How to Refinish That Blah Old Journal and Make It Your Own.

I love to write in my journal. Everyone I know gives me journals of some sort. Some represent my personality more than others. That is when I put my own personal touch on it. Wanna learn how? It's pretty simple and you can add your style to the book of a lifetime.

Step 1: Getting Started.

You will need:

The journal you want to refinish

A white, off white or beige prime the journal.

Paint the color(s) of your choice

Paint brushes

Embellishments (optional)

E-6000 glue

You have a plain journal. You want some color or a different color or design on it . No problem. I will show you how to paint and decorate your journal. I am showing two for this instructable. One is steampunk inspired and the other has a tie dye look to it.

First you want to paint your base coat. This is the primer paint color. I chose an off-white. Just to cover up words and/or original color. Apply paints very sparsely. If it is the card board backed types of journal (which are better for this project) will not hold up well to a lot of paint. It will damage the cover if it is too wet. I would also suggest the crafters style paint. It is thinner and a light coat will dry very quickly.

Step 2: Painting the Top Coat

For the steampunk, I chose a metallic green. Simply because it would go well with the embellishments I had in mind. I also made sure that the lines were smooth when I painted it. The tie dyed version, I took three colors and blended them to suit my taste. Notice I used two different types of brushes to reach the desired effect. You can make them to suit your taste. You can be elegant, funky or somewhere in between. It is your journal after all.

Step 3: Starting to Decorate

E-6000 glue cures a myriad of ill for artist and crafters. It works well with this project. I chose to title one journal memories and the other crazy love. So I started with applying the letters. It took a couple times sliding them around before I was happy with the result. These letters were purchased at an arts and crafts store. Once the lettering was done on the "steampunk" journal, it was time to move to gears and keys. On the "crazy love" journal, I was done. Some times you can get too much of a good thing. Negative space is still space.

Step 4: Adding the Bling

Steampunk... gears, keys, filigree, wings, clocks, sometimes lace, yes, I have put lace on a journal. . So once again, I grabbed the E6000 and set to work. I laid out the pieces and decided where to position them. Once I had them where I wanted them, I just glued them into place. Once the glue had time to dry, I had my very own personalized journal, to suit my taste and fit my style.

So don't pitch all those journal you have been picking through and around. Just make it part of your story.