Lark Crafts

One of the things that I enjoy most about making handmade books and journals is imagining what will fill their pages, especially when I give those items away as gifts. When I make a journal I always make the effort to create an artful, finished cover. I recently realized, though, that perhaps the end recipient would like to embellish and personalize the cover to their own tastes. Since it’s hard to find such a blank canvas journal I’m offering one up here for one lucky person.

As you can see below, I left an exposed spine so you can also show off the inside pages. It would be fun to match up the art from the outside in.

I also find that many art sketchbooks come with so many pages than I hardly ever get around to finishing a whole book that feels cohesive and focused on a central theme. So this journal only has a handful of pages to craft a short visual story.

And one last detail: I made these blank covers from recycling the boards of three ring binders, so they have that nice rounded corner. Let’s hear it for determined, creative repurposing!

To enter for a chance to win this handmade journal, please leave a comment on this post by 9 p.m. EST on Monday, July 2nd. One winner will be selected at random from among all eligible entries and notified by Friday, July 6th. Click here for the official rules.

In the spirit of our recent book Mod Podge Rocks! perhaps you would like to decoupage a design on the cover using one of the various Mod Podge finishes and their brand new Design Elements just launched this month. Or maybe you’re more into the creative exploration of collage. Then let The Collage Workbook be your guide. Whatever your medium or inspiration, we hope that whoever receives this journal will use it as a creative spark!

I confess, I’m an enthusiastic newbie to the wide world of TRAVEL. And I have found that one great way to treasure and revisit the memories from my trips is through the collection of my many moments through writings, photos, brochures and knick-knacks of the journey into an handmade journal. If you’ve ever tried compiling your travel mementos together into traditional journals before, you might relate to the design flaw I discovered in my own hand-bound journals.

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Want to win the word F-E-L-T in handcrafted 3-D? Or how about a felt fridge magnet alphabet created by yours truly? Keep reading for the story behind the felted letters you see above and for details on the exciting giveaway … and for more on how YOU can enter for a chance to win.

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Black walnut ink is a beautiful, deep yet translucent, brown black primarily used in calligraphy, but also used for ink drawings or even as a wood stain. I’m not a calligrapher, but I love painting with lots of dark rich textures and couldn’t resist the look of this ink. I wanted to make my own and discovered it is a simple yet long, and sometimes smelly process. If you aren’t interested in the labor of making your own ink but would love to have some, Lark Crafts will be giving away six one-ounce bottles of my 2011 batch. If you don’t win the ink up for grabs here, don’t worry, there’s a handful of Etsy sellers offering black walnut ink listed at the end of this post.

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A dozen years ago I attended a class taught by Paulus Berensohn at Penland School of Crafts about making and keeping handmade journals. I’ve been making them ever since. During my time at Penland I picked up the classic bookbinding references Non-Adhesive Binding and its companion 1-2-&3-Section Sewings by Keith Smith, and they’ve been a huge source of inspiration ever since. As is the case with many artists and crafters, I often make far more journals than I would ever keep—so I give ‘em away all the time. Over my summer vacation I made journals for each of my Craft Your Life teammates, and still I had more! This is where you come in. I have six extra journals to give away to you: check out the video to see what they look like.

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