Heat Embossed Journal

Hello friends! The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day. I have an Eileen Hull Inspiration Team tutorial to share with you, made with her new dies, inks and embossing powders. 

I made a notebook journal, as a gift to a friend. The journal is completely covered in embossing powder, so it has a glass-like finish. It is very quick and easy to do. Just be very careful when using a heat gun so that you don't burn yourself. Never touch melted embossing powder until it is completely cool.

Start by die cutting the notebook from mat board. Eileen's new Blends 2 inks by Clearsnap are so fun to use. They come in very handy bottles, which opens up for a whole range of fun techniques. You can paint, splatter, ink with a sponge, and so many other things. I placed two puddles on my craft sheet and applied them to the mat board with a Colorbox Stylus Tool, with an oval sponge. If you have never used the Stylus too before, it is a really awesome inking tool and I have used it for many years, especially for my scenic stamping, since it is great for detailed work. But it is also perfect for larger surfaces, and ergonomic too. You can easily change the sponges, and there is place for a sponge on each side of the tool.

Continue sponging to create an ombre effect.

The inks stay wet for a while so you can easily emboss on top of them. I sprinkled some Polished Silver Molten Dimensions and Glistening Glass Molten Dimensions powders on top and then melted. I love the names of these new embossing powders.

My favorite of the new Blends 2 inks might be the clear ink. Clear ink in a bottle! Imagine the possibilities. I used clear inks to add more powder, once the base layer of ink had dried. You can leave the background like this, and it has a great texture look and feel to it, since the Molten Dimensions powders are chunky.

I was having such fun with the embossing powders, so I decided to cover the entire surface with clear powder. Just apply the clear ink with a sponge and coat with powder. Again, do not touch the melted powder until is is completely cool.

On the edges and the spine, I applied more clear ink and sprinkled with Black Magic Molten Dimensions powder.

You can bind the journals in different ways. Here I punched two holes at the top and bottom and on third way down. 

Bind it with a piece of elastic, as shown here.

I like to tie the string through a button at the spine and then tie it again at the ends to create a closure mechanism.

Cut papers 6.6 x 4.7 in (12 x 17 cm), fold and score and arrange into signatures of about 6-7 papers, depending on the thickness of the paper. The best thing with making your own journals, is that you can use your favorite papers. Stitch down the center and keep in place with the elastics.

The title was die cut with one of the Journaling Words dies, from kraft and black paper.

Glue the title to the cover with matte medium.

Here you can see the glossy effect of the cover. If you want it completely smooth, you can add another layer of clear powder, but I liked the slightly textured look.

The book was embellished with Prima's Meadows Pretty Pale flowers.

These journals are such fun to make, and they make great gifts.

The finished journal is 4 x 5 in. For more notebook inspiration, check out my Watercolor Meadow Notebook.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Other supplies:

Clearsnap Eileen Hull: Blends2 ink: Beach, Bay, and Clear