Handmade Art Journal Cover

Good Afternoon to you!
Ive been working my little heart out lately, trying to get my next round robin art journal ready. The theme for this one is Fairies and doodles - From the Fairy Dreams course by Adriana Almanza.
As I posted on Thursday, I really loved a journal i recieved to do art in. The way it was painted with texture, the artwork on the front and most of all i loved the fancy yarn that tied the paper signatures into place.
SO, as you've probably guessed, I decided to do my journal in a similar style.
First of all I found an old childrens board book with a wide spine and tore the pages out.(You could also use just a normal thick cardboard)  Next I prepped the cover inside and out by using sandpaper to rough it up a bit,
I then applied a layer of thick kitchen paper towel. I adhered it to the cover inside and out with Mod Podge. It was looking lke this

After that was completely dried over night, then came the fun part! I painted it in acrylic paint and added some "Fairy dust" for some extra magic.

My journal needed some of my artwork on the front so I decided to use my Aquamarkers to make this lovely fairy. Again Mod Podge to stick it down.

While this was all drying, I made my watercolour paper signatures to go inside the journal and cut my fancy yarn to length. I use the yarn to tie in the pages instead of sewing them in place. It works really well and you can get them quite tight plus it looks awesome! Add  some dangling beads and Im all done. I so loved making this cover and I know its the start of a whole new crafty direction for me.