Rustic Country Chic Guest Book or Photo Album

This book has been patiently sitting around my studio waiting for me to finish it,

which I finally did this week. Yay me.

It was a case of "am I finished with this or not?" It seemed like it needed

something else. The poor book was relegated to the shelf for 3 months

before I figured out what it was.

 

Beads! The magic touch.

 

 

I didn't want to overload the book with beads...just a subtle something extra,

so I put just three on every other thread.

 

 

I had a lot of fun stamping on the pages and making little pockets and envelopes.

 

This book would make a perfect guest book or photo album for a barn-style, forest theme, wild west, or vintage wedding. You could also use it as a journal for everyday or travel. It can be purchased here.

 

 

Art Journal Using Upholstery Fabric Swatches for the Covers

Years ago I found some upholstery swatch books in a thrift store. I've been hoarding them ever since, which not unusual for me. I have oodles of fabric, ribbon, paper, beads, sequins, stickers, magazine images...and so on. I even kept the extra wooden reeds from when I cut the length of my roman shades. I must have 150 sticks in my attic. What I am going to do with them all I don't know, but you never know when you might need a stick for a project!

Anyhow, I thought I would finally put to use all the little scraps of upholstery fabric by making journal covers with them.

The design process takes me forever, partly as I have to organize all the little scraps by color first because I'm like that. Then I have to find the exact right combination of colors and patterns.

I sew all the scraps together and sew a lining on the other side, taking care to remember to include the elastic loop on the back for the button closure. It's a real nuisance if you forget this step as you have to rip out the stitches to slip the elastic in between the cover and liner and sew it back together. Not that I am speaking from experience. ;)

Then it is text block time. I added lots of different colored paper pages and little swatches of scrapbook paper into my pages. I discovered when working within this journal that the colored paper was a moot point as I gessoed all the pages and painted on them, so it really didn't matter what color the page was to begin with. Oh well.

I stitched the pages into the book using a sort of modified longstitch/pamphlet stitch and added a button from my grandmother's collection.

 Ta-da! Finished product. I am about halfway done filling the pages of this book.
Here are some of the pages:

I am making some fabric journals to share and will post the link when they are ready in my Etsy shop.

Here is one ready to ship! https://www.etsy.com/listing/251497590/travel-or-art-journal-with-upholstery