I am so happy with these journals. I am particularly happy that I have finished them at all, with so many ongoing projects around here. They're from a class by Julie Prichard, called Super Nova Part One (I'm taking Part Two as well). They are so gorgeous though, I wish you could see them, these photos don't do them justice. I don't want to give away any of her class secrets, but I will tell you a bit about the kind of journals they are.

The first one we did, my green and blue one, is a hardcover journal filled with Fabriano watercolour paper. It opens out nearly flat, so it's going to be lovely to work in. It's basically a classic stitched signature binding, although Julie teaches a particular stitch, very clearly by video. I'm planning to use it for part two of the course, which is journalling backgrounds. I'm very aware that if I hold onto it too long, it will become cherished and somehow too good to use. It's covered with paper I painted, stamped, stencilled and glazed with techniques taught by Anne Bagby.

The tall one you can see more clearly in the picture above is more than 12 inches tall. I am so looking forward to using it. It has 23 collaged spreads, which will end up being painted over. It was both challenging and freeing to be collaging without any concept of the end result. Normally, I would be working towards a particular theme or imagery for a journal page, but these are just random background. It is joined together in such a clever way, but I've only ever seen it in this class, so I won't reveal the magic! Yummy, right? (By the way, I got totally thrown by reading a post on Twitter from someone who hates non-edible things being described as yummy or delicious. It took me a couple of months before I relaxed back into realising that I don't mind it and in fact, I like it!)And check this one out! Julie's is actually beautiful and patchworky, with a deliberate shabbiness. Mine is just one piece of fabric for the outer and one for the lining. I have adopted the deliberate shabbiness to the extent that I chose not to obsess over the neatness of my stitching! It has such a cleverly stitched spine and it is the only book I had to have the video playing while I put it together. The cover is this crazy, cutesy, Japanese fabric I bought and was clearly never going to use for anything else, although I can't resist it. The lining is cut from an old pair of his jeans. I have some new backgrounds to show too, and I've already promised to share my Instax mini photos from this weekend in Greenwich park tomorrow. See you then.