Hello everyone, today I thought I would share with you this lovely and very easy journal I put together. It's just a simple DIY journal where I can collect my thoughts in regards to my garden planting. This journal was inspired by a channel on youtube called 'creativecafegirl', she was using a cereal bag/liner with wax for a journal cover and I thought it was such a great use for the them as I'm always on the lookout for new ideas when it comes to the cereal bags. Where she uses the wax I will be using Helmar Silicone Adhesive Sealant which when left to dry thoroughly gives a wonderful strong hold.
What you will need:
Helmar Crafts & Hobby PVA Glue, Helmar Silicone Adhesive Sealant, a clean and dry cereal bag, a variety of papers (I've used tea dyed papers), decorative papers of choice, The use of a sewing machine (or you can hand sew), a ruler and scissors together with any embellishments you may like to add.
Firstly you need to open up the end and the side seam of your cereal bag and then fold it so that the long side seam edges are together.
Next you need to cut/tear and fold your papers to the correct size. The cereal bag will be your cover so after you have folded it in half with the side seams together you will be folding it half again in the other direction. Use this size as a guide for your papers. As cereal bags come in different sizes I can't give measurements on this.
Open up your cereal bag and place a double layer of paper inside, this will form your cover. Using your Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA glue, adhere both layers together.
You can then add any decorative papers to the front of your cover (on the right hand side) using your Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue, do not make it too dimensional.
Once this is done, you can add a few spots of Helmar Silicone Adhesive Sealant to the images (decorative front cover part) and then spread it out evenly with a spatula. You don't want a thick layer, just enough to make the cereal bag stick to the papers. This is done so that the image is clearly seen on the cover and doesn't appear to get lost within the bag.
Fold the cereal bag down over the image, press against the silicone and smooth out firmly. This will take a couple of days to completely 'cure' but you can still complete your journal now.
Sew around the edges of the entire cover and trim any edges evenly if you desire.
When I was sewing the cover I also added a pre-loved plastic bag to the inside of the cover for holding little bits.
The next step is to bind everything together. Arrange all your pages how you would like them and hold them together with either clips or paperclips. Using a large needle or awl, make three holes in the fold of your pages and also in your cover fold and sew everything together in a figure '8' style. There are many tutorials online on how to do this in greater detail, just look for 'pamphlet stitch binding'.
Now you can decorate the pages however you would like. I sewed some stitches on the scraps of paper from the pages and then just grabbed some little bits that were on my desk and glued them on a few pages using my Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue. This is going to be a writing journal for me so I don't want to over decorate the pages just yet.
I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will give it a try. It really does feel wonderful and is a great use of those cereal bags we often don't know what to do with. I intend on making a few of them for myself and will number them as I go. Of course you can make these journals as simple or as decorative as you wish, it's up to you 🙂
Take care everyone and thank you for stopping by the Helmar Blog 🙂
Jeanette xx
