Mixed Media Canvas and Burlap Journal Cover

Hey there! I am Gemma Hynes on the blog with you today. It is hot and sunny currently where I live in the UK and I am a very lucky to only live minutes from the beach. This means lots of sneaking off to relax in the sun when I should be doing lots of other things, like cleaning and crafting. I’m not really bothered about the cleaning but I am missing the crafting so I made this journal cover using Canvas Corp Canvas Pieces and Tattered Angels paints.

This cover has no pages stitched to the inside so I can swap out the paper/material inside depending on what project I am working on. I just hold the current papers/ project materials inside with string or paperclips and it’s so easy to grab as I am heading out the door.

Materials used to make the journal cover:
Tattered Angels High Impact paint – Black, White, Red, Yellow, Orange
Architextures Parchment Rub-On – Inspire
Architextures Tall Base – Chicken Wire
Canvas Corp – Fabric Scraps – Burlap and  Canvas 
White Gesso, Paint Brushes
Stencils- Figure and random dots
Burnishing/ scoring tool, Sewing machine, Palette Knife

I started by coating my pink piece of Burlap with a rough layer of Gesso.
Over this, I stenciled lots of dots using a mixture of white and red High Impact paint.
I varied these mixtures so I had different tones of red and pink.

Next, I moved onto the canvas piece, and mixing some White High Impact paint with some Yellow High Impact paint I stenciled through the Chicken Wire Tall Bass on to the top and bottom corners of the canvas piece as well as the center.

Once dry, I stenciled a mixture or Orange High Impact paint and White High Impact paint through a stencil in the opposite top and bottom corners to the yellow stenciling and in the top and bottom of the middle of the canvas. I like to overlap my stenciling a little when changing colours as I feel it builds up a lovely layered look even when minimal layers are used.

I then needed to add some bolder, focal images to my cover, the first thing I chose to do was to add a layer of Red High Impact paint directly to the back of a figure stencil, while the paint was still wet I scratched into the paint with the end of my paint brushes and then turned the stencil over onto the canvas and pressed it down with a fair amount of pressure to transfer the paint to the canvas. I also painted around the image with some Black High Impact paint.

The second step I took to add bolder images to the canvas was to choose a selection of images and text from the Inspire Parchment Rub- Ons set and apply these to a large section of what would be the front half of the cover once it was folded.

I then cut some scrap yellow burlap I had into thin strips which I roughly stitched together on my sewing machine, I also ran the machine up and down the length of the strips a couple of times. I did all this with a bold black thread to tie in with the black outline of the figure and to fit in with the rough and ready look I was hoping to achieve with the cover, I also left all the lose wispy bits on both the canvas and the burlap.

To finish I just had to stitch the pieces together, making sure all the paint was completely dry I layered the piece together and pinned them in place before running a line of stitches on my sewing machine down the center fold of the journal cover.

Hope you like my journal cover idea – use up your fabric scraps to make something functional and pretty!

Have a crafty day!!!

Gemma Hynes
blog and Instagram

Sign up to Receive Inspiring Content, Exclusive Offers and More!

Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.