For day 19 of the January Journal Crusade, Misty challenged us with using fabric and additional elements in our journals. I thought this would be the perfect time to do a cover. Now, originally I started this month with a small handmade journal, I moved to a new 9×7 watercolor fieldbook to do the color portion. I am going to combine the two to make one journal for this month.
To begin the cover, I applied a coat of gesso. Next I printed out some of my pages in a 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 size onto a piece of fabric. To prepare the fabric so it would feed through the printer I ironed a piece of muslin onto the waxy side of a piece of freezer paper and trimmed it to 8 1/2 x 11. Not wanting it to run, I sprayed with a workable fixative and let dry. I then cut out each of the images and using Golden’s Matte Gel Medium, I glued them onto the cover, being sure to apply a coat of medium over the whole cover.
Taking some white, buff, and burnt umber paint, I filled in the uncovered areas and blended in some of the edges of the images.
After this dried, I added some text, both written, rub ons, and cut out. I chose words that have meaning for me as I start this new year.
To tie the whole thing together a bitmore, I applied a wash of Nickel Azo Gold to the whole cover and wiped off some of it. 
I Then I wired some vintage glass buttons that I’ve been hording. I am really trying to get over the ‘saving it for something special and never using it’ thing. Next I am going to sew some of my smaller pages right into this journal and combine everything together. Lucky for us there are no ‘rules’ in journaling:-)
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