Assalamu Alaikum!
It's time to get creative! In this quick post we wanted to share with you some lovely ways to spice up your journal. These are things which we enjoy doing to help make our journals more interesting. So, let's get started and show you our tips!
1. Coffee/Tea-dyed Pages
Yes, you can dye your paper with coffee/tea to get, not only beautifully stained pages, but ones that smell delicious too! If you are looking to give your journal an antique-y vintage look then some coffee-dyed pages will do the trick.
All you have to do is brew some coffee, let it cool and pour it into a large shallow dish. Then dip your paper into the coffee coating it completely, remove and set to dry on a wire rack, craft mat or even hanging from a washing line. The cool thing is that the colour will vary depending on how strong your coffee/tea is and on how long you soak your paper for. Also, have you ever tried painting with coffee?! You might want to give it a go.
2. Pressed Flowers
Pressed flowers are a lovely delicate touch to add to any journal and they are so easy to make. We don't like picking flowers but here we make an exception as they will be preserved and appreciated. Pressed flowers can contain a lot of memories too. Before we moved to Qatar we pressed some leaves and flowers from the trees in our old garden to remember them. This way we will always have a piece of our old home with us, insha'Allah.
To press your flowers or leaves simply lay them down between the pages of a thick book and forget about them for a while! Sometimes the flowers may stain your books though, so it would be a good idea to place them between some tissue paper.
3. Salt-on-Paint Technique
This is an unusual and very creative trick that you will definitely want to try. The result is this beautiful pattern and you won't believe how easy it is to get.
You simply need to paint one of your pages (using watercolour paints), sprinkle some salt over it (while it is still wet) and then wait to see what happens! You don't need a great amount of salt; actually we have found that using less salt gives you a prettier pattern most of the time. When the paint dries you can brush off the salt. Then enjoy your lovely new patterned page. You can watch this video on it if you like.
4. Embroidery
Embroidery is a lovely therapeutic hobby and you can start practicing on some of your journal pages. You can embroider flowers, a scenery or anything you like really.
If you are a beginner here is a video that should help you get started. There are many other YouTube videos that you can follow too.
Our advice is to draw or paint something first and then embroider over it.
5. DIY Pompoms
This is another craft that you can do to decorate the outside of your journal. You could make several of these to hang from your journal among your other charms.
You can watch this video to learn how to make them. These pompoms are so easy to make and will look very pretty dangling from your journal, insha'Allah!
Well, that is all we have for this week's post. See you next Friday, insha'Allah!
Wassalam,
