Customised Journals

Hello everyone and Happy New Year,

I hope you all had a great Christmas and that 2018 will be filled with wonderful crafting ideas and creations!

For my first blog of the year I am going to talk to you about journaling - my new addiction.  As this is very new to me and I'm only learning it myself, I have started with customised journals rather than making journals from scratch as this is much easier and a great way to get into it without getting in over your head too soon.  It's the perfect way to ease yourself into making handmade journals.

As my customised journals are actually diaries, I wanted to get them done before the end of January so that the owners can get the full benefit of each month.

I used A5 sized day to page diaries with a hard cover but you can use whatever size you wish.  In order to decorate the cover as desired, it first needs to be primed for good paint adhesion.  For this I used Gesso which gives a really good base for the paint and hides any marks or writing that may exist on the cover.  Next, I used one coat of white acrylic paint on the cover once the Gesso was fully dried - depending on the original colour of your cover, two coats may be required.

The next step is choosing a colour scheme and adding your choice of paint to the journal cover before adding your embellishments.  For this I used two watered down acrylic colours and dabbed the paint on using a soft brush.

Journal Front Cover

Journal Back Cover

After the paint is dry the fun begins.  This is when you design your journal using any fancy papers, fabric, buttons, ribbons, lace, paper flowers, stamps and embellishments that you want!  Just layer them on and once you have decided what looks good just stick everything on using a hot glue gun.

You can then seal your project using some spray varnish - this will protect it and ensure the paint doesn't get chipped or damaged.

Below are some more pics of my own creations which I am very happy with.  You can also add some pockets or other additions to the inside on some of the blank pages at the front or back of the diary as per my photo below.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my customised journals and that you try it our for yourself.  I'll be posting more on this topic soon so keep tuned.

Bye for now

Handmade Gift Tags

Hi Guys,

Today I'm going to show you the first of this year's Christmas Gift Tags - yep, I know, Halloween is just over and already we're taking Christmas!  Better to be organised early though as the weeks just fly in from now.

These were super-easy to make and this time I made them using left over scraps of rice paper and napkins from other projects which quite honestly I had never thought of until I watched a tutorial from Erica over at CottageChicClub recently.  I thought this was a great idea and more interesting than just using one paper or napkin for the job - so don't throw away those scraps people, keep them for your small projects!

I will say however that I found it a little bit more challenging using the scraps rather than using just one paper or napkin, I actually had to think about colour, placement, background, matching etc. so it does bring out your crafty side in a big way - and in a good way, ideas kept coming as I kept working.

I've made a short video of the first few tags to give you a more clear view of how they look.  I will be posting a tutorial on this later for anyone who's interested in trying to do their own, as I said, they're easy to do and will give your gifts a more unique and stylish look for Christmas.  See video below:

Thanks for watching, and remember you can contact me by email by using the form on the right or here at Funky-Junk Email  if you have any questions at all, I'm always happy to help.

Bye for now

Irish Plaquette

I wanted to design some plaquettes that were typically Irish and I chose this Guinness theme as my first.  I thought it would be nice to start with some old Dublin scenes which will have a special appeal to Irish people living away from home and visitors to Ireland who may wish to bring something handmade of Ireland home with them.  This Guinness plaquette is now in an Irish home in France.

New Floral Serviettes

I pinched these two lovely napkins from my sis while visiting recently.  Can't wait to use them for some new plaquettes that are in the pipeline.  Don't forget Funky-Junk plaquettes make great gifts for birthdays and other occasions and of course there is no harm in getting organised for Christmas a little early - I have already received the first Christmas orders so don't miss out!!!  A lead time of at least 10 days is required for orders by contacting me either on the blog (see form on the right of this page) or on the Funky-Junky Facebook page (click on the FB tab at the top of the blog page).

Halloween Painted Plates

I loved the idea of plate painting for Halloween when it was brought to my attention recently and I decided to give it a go.  It's a great way to spend some quality time with the kids and keeps them busy for ages.  I picked up some €1 white plates for this project but you could use any colour. I painted mine with acrylics and they need to be baked in the oven briefly to make them durable and safe to use (more on this later).  This is the first of my efforts - I'll be posting more in the coming days so make sure to keep watch.

Painted Halloween Plate