The Celtic Journal Ready for Artistic Adventure

When I found this old embossed hymnal, I liked the look of it and wondered if it could be transformed into my newest art Journal.  I decided to risk cutting the pages out and using the entire cover as the cover for my Celtic Travel Journal. I get a little nervous when cutting into an old piece I respect and don't want to ruin. I use a lot of music in my art journals, so I will use the music whether it is inside or outside of the cover. But still.... I was nervous! That must be why I forgot to take photos of the process. I'm sorry. I wish I had taken "before" photos. Happily, it worked. Here is a picture of the cover, laying flat, after the pages are out.

Because it had the embossed window and decorations, I painted gold paint on it and then quickly rubbed it off with a cloth to make the embossing stand out and give an antique effect. It was further enhanced with some Golden Fluid Acrylic Sap Green and Paynes Gray. The hymnal was originally a navy color. The original title is under the Celtic knot. You can still see the title on the spine. I will cover that up in the same way I did the Gothic Window, a piece of painted paper with doodling, sealing with gloss medium and gluing on with "Yes" glue.

Even though the original book is old, the spine was still in pretty good shape. I carefully cut just inside the end pages with an Exacto knife so the hymn pages would come out easily together. I was careful not to cut into the spine itself. Then I reinforced the spine with tape. Then I cut a piece of museum board the length of the book and the width of what the spine should be (1 inch for this book). I used a small dab of "Yes" glue at the top and bottom between the spine and the museum board to hold the spine in place. Then I used fabric tape to cover the spine, extending over to the inside front and back covers. My tape has music on it. It took three lengths of tape to cover the spine. At this point I am totally experimenting. I'm thinking I will Cover the end pages later and maybe put a pocket on the inside of the back cover. We'll see....

Now for the inside... I want something that is flexible because I have no idea at this point what the journal will end up looking like. After making the the Granada travel journal, I know I like the accordion style with pages sewn in. I've decided to make the pages out of 140 lb Fabriano Artistico Hot Press Watercolor paper. I measure the height to fit in the journal (8"), along the long length of the watercolor paper (30"). This 8" x 30" strip will be the folded accordion page. Then I measured and tore pages to sew into each of the accordion folds. Shown here:

I clipped the first page of the accordion to the cover to see how it would look and function. I am pleased with the results: a blank book canvas ready for creative adventure!

Okay, now it's ready to travel. I will leave the cover at home because I need to travel light. The inside and cover will be glued together later after more of the inside is done. The accordion pages will fit into a Ziploc plastic bag in my travel art kit. 

Onward and forward....