Journals 101- Being a Leo (Cover) Part #1

Over the past day or so I have been making a journal. This one is themed something completely different to it's purpose. The purpose is basically keeping track of all of the times I "like" a guy. Only for the purpose of learning from my mistakes. I wish I would have thought of this a lot earlier because this last year of junior high has been one of the highest mistake ratings of all my life. But back to my journal:

STAGE 1: Ideas
Ask yourself these simple questions:
1. What is the purpose of your journal?
For every journal there is a purpose. Depending on what that purpose is will generate Ideas.

2. Is the information secret?
If so, make you theme something that throws people off the scent

3. What kind of journal are you making?
This is where you will need your "purpose". Is this journal for? Diary or drawing? Water color or Acrylic? Pencil or Pen? Have you ever been to an art store and where looking for a good drawing pad with good paper? Well if you would ask the clerk "I want a notebook for some art I am doing" they would ask you what media you are using it for. Since mine is for journaling AND drawing I will pick a piece of paper that has a higher weight. This is because I want to stick a note card on both sides and still be able to flip it without it getting "Wabily". Now don't go jumping to conclusions and say....... "well if she said not "Wabily" then I better get water color paper..... NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That stuff is expensive, and if you get a paper that is to thin, you can just reinforce it!

STAGE 2: The process of finding

Step 1: BOOK FINDER! If you don't want to sacrifice a couple bucks you could find some that you don't think you will read anymore or just get off of your Lazy butt, grab your wallet, and go to the dollar store to find some sacrificial books. ATTENTION~ your books will NOT be destroyed in the process!!!! They will just have no covers!!!!

Step 2:  CENTERPIECES? Yep! If you want you journal to come out smashing, you are going to need a centerpiece. Now if you cant make one like the one I did, you can find a button or something that draws attention, but just enough so that they recognize the other parts of the piece as well.

Step 3: COLORS~COLORS~COLORS! If you want your theme to be Ariel, then make your theme underwater like this one:

But seeing as I am keeping with the sun as the "planet of the Leos", mine will have a space  theme. This theme includes a dark blue back round, tiny clusters of stars, and of course, the sun.

Step 4: EXTRAS! If you knew me, you would know that I always go the Xtra mile. So to add some detail to my already extravagant piece I have added the Leo star symbol. You can also play around with the stars and their depth in the sky, tint a couple smaller ones with the color of the back round watered down to the extreme (don't want to black out any stars).

STAGE 3: Sculpting

This is probably where many of you will be like, hahahaha! Wait is she serious? Yup, I'm serious! No details, no tutorials, no nothing. If I where to just show you then my journal wouldn't be one of a kind, would it? I mean you could try to make the exact same thing, but my guess is that you don't have the 7 years of experience in the sculpting that I do. It all maters on what you theme is, that way you can find a centerpiece if you cant make one.

STAGE 5: Covers 

First step is to open to your front, inside cover and slice through the netting and paper. Be aware that there is glue connecting the book to the cover so if it falls back into its original place it will get stuck. Repeat cutting on back, inside cover.

Once you are done cutting the book itself will come apart from the cover. The book is still readable as I said before, but you will have to make an artificial cover.

Once again the book will come out of the cover and all will be well :)