Blue Tech Junk Journal

Journal making has been so much fun. I've been waiting forever to be part of the Junk Journal Junkies group on Facebook and finally my request was accepted, this being several weeks ago. Later I might write an article about my experience so far, but in short terms being part of the community has made me more motivated in making my journals and sharing them with other artists who do the same stuff.

As all of it goes, I'm determined to use up what I have in my stash. The material has piled up severely for such a tiny corner, and I strive to pile books where materials now sit.

There's been a lot in my stash which I've been saving for the right book, never able to settle on what kind of book I wanted, but noticed I have lots of tech based material, and interesting headphone packaging which didn't fit the size of my Juke Box book's dimensions. With this noted, I settled on making a tech book for holding all things tech based that I use and like. I sort of just rummaged and threw in materials that seemed appropriate with the theme.

My materials range from headphone packaging, to laptop and electrical device packaging, with extra things like scrap math paper sheets, junk mail envelopes, a few plain papers with decorative accents made with pattern scissors or punches, and a number of other materials were used to match the theme. I did use quite a few scraps for this project, hence a chunky book that hasn't even been filled with journaling and ephemera yet.

I thought of multiple ways to use up more scraps sitting around to match the theme, and part of the chunkiness in the book comes from having a mini book tucked inside one of the pockets. I loved making the inner covers and using the cloth material from laptop packaging for the outside.

My first idea for the black cloth with recycle symbols on it was to make it into a pocket for the large book, but then I thought about how well cloth works for other things, and realized how it could serve better as a book cover. This is when I decided to make a smaller book to stick inside the larger one, and still match the tech theme.

I think I enjoyed the process of sewing this mini book almost more than binding the main book with O wires. I especially enjoyed stamping and embossing the inner covers displayed above. Because I didn't have paper long enough to fit the cloth as I wanted it to, I used creative methods of using two 8.5 x 11'' sheets of paper, one serving as the center of the book. The other I cut down the center and glued to either side at desired extension, gluing them on to form pockets. After my signature was sewn to the base cover, I applied double sided tape and stuck the fabric outside down, covering up my stitches and making a fun little book.

   Here's the video flip through of the project. In the future I might add charms and dangles on the wire spine, and fill the book with fun tech subjects. Till then, enjoy.