mind just a bit smaller & went with 4. Cut your canvas piece about 3/4" to 1" larger then the size your covers will be. There will be some shrinking of the fabric. Decoupage the cover & dry it before adding the adhesive.

If you are using decorative napkins you need to peel off the excess layers. Most have 1 or 2 layers of white tissue. This helps make the napkin translucent and also prevents air bubbles. Hot Tip: put a piece of scotch tape on the back of the napkin & carefully pull up- the layers will pull apart. The white left over tissue is perfect for stamping on. 

Decoupage Time

There are many ways to do this. You can use the whole napkin, blocks of different napkins, or tearing pieces & collaging them. Simply apply decoupage glue to the canvas & lay the napkin piece down, then add the glue on top. Be careful as the tissue is fragile.

Hot Tip: if you want to cut out an image you can use scissors or wet a small brush & brush around the image. Then gently tear the image out. This helps the edges of the image sort of melt into the background. 

Tim Holtz also has quite a few tissues that have wonderful images. I used themby tearing pieces to separate the colored images. You can see the text, numbers & postmarks for example. 

 

Eileen Hull Facebook Live

Eileen recently did a collage cover on her weekly Facebook Live. She also has it posted on YouTube. Be sure to join the Eileen Hull Fan Club on Facebook for all sorts of extra inspiration & fun! 

Once your canvas is dry it is time to create the cover. Remove one side of paper off the foam adhesive Pocket Notebook pieces, line them up & press them onto the canvas. Use a cropodile to punch the holes through the canvas. Line them up & punch following the outline of the foam adhesive. I like using the bigger size so I can add the bigger size eyelets. It helps add strength to the book.  

Measure & cut an inside fabric or piece of scrapbook paper. Remove the other side of paper from the adhesive including where the 2 pieces overlap. Adhere your inside piece. Re-punch the holes. 

 

If you like sew around the edges of the book just outside the edge of the foam, leaving at least 1/4 of an inch. Here is a pic of the inside fabric by Tim.

Decorate the Cover

Let's make a bee embellishment! I pulled out my Tim Holtz Layered Bee die cut. This die comes with an embossing folder that matches. I cut the die with mat board & then ran it through the embossing folder. I cut out another bee, cut & colored the wings to use as a mask. 

Next up some embossing powder! Put some embossing ink on a craft mat & dab a bit on a hard sponge or piece of foam. Swipe directly across so only the high points get inked. Emboss using Eileen's Black Magic powder. If you miss a spot repeat. To get the lines on the body, I used a Ranger embossing pen (you can see on the photo below the difference).  

 

 The wings were embossed with Etched Platinum. I also die cut another piece out of acetate & embossed it then cut out just the wings. These were covered with alcohol ink in a few different colors. 

Also added a bit of Stickles to add a bit of glitter- sadly it is really hard to see in the photo. 

Let's Make a Honeycomb Piece!

I wanted a legit looking honeycomb & Sizzix has the die for it! I cut out this piece with light cardboard. Painted it with gesso & once that was dry stamped on it with archival ink. Then it was embossed with Distress Glaze in Rusty Hinge. 

 

The Rusty Hinge Stain is translucent so the stamping shows through. It is shiny luscious. The inside of the honeycomb was painted using Seth Apter's ICE. It is also translucent & gel like so it created the perfect honey look!

Here is a close up of how that ICE looks in the honeycomb. The flower was made from card stock using Eileen's Heart Petal die cut then run through an embossing folder & distressed. 

 

Finally the elastic & beads were added. I kept it simple just cutting 4 strands of elastic & tying them in the inside of the book.

 

Supplies:

• Eileen Hull Pocket Notebook & Heart Petal Flower die by Sizzix
• "        " Foam Adhesive Sheets
• Tim Holtz Layered B (retired)
• "      " Pattern repeat (honeycomb)
• Eileen Black Magic emboss
• Seth Apter Etched Platinum emboss & Ink
• Tim Holtz Tissue Paper, Embossing Glaze,  Quote Chip, 
• "        " Faded Type Stamp set
  
• Seth Apter ICE in Melted Butter,
  

Amazing Cork Fabric Pocket Notebook For Eileen Hull

Hello Blogland I hope this post can brighten your day with an amazing cork fabric notebook. This month the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team are playing with Belagio's mind bending cork fabric. How can it be cork & fabric too- what???? I have some tips along the way as the cork does respond differently than fabric but is still easy to work with. *Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.

Here is my finished Pocket Notebook! Going into this I had a few ideas of what I wanted design wise. 

I had to see if that concept would work with the cork! I knew I wanted a Pocket Notebook to put in my Tim Holtz Sample books that I have been making. More about that further on.

It was really hard to just pick out one print as the options are pretty cool.I am a big fan of copper so the cork/copper combo was a good choice. I also really love the wood grain pattern so the spine was a great way to put that in. 

Belagio cork is available by the roll 18"x 15" with 9 different patterns that can be purchased at Hobby Lobby. Nature & natural with gold can be bought by the yard at Walmart with fabric sections. Amazon.com also carries it as well as some craft stores. If you have a local Scrapbook Store ask if they can carry it. We need to support our local stores especially with most of them having been effected by Covid-19!

 Let's Go!!

I made this book with Heat'n Bond Fusible Fleece in the middle as I like the quilt like feel to those books.  ***if you want to make a book with the cork but not sew, simply use Foam adhesive between 2 layers of cork, cut 2 pieces using the die cut, adhere & bam book made.
Start by following the directions to prepare the fleece. I did not pre-wash the cork fabric as it is going on a book this step is not necessary. Cut 2 Pocket Notebook shapes out of the fleece. Adhere to the cork following the directions using an iron on wool steam, holding for 10-15 seconds. *** the iron does wrinkle the copper & the cork somewhat but creates a cool texture. If you don't want that look just adhere the fleece with glue. Cut the cork leaving a 1/4" space all the way around the edge. I learned from making a previous book that the fabric should be a bit bigger then the fleece or foam die cut if sewing around the edge is the goal. Otherwise the foam or fleece shows through. 

Once you have the covers create a spine for added reinforcement. I cut 2 pieces of the spine from foam adhesive using the die cut trimming them, then putting them together with the one center hole lined up. Peel off one side of the adhesive & put on your spine cork piece, cut leaving 1/4" around the edges. This will give me 6 signatures. The beauty of these books is you can make them as wide or skinny as you like.

Time to Sew

Over lap the 2 covers in the middle, pin & sew. I used a zig zag stitch. One of the challenges with the cork vrs. fabric is the cork is less pliable & doesn't fray. Fraying is a great way to hide sewing mistakes LOL. It was tricky to line the cork up, sew without the edge of one side showing here & there. The simple fix is trim the edges after sewing &/or distressing the edges with ink or add lace.

Decide the fabric for the inside of the book. I used 2 different patterns. I cut them 4 3/4 x 7 1/4 ish leaving the inside spine area open. The edges were sewn at the top, outside & bottom edges with a 1/4" seam allowance using a zig zag stitch.

Here is a photo from the inside adding in the spine pieces. Cut another piece of the copper/natural cork fabric. It was cut to match the outside piece. Using a cropodile re-punch the holes in the outside spine piece following the hole placement of the foam adhesive. Adhere the outside piece, then glue the inside piece- I used double sided adhesive for this. Re-punch the holes & add eyelets. 

Adding Ephemera is the best part!  

Now that the book is put together it is time to decorate the cover! I used the newest Tim Holtz Idea-ology products. Fabric tape was used under a distressed quote chip for my title. Love the KB distressed metallic Type Chip letters. Redline tape is a good choice to adhere the ephemera.  

I made an ephemera layer with the butterfly which was just plain fun to do. The butterfly was glued with Glossy Accents to the 2ofclubs but for extra security it was adhered with the brad using a cropodile to punch through the chipboard. The fabric scrap & card sandwich were adhered with Redline Tape. 



To add the books 1mm elastic was strung through the eyelets. I start in a middle eyelet threading to the inside and then down and out creating elastic lines to slide the booklets in. When I have gone through all the holes the elastic is simply knotted on the inside. 

Details such as threads & charms were added. I strung ribbon through the elastic by the eyelets & hung charms & beads using jump rings. Some of the beads were threaded onto the ribbon. I really love that wood grain pattern that I used for the spine. 

 On the inside cover a cork pocket was added with some more ephemera. Here you can see some of the other cork fabrics, the back ground fabrics, the pocket are all different types of cork! The ephemera is more of Tim Holtz's newest release.

Tim has been doing a Facebook Live every week that focuses on tons of awesome techniques. Lucky for me watching them on replay is possible & seriously so fun. Art in troubled times is the best recipe. The cover photo is a screen shot from his promo photos on instagram.

You can catch these shows live almost every Saturday. I haven't been able to so watching on replay enables me to create technique booklets complete with samples and directions. I have slowly been making these books which leaves me covered in nummy ink!

To make the inserts, I simply cut double sided TH scrapbook paper & lined paper, folding the papers & inserting them inside themselves to create booklets. I can always go back & sew the spines of these books if I want. Then just slip the books in the elastics-easy peasy. 

Well thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you have the chance to get make a book or get inky!! Make sure you pop over to Eileen's blog to see what my team mates have come up with. Also be sure to join the Eileen Hull Fan Club, Eileen does 2 Facebook Lives a week with all kinds of techniques & projects, tons of inspiration!

 Supplies:

Eileen Hull Pocket Notebook by Sizzix
Cork Fabric by Belagio Enterprize- Rose Gold,
Eileen Hull Foam Adhesive, Double sided adhesive & Redline Tape by Therm*O*Web
HeatnBond Fusible Fleece 
Tim Holtz Idea-ology- Stitched Scraps, Quote Chips, Thought Tokens, Baseboards Junk Drawer, Fabric tape, Type Chips, Ephemera, Paper Ecetera,

Here are some other papers that would be fun to use- Departed,&  Abandoned.

Create Art Fabric Tiny Book for Eileen Hull

Hello Blogland, here today with a fabulous "Create Art" fabric journal using the newest diecut by Eileen Hull... drum roll, the Tiny Book! This book is so stinking cute!! It measures a very small 2 1/4 x 3" and yet has so much potential to be so many things!!! This month of May the Inspiration team is all about flowers & nothing says flowers like butterflies!!

This time around I played with fabric to create this fun & funky cover. I also used some of Eileen's other dies & lots of Tim Holtz. The cover is fabric from Tim's both inside & out. I especially loved that Eileen's butterfly fit perfectly in a piece of the fabric that was an owl but it looks completely like a butterfly! 

What Is Inside?

The inside of this tiny journal has 3 signatures which I will show you as the tutorial unfolds. The signatures are a combo of junk journal type ephemera, stamping & diecuts as well as pages for writing. There are some pockets as you can see here filled with fun tags, tickets etc. 

Let's Get Started!!

 Cut 1 cover using the Tiny Book diecut with Foam Adhesive. 

 Making The Covers.

Gather your fabric & decide which you want for the outside & inside covers. Don't cut it yet. Take your foam Tiny Book piece & peel off one side of the adhesive. Place on top of the wrong side of your fabric.  Cut around the fabric leaving about a 1/2" extra. Peel off the other side of the adhesive & place on top of the other fabric, laying it on the wrong side. Cut around following the same size cut as the other side of the fabric. 

You don't have to but I sewed around the edges of my fabric avoiding the foam. Then I pulled some threads to make it look aged. This is the base for the cover done. Simple isn't it? 

Time To Make The Inside Booklets!

While I made these books way back in January I thought I would point you in a direction to get some backgrounds done. Tim Holtz has been doing a weekly video demo & some of the techniques would be great for background pages... you can find them all archived on his Facebook page or on his blog. This is a technique I love using to make grungy book pages. Spray with different colors of Distress Stain, dab on some Distress Oxide spots, dry & then randomly stamp. These papers end up so crunchy & fabulous.  

Here is a photo of creating the 3 booklets or signatures while having some nummy coffee. I cut the paper for the booklets 4.5" long x 3" tall. Each signature has a cover or 1st page that is a sturdy scrapbook paper. The papers are folded in half width wise & slip into each other to create books. 

 Putting It All Together.

I used Tim's paper from different paper packs & added ephemera, chat words, paper dolls. Just had fun adding stuff from my stash. The books should only have 3-6 papers each so you can sew through them. If you don't machine sew no worries you can see a different way to put the signature in this blog post- go right to the end of the post & I explain it.

Once the booklets were made it was time to sew them into the cover.  I started with the middle book just because it was easiest. Sew the book into the middle of the cover. After every pass clean your needle with a wet wipe. It will pick up the adhesive from the foam. 

Sew the front signature on the left side of the middle book. It is a bit tricky & clamping your book into the cover with binder clips may help to keep it in straight. Then sew the last book in on the right of the middle book as shown in the picture. You can see I left about a 1/4" between the books.

As you can see from the photo my last signature in the book did not sew very straight. This is why I would suggest binder clips. * Hot Tip- make sure if you sew your signature together with a machine that the stitches are not too tight. I was rushing to get my sample made for Creativation and the stitches were tight. The papers started ripping out like they were perforated. Yikes. Glue & washi strategically placed helped solve my problem.

Create The Cover!

For the cover I used Eileen's butterfly from her set Birds & Butterflies. The fabric was lined with a square of foam adhesive & cut out from Tim's Halloween fabric. The owl eyes look just like a pattern that a butterfly or moth would have- so cool. Layers of tulle & cheesecloth colored with Bay ink was added under the butterfly.Yes details can be fun! 

The quote was created by cutting a piece of cereal box & heat embossed. Once cool the quote was added. *Hot tip: Normally I would just use a clear emboss on top but I found out that if you hear emboss these stickers the heat melts the words away!! So I added a layer of Glossy Accents. It domes naturally & create an epoxy look while drying clear.

My closure is from the pocket notebook diecut cut out of Kraftex, embossed & then scuffed with ink to make it pop. The strap is attached to the band with some beads for decoration on the outside.

I punched a hole with a cropodile in the middle of the book between the last 2 signatures, added an eyelet to give it some reinforcement & tied the elastic with a knot in the inside. 

Just a few more photos to show you some of the inside to wrap it all up!  Here is a page using the Tag & pocket on the left & the bird on the right. You can also see where I made decorative tabs for each book. 

 Here is the inside cover & 1st signature. Lots of tags & ephemera here!

This page has a ticket as a wee pocket with some ephemera on the right & an inked stamped page on the left. Can you believe that is not stitching but a stamp? Looks so real. Ok that is plenty for today!!! I hope you enjoyed this project & you get a chance to play along. Stay safe & healthy & go get inky!!

Supplies:

Eileen Hull diecuts by Sizzix- Tiny Book, Birds & Butterflies, Pocket Notebook

    *dies that are discontinued but you may find in Eileen's etsy shop - Bookmark/Tag/Pocket,  Credit Card Sleeve (die cut the quote is on) & Colorblend in Bay for the cheesecloth piece. 

Eileen Hull Foam Adhesive by Therm*O*Web

Tim Holtz- Fabric, Ephemera, Stamps, Tags by Sizzix.

Ranger- Glossy Accents, Distress Ink, Distress Stains & Archival Inks.