All Things Austen

Hello my beauties! It's been ages since I've done anything in the refashion/craft world, I've been through several relocations, and am currently in a small apartment that makes crafting a little difficult (not complaining AT all, that's just where I am in life right now.) But I've started doing a few things again, so we'll start off with this one. 

I'm in LOVE with the idea of this craft. It is a refashion, of sorts. Here's the original. An ordinary, small journal that someone gave me at a Bible study years ago. I wrote in about 8 pages of it, which I ended up taking out for this project.

I bought some lovely paper from Hobby Lobby, and mod podged it onto the diary. It was a pattern, so I wanted to make sure it was centered. Not pictured, I laid a book on top of the diary as the glue was drying, not entirely sure it was necessary, but it didn't do any harm.

Above is the whole page now glued to the book. Mod podge dries pretty fast, I was glad I didn't have to wait hours to do this project. Look at the cuts I was making below. I knew I wanted to fold the papers over and glue them to the inside of the book, to prevent the wear and tear from separating the page from the book, (ya know, like they do on real books, haha)

 

Cutting and folding, folding and gluing, it's all going very well, better than I thought.

 

You'll notice that I had to cut a little more off from the sides of the spine in order to fold it down properly over the edge of the book. (I really hope that makes sense.) In the second picture, those lovely ladies, which were the main part of the whole 'Inspired by Jane Austen' thing, were originally going to decorate the front and back of the book, but they just didn't go with the pretty cover paper, they ended up clashing. It looked decent in a picture, but not in person, and I wasn't having that.

 I tried several different types of decor, none really seemed to work, and really, this cover paper is pretty all by itself.

Look at the sparkle, look at the shine! It makes a lovely addition to my classically inspired diaries! (Although I'm still not finished with the brown one, just wanted to show the collection. The sparkly one is next. :)

 I thought about adding ribbon around the edges of the diary, but I think this paper was meant to stand on it's own, with no extra frills needed. I took that oversized ribbon that's been in my collection for EONS (it might actually be older than me!) and trimmed off both sides of that gold mesh, leaving the skinnier ribbon pictured below, and voila! A bookmark! NOW it is complete. (I think.) Pictures do not quite do it justice, it is just beautiful in person. My husband was rather impressed with the making of it, even he thinks it looks very nice!

Rehash, the before and after. Love!!