Usually when I design a decorative cover for a notebook I tend to keep them fairly flat. This is because raised layers or embellishments can get damaged when the notebook’s in my bag. Today however I decided to turn this notebook into a journal that can stay at home. So that meant I could pull out the Ornate Layers Dies and make something a bit more elaborate.

HARVEST DIES

Before getting to the Ornate Layers Dies I needed to start with the floral decoration. So I pulled the multi-flower die from the Harvest Dies set and used it to cut some Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper.

It occurred to me that this plant could very well be a Michaelmas Daisy (aster) and they come in lots of different colours. My favourite of course is purple, and as this journal is for me that’s the colour scheme I chose.

Along with Gorgeous Grape, I went with Bumblebee for the flower centres and Garden Green for the stems. Instead of using re-inker I squeezed the lids of the closed ink pads so the foam pad was pressed onto the inside. Then when I opened the ink pads I could use the lids as palettes.

To stop the ink colours from running into each other I took each section in turn and allowed them to dry before moving onto the next.

For the open flowers I used a Water Painter to ‘paint’ a ring of water around the outside. Then I picked up the Gorgeous Grape ink with the tip of the brush and touched the water nearest the centre. The water pulled the ink from the brush and began to spread it over the wet surface. Because the centres were dry the ink stayed away from those areas. Then on the smaller buds I wet the whole area and touched the ink toward the base.

For the centre of the three open flowers I waited until I was happy with the colour and made sure that they were completely dry. Then I painted Bumblebee ink in the centre, while avoiding the petals as much as possible.

The stem was painted last using the same technique of covering it with clean water before adding the ink and allowing it to spread.

Once I’d finished painting I left the piece to dry thoroughly, and began work on the rest of the journal layers.

ORNATE LAYERS

The notebook I found was a 4″ x 5-1/2″ with a spiral binding and purchased at the Dollar Store. Spiral bound books can be challenging to cover so I decided to keep the design as simple as possible.

From the Ornate Layers Dies I chose the tall die with a simple row of holes and stitched detail around the edge. To create some bold contrast with the original cover I chose Very Vanilla Card for this layer. Once it was die-cut I attached the card to the front of the notebook using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).

Next I chose a more fancy die from the Ornate Layers and cut that from Gorgeous Grape Card. Before adding it to the journal I decided to thread some gold cord from the Simply Elegant Trim Pack through a hole at each end. To keep it stable I used Tear & Tape Adhesive to attach the layer to the journal and then tied the cord in a simple bow at one end.

Once the watercoloured flowers were dry that piece was added to the layers with liquid glue.

Finally I went looking for a suitable sentiment. In the After The Storm Stamp Set I found “You have been on my mind” and this seemed perfect for a journal. So using Gorgeous Grape ink I stamped it onto some Very Vanilla Card.

Going back to the Harvest Dies I took the small label die and used that to cut out the sentiment. Then after fixing it over the cord with a couple more Stampin’ Dimensionals my journal cover was complete.

I love how this project turned out, and not just because it’s purple. Or perhaps it is…

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set and coordinating Harvest Dies using a single bundle item number. That meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included links for both options in case you want to explore this further.