Each of the papers in the Canvas Corp Collections were designed to work together as a collection, to be mixed and matched easily and to offer prints in small, medium and larger sizes to give a nice variety when planning your projects. Just like a room is designed with a variety of fabrics, your craft supplies are chosen the very same way. A room has a color story and then solid and printed fabrics, paints and furniture come together in different scales, colors and textures to bring the room to life. The choices made show off your personal style, room theme and color palette. The very same happens with a craft project and the papers, fabrics and accessories come together to tell a story.
Jaine shows us how to bring together a selection of nautical themed papers from our Sails & Shells collection, nautical in navy, coral and ivory to create this hand-bound book that is a show stopper. 4 papers come together to create the book a large all-over print, a stripe, a ticking and an accessory paper and your have a nice combination of scale, color and style. The book is finished with touches of cord, grommets and simple embellishments that give it just the right touch. Jaine’s clean, classic style works so well with this collection, but you can go in the style direction that works for you such as vintage nautical by adding antique style nautical embellishments or rustic style by adding pieces of drift wood or a natural shell or industrial with touches of stainless and silver accents. No matter your style, start with a color palette, papers in different scales and embellishments that both coordinate with your story and also show off your personal stye.
Hi, Jaine here! Every time I go away I’ll take a travel journal with me to work in while I’m there and very often this is hand made.
This year I’m off to the south of France so I needed a French feel to my latest journal. Canvas Corp have some brilliant papers which I found to be the perfect colour scheme and had that coastal feeling.
The inside pages are made from water colour paper so I can glue and paint on them without fear or them buckling and the covers are sturdy chipboard to give it strength.
Materials:
Sails and Shells Sampler on Ivory paper
Sails and Shells Stripe on Ivory
Additional items: glue, gel medium, paper clips, grommets, cording, daydream embellishment, staples, watercolor paper
Step 1: Cut paper to the size and shape for the book binding option you choose. These can be found on You Tube easily, here are a few to choose from Single Sheet Book Binding, Coptic Stitch Binding, or HK Binding. There are other versions out there too, so feel free to do a little Youtube searching. The book cover is 5″x7″, so that is a good size to work from when deciding your inside paper size. Some of them require that you have a folded over edge and others folded sheets. You can decide how many pages you want in your journal and the binding will allow you the flexibility to make your book any size you wish.
Step 2: Cover your book covers with our choice of paper (I used the Blue Ticking). The Canvas Corp Book Covers are available in white and black and are solid all the way through, giving them a clean professional look when making your books. You can also find a vintage collection of book covers from 7gypsies. (Book Covers) You can also cover the inside of the book covers with the same or one of the other papers. You can also cover them with canvas fabric as another alternative.
Step 3: The pages and book covers of my book are bound together using a very simple binding stitch. Remember this is handmade, so don’t worry if it is not perfect, it is handmade perfect. Just to make it extra strong I added a little gel medium to the knots so they were less likely to come undone.
Step 4: Decorate the front of your book by adding papers, cords, grommets, staples, sayings and words as a decoration giving it a classic, trendy nautical feel.
The watercolor paper that fills the inside can be embellished with left over papers, sayings and embellishments or leave them blank and ready to be journaled, sketched, painted or watercolored during your travels. You may want to pack a little crafty pack to take a long ready to fill up the inside. You can also leave room for photos and special things gathered during the trip.
You can bind your journal top, left or right (for those writing left handed it could be a dream come true).
BE-A-UTIFUL, Jaine! The colors, the simplicity…sometimes less is more when it comes to functional craft items such as journals, art pieces, totes and more. What a great idea for a class with a focus on the binding and the front cover and let each student fill the journal with their personal work. If nautical is not your thing try one of the other Canvas Corp Collections including 7gypsies American Vintage, Canvas Corp’s Bon Voyage, Vino & Ale, Boots ‘n Saddle, His & Hers (perfect for the honeymoon) or one of the Christmas Collections – Farmhouse Christmas, Holiday Baking or Jolly Christmas. There are other collections to choose from with fun themes for travel and personal style, stop by the shop and check them all out.
To check out more of Jaine’s ideas, click here!
Happy creating!
