February journal cover

As you all know I have this new system of creating my journal. I have a signature for each month and sew it into a big journal as I go. No system is perfect and this month I ran into a snag that I had to solve.

January was a slow month for creating and so when I got to the middle of my signature I took out a couple of pages and was able to end the month with just the right amount. Then, February came along and I thought I would do the same amount of pages in this signature. Problem was, I got creative after the middle of the month and needed more pages. I came to the end of my signature a whole week early. Either I was going to have to not do any journal pages for a whole week or solve the problem. Below is my solution because not journaling for an entire week was just not going to happen.

The polka dot paper was the original cover and I decided to keep that. I had used a Martha Stuart edge punch on it to make the scalloped edge. The flap on the left front is canvas paper that I painted on and is larger than my signature paper. I let about 1 1/2" show on the front and wrapped it around to the back. Because it is bigger than the back of my signature I was able to fold it in a couple of times making 2 1/2 pages more to create on.

Then on the front I tried a technique of sewing buttons onto the edge with colored wire. I got that idea from Ingrid Dijkers. I saw the idea quite a while ago and wanted to try it and I like the way it turned out. I'm going to share it with my art journal group next month because it is really fun to do. If you decide you want to try it, I would suggest that you cover the edge of the paper with packing tape to make the paper stronger. The first hole I started with I pulled the wire right through it.

I just realized that this is #46 on my list of things to do before I'm 50, YEH! One more to cross off the list.


This is a journal page made from all the snippets of things I collected in one day. I wrote a little something about each one. It was a pretty good day as you can see. I rate it a 10! For those wondering the gold paper is from a Harry & David truffle, much too scrumptious for my own good. On the edge I sewed buttons and beads with embroidery floss. I think I am going to have to get a button collection going.This is a page in progress. It is one of the added pages in the back of my journal and is done on canvas paper. I will work on it later. That is it for now.