Hi everyone and welcome! Thank you so much for the continued support and positive feedback for my Travelers Notebook style journals, created using Eileen Hull's 'Journal' die. Today's offering is a vintage sewing themed journal which incorporates more than just junk journal pages; I have been inspired by my good friend Anne Redfern, a fellow member of Eileen's Inspiration Team, who adds all sorts of practical pockets and accessories to her journals. I highly recommend you check out her recent tutorial for a professional yet easy to achieve pocket insert HERE. And so to my latest journal, which gave me the perfect opportunity to experiment with Dina Wakley's range of paints, stamps and stencils. Have to say I love the results that can be achieved and how easy they are to use! First up here's the video walk through of the journal from my YouTube channel; Now, as promised in the video, here's the tutorial for recreating the journal cover (click on each image for a close up); Having glued the journal covers together, cover them in Black Gesso (or cut from black mountboard) before using Dina's White Gesso to apply a contrasting and uneven layer over the top on both sides. Apply pieces of sewing pattern paper over the top with Matte Distress Collage Medium. Add a much thinner layer of the White Gesso over the paper to blend with the background. Add offcuts from Tim Holtz 'Memoranda' paper stash with the same Distress Collage Medium. Stamp the small blooms from Dina Wakley's 'Homage to Frida' and 'Abstract Blooms' stamp set with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink. You may need to heat set this layer as it's sitting on the Collage Medium. Add uneven swirls of Dina's 'Rosy' Acrylic Paint over the stamped flowers (the ink will be absorbed by it). Add a half moon swirl over one side of each flower with Dina's 'Elephant' Acrylic Paint. Mix four parts 'Elephant' Acrylic Paint to one part 'Evergreen' to get a softer colour. Paint over the leaves with the mixed colour, again absorbing the underlying ink. Add Dina's 'Umber' Acrylic Paint to some sponge, dab onto the small bloom stamps, and then stamp over the corresponding painted flowers (reapply the paint each time you stamp them). Use Dina's 'Jumbled Numbers' Stencil to add a random layer of White Acrylic Paint numbers over the whole design. To finish the front cover use the plaque that can also be cut from the Journal die, paint it with black and white gesso as before, stamp the words from the Homage to Frida set and cover in Glossy Accents. And finally thread your choice of elastic, thread, ribbon etc through the pre-cut holes (there's a tutorial for that on the die packaging) and you are ready to add inserts of your choice! Here are some close up photos of the additions inside this one as seen on the video; You can see on the tag where I used Eileen Hull's 'Word Stitchlits' dies to cut the word Sunshine. Using the same Dina Wakley small bloom stamps on the elements inside the journal helped tie it all together. Here is the envelope I made using layers of sewing pattern paper and Eileen Hull's 'House/Pocket' Stitchlits die. Here's another of the words and the heart from the 'Word Stitchlits' die set cut into the smaller tag. I quadruple embossed a scrap of card with Emerald Creek 'Charred Gold' Embossing Powder before pressing one of the images from Dina Wakley's 'Homage to Frida' stamp set into it with Jet Black Archival Ink. This close up shows the beautiful effect you get from the multiple colours/sizes of granules contained in the embossing powder. And finally on the back cover of the journal is the 'Embroidery Hoop', cut from Eileen Hull's die, painted with Dina Wakley's 'Elephant' Acrylic Paint, and holding a piece of fabric stamped and coloured with another of Dina's 'Abstract Blooms' and Acrylic Paints (following the steps used on the cover). I also mentioned in my video some free downloadable pages and inserts - here are the links to those; check out Astrid Maclean's gorgeous journals and fabulous free downloadables here - https://astridsartisticefforts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/passport-to-paris-and-some-journal.html and the hugely generous Wenda has a wonderful array of downloadable inserts for Travelers Notebooks and more - http://www.wendaful.com/free-printable-inserts/ YAY! You've made it to the end of this post! Hope you've enjoyed the journey and picked up some useful ideas along the way. I'll add a list of most of the products used in the making of this journal below. If you have any questions please do shout out - it seems to take longer to share projects than to create them these days so I may have forgotten something along the way! Whatever you're up to for the rest of the week hope it's a good one, take care of yourselves and get creative! Jenny xxx