Daily Thoughts Journals

I had lunch with two of my best friends last week. One of them told us how she had started to think of at least one good thing that had happened that day before she went to bed each night. We all thought that was a great idea - as we try to keep a more positive outlook on life, even through the rough times. My friend, Ginia, told me she wanted a small journal to keep by her bed to write these thoughts in. I offered to make her one (or at least a cover on one!) She was amazingly pleased! She didn't want lines on the page so I bought a 5X7 spiral bound sketch book from JoAnn's. Her favorite color is green (all shades of it!) and she wanted something kind of autumn. So, I went rummaging through my stash of hand-dyed fabric and found what I thought would work just fine. The shiney (sorry about that) part on the burnt orange fabric is a gel sticker that says "A Day to Remember". Seemed appropriate. I stenciled on the oak leaf with Lumiere Copper and Burnt Orange. Then I drew in the veining with a brown Pigma Brush pen.


Here is a detailed picture of the front. One day about a month ago I was at a local surplus store and saw a whole ton of little toothpaste tubes but they were empty and opened on the end opposite the screw on cap. The insides were silver or gold metal. Needless to say - I bought a handfull of each to play with. I took a gold one and cut off the top so I have a flat piece of metal. I then took a fancy alphabet stencil and turned it over on the back (so the initial would come out right) and embossed the metal square with a "G". Then I got out my alcohol inks and dripped then on the embossed metal until I got the look I wanted. Then I stitched it onto the fabric with a zigzag stitch and covered the notebook with it.


I'm going to try to get it to her this weekend. I also bought some gel pens in green for her to write with if she wants. I like it so much I'm now working on one for myself.