Journal Madness !

Hi everybody! I guess I'm like a number of people in the UK, no scotch that, the World, longing to get my hands on Eileen Hull's beautiful Heart Felt Journal Die. Well, I've done the next best thing and got my mitts on a few precious die cuts, courtesy of the very lovely and very talented, Anne Redfern. she makes the most awesome journals. You can see her work over on her blog, Redanne . She has a real beauty on there at the moment, which you can see with this link . The journal I've made, is covered with a piece of Kraftex. If you haven't come across this amazing material before, it's actually a type of 'rugged paper', which looks and feels like leather. It's extremely strong, and takes inks, paints and mediums very well. You can also stamp on it, stencil and sew it and that's exactly what I've done in the making of this journal. I absolutely love it ! I will do a more in depth post about Kraftex at a later date. For now, I'll just share a few pictures of my journal.

I've used some Graphic 45, paper for the inside cover as I just love the butterflies.

I've made a Kraft paper pocket at the beginning of each of my three signatures, courtesy of Anne. She has an excellent tutorial for making this as well as an expandable pocket, on her blog, which you can see with this link. I've also wrapped each signature with a piece of patterned paper, from Tim Holtz, Wall Flower, paper stack. I can't get enough of this gorgeous paper! The signatures are made of crisp, white, thick cartridge paper, so that I can use the journal as a nature sketch book. I decided to sew my signatures into the journal cover with linen thread. I just added a couple of extra holes either side of the central hole.

I also left a long piece of the thread on the middle signature, so that I could thread some glass beads on to it. These beads were salvaged from a necklace, I bought in a charity shop. The necklace was my original inspiration for the colours I've used.

Here is the linen thread on the inside. I adhered some little punched flowers to the ends of the thread. Not my idea, but I think it adds such a lovely finishing touch.

I made the belt closure, with a narrow strip of Kraftex, which has been painted and stitched close to the edges. The buckle was bought in a set from The Works,  4 buckles for £1. Excellent value for money I'd say! They come complete with a little brads to attach them.

I poked the brad through a single layer of the belt and folded it over and added a spot of glue.This conceals the 'butterfly' back of the brad.

To finish off, I stamped this sentiment onto a piece of plain Kraftex, and glued it to the back of one of Tim Holtz 'Ornate Plates' . I put a couple of brads in the holes and adhered it to the front of my journal. So there you have it! My first Eileen Hull, Heart Felt Journal. Maybe this is the first of many.....that's if I can get my crafty hands on that very elusive die! In the meantime, many thanks to Anne for the wonderful inspiration you have shared on your blog and across social media, and for taking the time to share these wonderful journal die cuts, which I believe are available in both yours and Eileen's, etsy shops.x