In my shoes: Heart Healthy Altered Journal + Tutorial

Friday, February 10, 2012

Heart Healthy Altered Journal + Tutorial

Hi friends. Last week, Ella Publishing had a great three day event leading up to "wear red Friday" to remind us of the importance of "heart health" which we are celebrating this month. I had made a few projects for the event and one of those was this altered journal...

I wasn't sure what kind of postings were needed so while in the process of making the journal, I took some step by step photos. It was never used for the blog post so I thought of sharing it here at the blog. :) Here's the process.....

1. First I gathered up my supplies. I used a travel journal from SEI and a Studio Calico kit. When making projects like this altered book, it's great to use products from a kit or collection. That way you know that all the products go well together and it makes the process go faster.

2. Next, I measured the front and back covers of the journal. I then trimmed some papers that is about 1/4" smaller than the book covers. This will allow me to still show off some of the great brown chipboard color of the original cover.

3. Because the right edges of the book was cornered, I did the same with my pattern paper to make it match the ends.

4. Then I punched a decorative border on a strip of light colored paper and added that strip to the left edge.

5. I cut out a block of pattern paper which will hold my title, matted that on a light colored pattern and trimmed the edges with scallop scissors.

6. It's Stamp month over at Ella Publishing this month as well so I incorporated that technique with this project. The Studio Calico kit had this mini set in it and it was the perfect sentiment for my book. Notice the space in the arrow that was not fully stamped? Don't worry about that, I'll show you how I covered my booboo later.

7. Then I added some letter stickers onto lined paper, cut them into strips and added notches to the right edges. I also outlined the letters with black pen to make them more noticeable against the busy backgrounds.

8. Remember that arrow stamp with some open space that didn't get stamped? Well I added a chipboard butterfly with a brad in the center on that space. Now no one will ever know that I made a mistake there. *wink*

9. I added more butterflies and a little bit of handwritten journaling and called my front cover good!

10. The back of the book had an elastic band through it to enclose the book so I mesured around it, cut a slit and punched a hole where the elastic threads through and then adhered my paper. This way, everything is perfectly lined up against each other.

11. I then decorated the inside covers and section sheets with more pattern paper. I rounded the right edges to match with the design of the existing papers/sheets.

12. I then decorated these section pages with more stickers, chipboard butterflies and tape. I found a rubon set (in my stash) that had some great motivating words and I added that to the pages as well. Those words and phrases would be a great motivator for me while I use the book.