Bookmaking

Tab bookbinding with a collaged cover.

with Collaged Cover

front of book

A few years ago I attended a bookbinding retreat at Penland. To this day, I still rely on the techniques I learned. This sweet little journal has a tab binding. The nice thing about a tab binding is that you can make the book as many pages as desired. I began making the cover papers using book pages and collaged them together.

paint

You might be surprised to learn that I used children’s tempera and liquid watercolor. Applying the paints in a similar fashion to working on a Gelli plate. After the first layer of paint, different paint was applied with a stencil. Finally, stamped images were added.

collage

After the paint dried, I cut the pages into different sizes. They were then used to collage onto chipboard for the covers. The entire process from painting pages to bookbinding is better viewed in the video tutorial.

Video Tutorial:

binding
tab binding

Japanese Free Printable

Grab this free printable to try with your junk journaling, mixed media, and crafting.

japanese image
I have been working on a few new sets of digital prints to use for junk journaling, mixed media, and crafting. I wanted to give you a free file to try before you spend any money on the other sets that are available in the shop. Download the file, print it out, and see how it works for you. I’d love to see and hear about your experience. The file has two pages. The first page is the collaged image above, the second page is a solid red and white Japanese wave pattern to print on the reverse side of the collage.

The Japanese symbol on the left is Love. You might also recognize, koi fish, bamboo, Japanese kimono fabric, Mt. Fujiyama, and cherry tree blossoms.

You can access the free download in the shop here [Japanese free printable]

You might also like: