My Greeting Card Reuse Journal . . .

Courtesy of watching Jennibellie's videos on creating greeting card journals, I have created this wonderful journal.  I really love it.  It is a great size for travel, it's sturdy, and I really like the way I pre-gesso'd each page - or I'm trying to pre-gesso each page, LOL!

Anyway, I originally used my cards from this Christmas as only pockets in the journal.  I sewed the edges by hand and Gesso'd each side.  I didn't really have a lot of cards to use as pages since most of the Christmas wishes I get are also photos that I put in either frames or an album.

I used a small music note punch I had and then used the holes
to thread through my stitching on either side to
create my pocket/page.

This is the first page/pocket I gesso'd it and did an art journal page on it cuz I had just rec'd my eifel tower stamp in the mail and I just had to use it!  I stamped it once and then did a ghost stamp to the left I think came out really nice.

I used my Gelli Roll metallic gold and my black india ink and a dip pen for the black parts
With the exception of the eifel tower stamps. Oh! And the background that
 was colored with my  dye ink double ended markers I picked up from
WalMart in the scrap-booking supply aisle right next to the craft/art supplies aisle.

I looked around my recycle materials for something else I could use for pages and thanks to my 14 year old son Daniel who loves Hungry Man Chicken dinners, I found a few empty boxes I could use the sides of.  When I folded the box sides in half, I had the perfect size pages!

Hungry Man dinner Box side folded in half and gesso'd. 

I used two old musical cards that were from another year as the front and back covers
I was also able to create pockets out of them as well to stick with my card pocket theme.

This is a homemade stamp I used that I just made a few days ago.  I'm very proud of it.

This is the same stamp but using my watercolor markers to stamp with.
I'm very proud of this stamp.  It's not perfect but that was done on purpose.

This is the flip side of pocket/page one and the first box-side page.
I was trying a double loaded brush technique on my Chinese watercolor brush.
I think it came out pretty good.

.

This is one of my pocket/pages that I didn't cover up with gesso.
I liked the biblical quote on the card so I kept it. I drew a heart
around it and gesso'd the rest of the pocket/page.

This is the 2nd half of the journal.  I went digging and found an old
bag with cards from past years birthdays, Christmas, Holidays and such.
I had a bunch of room to add more pages so I added each of these cards
as regular pages in my greeting card journal. This is the only reason I don't have the whole thing gesso'd.
I haven't had time to gesso the card pages I added so that half of the journal is not finished but the rest is.

The Finished journal front view

I followed the Jennibellie videos several times, and I came out with what I think is a pretty great journal.  I'm trying to pre-gesso all the pages including the pocket sides ahead of time but it's a daunting task and I'm about half way through the journal right now.  I am determined to get it done though.

I've been pretty ill over these past 6 months or so and I'm really grateful for everyone who has messaged me to check on me and all of that.  I really value all my online friendships and I feel I'm a stronger person for having met all of my online friends.  So, A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you in addition to the traditional Big Hugs I always offer to each and everyone I chat with.

THANK YOU & Big Hugs!!

Keep Kreaating Everyone -  :-)

Reeah