The challenge is to work small, work in a journal that’s much smaller than what you might usually use.

I chose to make my own.

Initially I thought I’d use a store bought cover and just add the signatures. But when I looked carefully at that cover, I realized it was really just a piece of cardboard. Duh. So I dug around a bit and ended up using the cardboard back from a pad of mixed media paper as the cover of my journal.

All I used for supplies on this part of the project were a craft knife, and this ridiculously tiny cutting mat.

I scored the outside portion of the cardboard and then once I had the lines scored, I just worked my way through the layers, carefully slicing until I cut all the way through.

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For the next portion of the project, I created signatures from papers I already had. I didn’t document that but once you’ve done it a couple times it’s not hard to whip one together pretty quickly.

Then I got ready to assemble my journal.

First I had to make holes in the cardboard cover. I measured where I wanted the holes and then used an awl to create the holes.

Then it was time to put it all together.

I used a Coptic stitch for this. I watched this really helpful tutorial step by step tutorial and even though it was my first attempt, I’m pretty happy with it.

[Note: one handed filming is not my forte, so everybody, take your motion sickness meds and buckle up.]

https://tclarson.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/img_1976.mov

The stitching looks like this:

I’ll be sure to share more photos of the spreads I make as I fill up the journal with this season’s theme, which is focused around the theme of “Ubuntu”…but more on that later. For now, thanks for letting me share my little journal with you, and thanks for taking the time to visit, even if I did make you a bit seasick.