art journal cover

Hello, my friends.  This week, Eclectic Paperie had a blog hop showing journal covers, which is just the beginning of monthly journal entries.  They invited us to play along and create our own journal cover.  I chose to make mine 6"x6".

I started by gluing three pieces of cereal box chipboard together to make a very sturdy chipboard.  Then I cut two pieces 6"x6" for the front and back cover.  I covered mine with some textured denim.  I added some gesso to make it look shabby.

I made a flower from a piece of hand crocheted lace.  I used alcohol inks to make it red.  The center is a tiny crocheted flower.  For the stem, I crocheted a piece of cording and dyed it with Ranger alcohol inks.  The leaves are cut from corrugated cardboard and dyed with alcohol inks.  I used a glue gun to attach all the parts of the flower.

The word art is die cut from designer paper with a retired Sizzix sizzlit alphabet called Block Party.  The letters are glued to navy lacy oval die cuts.  To raise them off the cover, I punched four layers of card stock ovals to glue behind the lacy ones.

The remaining words - "for the joy of creativity" - are those that I use as a subtitle on my blog.  That's why I create things in whatever medium, whether it's stamping, quilting, lace making, art journaling... I find joy in creating.  I printed the words on my computer, cut them apart, added an edge with a black marker and glued them down.

I'm really happy with how this turned out.  It makes me happy that I was able to use fabric, lace, die cuts, and also do some recycling to create something new and beautiful.

Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit.