March Notebook and “faux rice paper?”

I don’t think so. I watched a LOT of YouTube while I was in bed feeling unwell. It was a great time to catch up on things or explore new stuff. I fell a bit down a junk journal rabbit hole for sure, and you know YouTube. Once you watch one thing, they think it is your new obsession so they just keep serving it up. I saw a LOT of very similar methods to create faux rice paper by coating both sides of tissue paper/napkins/etc with watered down PVA glue then leaving it to dry. I had some deli paper prints/mop ups so I decided to try that. The process is simple – lay down freezer paper, coat an area with the thinned out PVA then lay on the paper you want to transform and cover that with the PVA and leave to dry.

OK so maybe it is the fact that the deli paper doesn’t actually absorb the PVA mixture but the whole thing feels very plastic-y in the end.

I ended up sticking it to a large sheet of book paper, which gave it some body, then lined it with a roll-off sheet to complete the cover.

And just like the January one, this one needs a month name added. But I might just keep making the monthly covers and select each one towards the end of the previous month. That way I can assign them to a month as I like. Maybe this one will feel like March, maybe it will feel like August, who knows? Only January, because I have begun working in it, and February, because it has one less sheet in the signature cause I only need 28 sides, are currently set in stone.

Am I ready to give up on this faux rice paper idea? Maybe. I might at some point try tissue paper or napkins, just to see what the difference is in texture, or maybe try using matte medium rather than PVA, which might end up slightly less plastic-y feeling in the end. But then again I may just say Well, that was interesting…. and move on. Maybe in the end it will be how hardy the cover is that informs my decision. Time will tell.

I’m back! Not 100% but…

…much, much better. Still get tired easily and sleep like a champ most nights, but I def. have a brain fog thing going on. I wanted to kick off with my Traveller’s notebook and daily journaling. It’s been a week (as I type this) and I managed to write something every day. I’m adorning the pages with little snippets of things, and might expand what I add in time, to include some sketches of things I want to remember or just bits leftover from projects, don’t know. I am trying to keep the January notebook out at the side of my desk all the time, but it keeps getting buried when I do anything.

The fact I manage to unearth it every day and write in it first thing, before I do anything else, is a miracle.

I think you can see I managed to clear off my desk pretty nicely, and I did a fair few housekeeping tasks to help me get 2023 off on the right foot. I’ll have to save that for WOYWW. Right now, I need to get around to all the desks while I am finally feeling kinda ok to do it. I missed a week (tested positive on a Weds. morning – how typical!) and felt truly horrible for a solid week. Still can’t smell anything or taste much. It’s all reduced to either SALTY or SWEET or just a texture with little flavor. Bah!

I will update this if I manage what I plan, which is to at least get JANUARY on the front of this insert. Shouldn’t be that hard, should it?

Making the inserts

As I mentioned yesterday, I picked out some pairs (cover and lining) for my journal inserts. My plan is to have one per month. I will have 32 sides each month (28 for February) so I can fill a sheet or decorate to fill the space, and write as much or as little as I like. My first pairs:

For the pages, I had th idea to do a bit of upcycling and use some Amazon packing paper. In my heart of hearts, I fear it might be too thin and fragile in the end, but I am going to give it a go and see what happens. It comes in loooong pieces, perforated at just about the right size. I fold it along the scorelines then slice to the size I need and tear each sheet off then fold to create the signatures. You can see my little note of the measurements for each insert

I went back to my hand-made book cradle, and glad I printed a little image of the 5-hole pamphlet stitch – cause I always forget between bookbindings

The paper is thin, but I hope it will hold up. I also have some heavier paper so I can switch if Month One is really a disaster. The cover turned out nice too!

And it fits perfectly inside the cover of the holder. I can have two books in there (or even three if I want) and they will fit fine.

Happy so far! Let’s see if I am happy on February 1st!!

Made my cover – Traveller’s Notebook stylee

Well. That was interesting. I made myself a cover for my journal for 2023. I used one of the paper, transformed sheets (the one created by making a Masterboard from the crumpled deli paper experiments.

and one of the paper transformed experiments as well that was lurking on my desk

The final cover looks like this!

There are loads of instructions for making a Traveller’s notebook, mostly using leather, and mine is exactly like those but gel printed card instead. The location of the holes are the only bit of info you really need.

The four holes top and bottom are where the elastic goes to create the holders for the inserts. The middle hole gets a look you use to hold the whole thing closed. Not exactly the same but this link is as good as any for how to make one.

For the inside, I am recycling Amazon packing paper, using both Amazon UK based paper and Amazon USA paper, compliments of Dear Son and his shipments. I am curious to see how they both hold up, because my firm belief is the UK stuff is thinner, less sturdy, and more grey than brown. We shall see. Cannot believe it is WOYWW again so soon. The weeks are flying by. Yikes!