My attempts at a glue book

Hi sweet strawberries!!

Let's talk about GLUE BOOKS! 

What is a glue book? It is a book bound in some fashion whether it is an old book altered, fresh new journal, handmade journal, old magazine or other book it has pages and they can be decorated, white, or pages that need to altered. All you literally do is find images you like and glue them down in the book. You can use any glue you like, you can glue down any image you like.

Ok but why do people use a glue book? Well it seems the reasons are as varied as the types of glue books that exist. They want to practice techniques, they want to practice styles, the want to make art but something more simple and attainable than full fledged canvas painting or for my personal favorite reason art therapy/stress relief. 

So of course I wanted to attempt this glue book style of journal/ art/ stress relief. I decided to make an inspiration book and each page would be dedicated to a different thing that inspired me. But I also used the pages as a chance to put colors together and try to identify my personal style preference. Because I love vintage but I have not really achieved the look yet and I don't think I have really tried and maybe that's because I want a different look than vintage although I love and appreciate it. I love kwaii cutesy styles but I already feel like a kid at heart and I just don't feel like I need another cutesy thing. I absolutely love Daphne's Diary magazine and the style there is lots of color but leaning towards the colors we consider feminine with lots of watercolor. I never knew I loved water color so much. I feel like there is more to discover and this glue book has certainly helped me do that.

How I made it:

Step 1- Choose your book

Choose a book that speaks to you but one that is not so precious you are hesitant to make mistakes and a mess in it. For me I altered a large magazine. I took an ESPN magazine and glued three pages together and removed some pages so I had a total of 20 pages. 

Step 2- Line your pages

I love the look of a lined page to me it gives some background to the pages and helps the glued papers hold together better. This is usually done with washi tape. I unfortunately don't have the funds for lots of washi tape so instead I made the edges "juicy". That means I covered the edges of the pages with strips of magazines to create a nice thick page edge. And no I did not come up with that cool name lol!

Step 3 - Collect images

This should be really easy and really fun. You can literally go to your local thrift store and collect lots of magazines. Don't limit yourself to only one type either. Get fashion, home, cooking, animal, science etc. You never know what image will speak to you. 

Step 4 - Get a cheap accordion folder (or make one)

Simply buy an accordion folder to store your images or you can make one using an altered book. Search youtube for tutorials.

Step 5 - Relax and cut

I chose a night. Sipped my wine and listened to an old tv show I didn't feel obligated to watch and just sat there and cut out all the images I collected.

Step 6 - Glue things down!

Just what it says!!!

So check out some pictures of my glue book thus far. I will come back and update with a video once the book is complete and I have a flip through completed.

My junk journal planner

Hey sweet strawberries!

Let's talk planners!

So I am a person who loves a good planner. I love the freshness of starting a new year with all your goals and plans in place it is one of the best feelings. Along with that there is nothing better than putting all that good information into a new planner. 

Planners seem to be all the craze lately. But then again I've been crazy about planners since I was a teen. You can find planners from the 80's in thrift stores with shinning leather and miniature binder rings. That just goes to show we love writing down our appointments and having it at our finger tips. 

What about you the artsy person? If you're anything like me that planner is packed full for January and maybe February but come March...it's empty. If you're like me, you beat yourself up and ask yourself why can't I just be organized like everyone else!? But have you ever stopped to think maybe you weren't the problem maybe it's the planner that you are trying to use? 

Ok follow me here. So you get this awesome planner and it has a tiny amount of room for writing so you have to flip to the back to write extra notes. Or you hate doing daily to do lists. You like looking at them in a weekly format. Or even this month you want weekly and next month you want daily. There is no room for that sort of flexibility in a normal planner.

If you are up on current trends then you know people have solved this by using a bullet journal. Which is awesome because it can be personalized to exactly what the person needs. From what I have seen the bullet journal system is awesome HOWEVER for me there was still something missing. Depending on the type of creative and artistic person you are what was missing was texture, color, messiness. So I have come up with something that works awesome for me. I made a junk journal planner. For me that is combining the month layout of bullet journal with the decorating visual interest of a junk journal, and giving myself a free space to make lists, to do's graphs anything I wanted. 

And I love it! 

So I made a layout of a month calendar that has two sides, one for work and one for work. That's where I do all my appointments, work schedule, outings and things like that. Then behind every month layout is a pocket in which holds a mini book that is completely empty on the inside so I can write what I want. I also didn't fully decorate each month so each month depending on how I am feeling I can decorate that section. So far I love the thing, and I am planning to make an update better version for 2018 and I can't wait. I strongly suggest if you an artsy type to try this system. Its a place you can list appointment but also journal, plan, paint, draw all you have to do is make the extra pages to do so. Several people love the idea so much that I am making a couple (5 in total) so I will definitely have some process videos soon. In the meant time check out my junk journal planner flip through!!

First trashy flowish journal

Check out the video of my first trashy flowish journal.

 I am in a facebook group called trashy and flowish journals. It is called that because the point is to turn your trash into treasure. A flow journal is basically like a supply journal sometimes with a theme that you can pull from and create a journal just using the materials in the flow journal. I am swapping with a partner and I am very excited to share this with you guys!!

Happy crafting!

Faux leather journal cover

Hello All!!

Do you want to know how to make an absolutely gorgeous dark leather faux journal cover? Well check out this picture and and i'll share my secret recipe with you lol.

Ok so this was extremely simple.

1- I started with a brown paper bag cut to the size I wanted.
2 - I made modge podge by watering down some white school glue.
3- I cut out a piece of white tissue paper that was a little larger that the brown paper bag
4- I crinkled up white tissue paper
5 - Spread a farily even layer of the modge podge like mixture on the paper bag
6 - Glued on the tissue paper which sucked up the glue but I didn't decoupage exactly because the glue was placed on first and I didn't go over the top with glue
7 - I embraced the crinkles in the tissue paper didn't smooth it but did make sure there were no crazy large bubbles
8 - Let it dry
9 - Glued the over hang to what will be the inside cover
10 - Painted it black
11 - Mixed black and brown to create a super dark brown and used this color as a random color around the cover to give added dimension
12 - Used homemade gold tinted gesso to highlight the raised parts of the cover
13 - Let it dry
14 - Did the same paint technique on the over hang and painted dark brown on the inside cover
15- Sealed the cover with thin layer of modge podge like mixture
16 - Let dry
17 - Moved the book open and closed several times which caused some of the cover to "crackle" after making sure it was the right flexibility when back wherever the white tissue paper was showing again and painted black
18 - Let dry and modge podge those areas one more time

And tada!! Beautiful journal cover it really looks good too. Its sorta soft like leather it was awesome. I got the technique from someone on youtube. I will probably make a video to show the technique as well very soon. Until then....have a wonderfully crafty day!!

10 tips to junk journal on a budget.

Hello my Sweet Strawberries!

So let's talk about money and how that can affect the quality of  your products.

I am BROKE! Lol (really crying inside)!

When you don't have the money to spend on your crafts it can put a real damper on things. But let me encourage you guys. With 10 great tips to junk journal on a shoe string budget.

1. Be creative

I can't afford patterned paper so why not make my own? That's exactly what I did

Using copy paper that I wrote a book excerpt and magazine pages ripped up in interesting ways.

2. Buy inexpensive items.  After doing a dollar store challenge I realized there are cheap items you can use to give a beautiful look to your journals.

The first picture is a small three dollar haul from Dollar tree. The second picture is me tea dying one of the calendar pages. And it turned out beautiful. Be unexpected, calendars, magazines, children's books.

The following tip I don't have pictures for yet but it is still a good one.

3. Use book pages. Yes you can use book pages to make inserts but a variety of other embellishments like:
-pockets
-paper flowers
-envolopes
-paper clip embelishments
-patterned papers
-belly bands

4. Make your own washi! I don't know why I am so obsessed with this but I find it so fascinating to make your own washi using masking tape. I made a couple pieces and I think man if I had better markers and pens this would be amazing!

5. Use nature! For my autumn journal I literally took a walk and collect leaves and pressed them to add interest to my journal. You can do that as well. One of the most interesting junk journal youtubers literally uses pressed flowers throughout all her books and they are so beautiful! Here is an example of mine.

6. Hand paint your papers! That is something else I am doing to add interest to my journals and when I can finally afford papers I may still do it. Some paintings turn out better than others. I suggest starting with water color because it is very inexpensive for a beginner.

7. Use the tools that you have! So I have been deep into journaling for about a month and I don't have the good tools yet but I literally just started somewhere. I am still using rounded tipped child scissors and started by using elemers glue and a glue gun. It's ok! I don't have die cuts, stencils, or stamps yet. But you can still start to practice techniques if you just start!

8. Watch a variety of Youtubers! You will learn so much and find out so many money saving tips and tricks. Make sure you watch from a variety of styles because even if it isn't your preferred style you can still learn some invaluable information.

9. Thrift store!!! You should already know this but you can find some absolute gems at the thrift store. I suggest you try the smaller ones or the ones outside of the city where the prices will be a little less intense. I know this is obvious but it's still one of the best places to find interesting and antique items.

10. Remember the origins of junk journaling and use your trash! That old book can be used as a book cover, book pages and embellishment. Junk mail can be cut up and made into mosaic designs. Old envelopes can be used as book pages and pockets. Just be creative and on the look out. I was at my sister in-laws birthday and she had a beautiful designer cake. It had a rhinestone embellishment on the bottom. I asked for the sparkly piece so quick lol! Don't be ashamed because when you bring them a beautiful crafted piece with that embellishment they will be so amazed!

I hope that helps someone. Please comment if you have other money saving tips for junk journalers!

Check out my youtube channel: BerryDeliciousArt

Learning more about Junk Journaling

Hello Sweet Strawberries!

So I am learning more and more about the junk journal world! It is fascinating. So many styles some are scrapbook type, others have a more art and eclectic type look, some are really made from trash, others are made in a bohemian style and still others are in the vintage style.

Since i'm crazy I want to try my hand at all the different styles. So far I have slightly attempted vintage, and I made a couple eclectic style with hand painted papers. So fun and lovely.

I am all day long watching videos on youtube about journaling and continue to find new things! Check out some of my pictures of journals I have created so far.

Don't mind the messy desk lol!

But it is so interesting what you can learn from practicing a new form of art!

Dollar Tree Junk Journal Challenge Flip Through

The begining

Hello my sweet strawberries!

I am Denise Berry and I am so pleased to begin bringing you fun blog posts to go along with my arts and crafts videos. If you are in need of stress relief consider creation. You have to concentrate, use your hands, touch, mold, guide, and come out with something one of a kind and beautiful that only you could do.

I want to discuss my newest adventure. I have fallen in total love with junk journals! OH MY GOODNESS! They are gorgeous they have everything that appeals to me.

Vintage look

Beautifully flawed

Keepsakes

Fun to make as simple or intricate as you want

Secret compartments

I'm like a hog in the mud lol!!

I am working on a junk journal challenge right now using only dollar tree items and it seriously has my creative juices flowing. I would like to share a couple videos of my journal in progress. I will come back with the finished product soon and share some thoughts about the process and junk journaling in general. Enjoy!