I want to celebrate this occasion by doing a blog giveaway for you all. Well, technically I guess only for one of you, but you all may 'compete'. ;-)
It may come as no surprise that the giveaway consists of a journal handmade by me, myself and I. I worked on it all Saturday before Easter and when I say all Saturday I mean all Saturday. The making of this journal took about ten hours in my studio and sewing room! The things I do for you guys! ;-)
Nah, don't worry, I wasn't suffering, I was having way too much fun putting this baby together. I'm calling it the Artsy Journal and it looks very different from any journal I've made so far. It's a littly grungy and hippie-like in my opinion, not so slick. Let me give you a tour of the journal.
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| THE FRONT COVER |
On the cover are images of art supplies (taken in my studio) that were transferred to fabric and then sewn onto the cover fabric. The lettering was stamped on fabric as well. There's different color ribbons on the cover and the edges are trimmed with pompons.
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| FRONT INSIDE COVER |
The front inside cover is made of thick paper. A paper pocket is sewn onto it and attached you see three pretty paperclips for you to use inside the journal. Inside the pocket are some labels and tags from my stash for you to use as well.
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| PRETTY PAPERS INSIDE |
The journal is full of beautiful printed papers in all sorts of colors. The journal consists of about 40 pages (that's counting front and back of the papers) and is bound in one signature.
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| MORE PRETTY PAPERS |
Some of the pages will have this weird fold on the corner. There's no deeper meaning to this, it's the result of a really stupid retailer where I ordered the papers. They were presented in the package in such a way that you could see all the papers and the only way to do that was to fold some of them. I don't know what they were thinking. Silly or not I think it ads to the grungyness of the journal. We'll call it extra character! ;-)
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| THE BACK OF SOME OF THE PAPERS |
The papers are all printed on only one side. That means sometimes the back is an off white and sometimes it's colored. When the pages were empty I added some stickers or other elements. I did however choose to ad as little as possible, because I want you to use this journal and make it your own. Feel free to remove the stickers if they bug you.
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| THE CENTER SPREAD |
In the center of the book is a half page spread and attached to it (with yet another cute paperclip) is a little zip baggy with some left over fabric and trim to use in your journaling. If you look closely you can see on the right page that the journal also has a few handmade tabs attached to it.
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| MORE PRETTY PAGES |
An example of another pretty printed paper and of the color of some of the back of the papers. So not all papers are white or cream on the back. It's a very varied selection of papers. I always like that a lot.
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| THE BACK INSIDE COVER |
The inside of the back cover also has a pocket attached to it. In this pocket are some loose pieces of paper to use for collage. You can also see I signed the journal and attached my name in big stamped letters.
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| THE BACK COVER |
And that's the back of the journal. Again with photographs and lettering spelling some good advice to whoever receives this journal. ;-) The spine of the journal is bound with a selection of beads and has some ribbons attached to it. It's the first time I used beads in a binding and I'm pretty proud of it. ;-)
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| THE WHOLE THING STANDING |
And finally a look at the journal standing up to give you an idea of the variety of papers in it.
The journal measures 18 x 26 cm , which is about 7 x 10 inches, a very nice size to work in and to take with you on your journaling endeavors.
I hope you like this journal enough to want it for yourself. If you do all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. You can do so until next Wednesday, April 18. I will announce the winner sometime that evening by doing a draw from the participants. All I ask is that you do indeed check to see if you've won. It doesn't have to be on Wednesday precisely, but at least sometime next week. I spent weeks on my last giveaway trying to track down the winner and I don't want to do that again. If you leave a way to contact you in the comment, be it through mail or facebook or your blog that would be great, but otherwise please check back. Thank you.
Well, that's it. Can't wait to see who wins this journal and gives it a happy creative home! For now I wish all of you a happy and artsy Wednesday!