Handmade Travelers Journal (Upcycled Book Cover)
A handmade travelers journal topped our bucket list
of paper upcycles and now we finally tried it.
It’s not all vintage-book-maker-style sewn with string,
but we kind of think it’s a keeper.
Did anyone else keep a diary when they were young?
All filled with teen girl angst and dreams of princes on shiny horses, or is it shiny armor on white horses?
Yes, that kind of diary.
Because there weren’t a lot of real-time exciting happenings on our country lane,
those wide-ruled notebooks were filled with only the highlights.
Maybe embellished just a little.
With all the extra passion of young excitement, ecstasy, pure distress, absolute despair…
you get the picture.
So, one day my aunt calls and wants to come see me.
I liked this aunt; she was one of my favorites, so I was thrilled to be noticed.
Seems my journals were why she noticed me.
My little sister and my aunt’s daughter, sly little monsters, read my diaries!
And my aunt’s daughter informed her mama about who loved whom,
who was mad at whom, which boy had smiled at me so I was sure he really, really liked me.
And I might have suggested a few names I would like to name our babies.
For some reason, after my aunt pointed out how I was influencing young minds
in a wicked way,
out of respect for my elders, I didn’t point out that little girls had no business in my stuff.
Somehow I knew that wouldn’t improve her opinion of me.
Then for some reason, after that, I didn’t enjoy writing diary as much.
At least, not an interesting one. It was just all about cleaning my closet and driving the tractor and what I named my kittens.
Soon there was no diary keeping at all anymore.
(She didn’t cure me of dreaming though. I just made sure little girls kept their distance.)
Handmade Travelers Journal
My aunt didn’t cure my fascination with paper, either.
I discovered travelers journals and handmade books and upcycling along the way,
and today we finally tried making one.
This is what we used:
- The outside cover of an old book. (The inside pages became a book stack like this.)
- Textured vinyl wallpaper from our stash which we inked with a Tim Holtz Distress Ink in gold.
- Crinkle polyester fabric strip brought together with an old buckle covered in book page pieces.
- 8.5″ x 11″ sheets of drawing paper. We folded them in half and glued the folded edges with
- Tacky glue, and clamps and clothes pins to hold the pages while the glue dried.
Finishing the travelers journal
After the book page edges were dry it was time to decide how to attach them to the cover.
I used drawing paper for the pages for thickness and stability for adding paints and stickers if I wish.
If I plan to do artwork on the pages they need to lay flat when the book is open.
I cut more of the textured vinyl wallpaper to cover the front and back inside covers.
Each piece covers the inside cover and wraps up over the first page of the booklet. Leave a little extra unglued where the booklet and cover come together. This is what allows the pages to lay flat.
I think the wallpaper was too thick for the inside covers. Next time I’d use something thinner.