Sunday, April 8, 2018

Easy Journal Makeover Project


Hi all!  I know I've not been posting for a while, but honestly - I didn't have much to share.  But this is a quick, easy project that I thought might be of some interest.


I've done journal transformations before, but for this book I wanted to do something quick and super easy.  My mom found this unused notebook/journal (above) at a book sale and asked if I wanted it.  I didn't love the cover, but the book was in good shape and seemed like an empty canvas.  I decided to do a simple acrylic paint design of transform the cover (Unfortunately, I picked a rainy day to do it.  So my photos are a little dark).


1.  The first thing I did was put a piece of wax paper between the front cover and the pages of the notebook.  This would keep the pages clean if I spilt any paint.

2.  Next, I used a broad brush to paint the front cover a light blue that was similar to the actual cover.  I used acrylic paint for this.

3.  Once my paint was dried, I divided the cover into 9 equal squares.  My cover is not exactly square, so each box is slightly rectangular, but I didn't care.

4.  Then I painted the interior of each square with a light cream color.

5.  When my cream paint was dry, I used a thin brush and a dark blue-purple paint color to sketch a circle into each box.  These circles were not perfect and each was slightly different.



6.  Next, I switched to a slightly wider brush and added more color to each circle.  I built up the color using purple, green, and blue with loose brush strokes to create a different painterly circle in each box.  I worked quickly so in some places, my colors were able to blend together before the paint dried.


7.  Then I started to add some lighter, brighter colors to each circle.



8.  When I was happy with the overall look of my circles, I let my paint dry completely.

9.  As a last step, I added a few sweeps of metallic gold paint to each circle.  The metallic gold is hard to photograph but I like how it lightens up my design.



I'm excited to fill my new journal with some new project ideas!


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