rags to riches

Hello friends, 
Happy Valentine's Day!:).
I talked about making a collage journal and last night, I made one :). [Hmmm, Valentine's themed journal?]. I finally used up some of the brown paper bags I've been keeping all these years. Good riddance!:).

I glued to the cover an old lace and sewed a few silk flowers.

The back cover. 

At the back, I sewed a piece of paper with tiny metal hooks.

This is a raw journal, crumpled and ripped so to speak. Lately, I LOVE the rawness of things. Back to basics. The rougher, the better. Thus, I would try add splash of bright colors to cheer up the otherwise, blend projects. For instance, I simply made a ribbon by tearing up a piece of old pillow case. Cheap & good :).

Fabric torn-ribbon.

I started out by cutting three small paper bags into several pieces of 7" X 10" pages. Crumpled and wet them in water, and hung to dry in the sun for one afternoon. LOVE, LOVE these crisp sun-dried papers!. Once dry, ironed them to help flatten the pages a little bit. 

Sun-dried paper bags. They do look much like tobacco leaves!.

Then hand-sewed the paper stack, right in the middle. Decorated the cover with lace & silk flowers. [still very much influenced by the festive mood of CNY around here]. Lastly, I stapled a pink torn-fabric ribbon on the spine for closure. Done :).

My first collage in the journal. 

I guess you could do the same with old magazines, cereal boxes, used gift wrappers and old calendars. Putting together this journal is so quick, since I'd prepared the papers early on. Have fun up-cycling!. HUGS.