Over the past 3 weeks or so, I’ve altered a children’s board book to hold a collection of Eastern-inspired papers and ephemera from my craft stash.

I started by removing the pages, cutting the last page deeper to make a sort-of pocket.

Then, I sandpapered the front and back covers to take off the gloss and give the surface more ‘teeth’, after which I applied gesso to the whole book, either 2 or 3 coats, I can’t remember.

Once it was dry, I painted the edges and the cut-out pages with Lumiére’s Pearl Turquoise metal acrylic; I love the colour.

Painted and cut-out pages for altered book

I didn’t paint the front and back, and the inside covers as I was going to cover them with paper.

The next step was gluing the borders of the cut-out pages together and to the back cover to form the ‘pocket’.

I made a couple of pockets, cut down from envelopes, to store the different size papers.

Here are the papers that make up the collection, which include acid-free papers and vellum, smaller decorative papers, miniature postcards and tags.

There are also 7 Chinese coins and a charm with eastern dragons on one side and the animals of the Chinese zodiac on the other.

This image of the dragon, which I’ve printed on cardstock, is from the Kuan Yin Temple in Kuala Lumpur; it decorates the outside wall on the upper level. Isn’t he grand?

Much as I loved this, I decided to give it to my dear friend, Hatty, who was with me in Kuala Lumpur when I took that dragon photo in the Kuan Yin Temple.

For the first handmade journal, I came up with the design, titled ‘Floral Music’, using my own photos of flowers on a music sheet background.

I hadn’t realised just how many flower photos I’ve taken over the years!

I also used images from ‘ArtsyBee’ on Pixabay.

The image at the start of this blog post is of this journal.

It measures 14cm x 18.5cm and has an unattached ribbon closure.

It’s made up of 2 signatures, each with 56 pages front and back, giving a total of 112 pages.

Included are plain and decorated journal cards, notecards, tags, and decorated paper clips. There is a fold-out section in the inside back cover with a small selection of notecards. For the spine dangle, I used floral buttons, a couple of flower charms and a key.

To save on space, here’s a flip-through video.

For this journal, ‘Arrows and Dreamcatchers’, I’ve used images from Veris Studio’s ‘Born to be Wild’ collection, which I purchased last year, I think.

This one is the same size as ‘Floral Music’, also has 2 signatures with a total of 112 pages and an attached ribbon closure.

Apart from the usual journal cards, notecards and tags, there are also little journals tucked inside.

The ribbons that make up the spine dangle are decorated with floral beads, leaf charms, a key and a pebble.

It’s not clear in the video flip-through, but the plain journal cards are lightly patterned.

Although I tend to struggle a little when sewing the signatures onto the covers, I find journal-making strangely addictive.

An Eastern-Inspired Altered Book and Two Handmade Journals