How to Make a New Cover for your Journaling Bible - by Sarah Anderson

Sadly my journaling bible had been bugging me for a while.  I don't think it's that full but its hardcover was so hard that it sat very open (as you can see from the image above) and just felt 'clunky' and uncomfortable in my hands.  So I decided to be very brave and do something about it!

I managed to remember to take a couple of photos of the process but then got carried away and forgot so please bear with me with the explanations.

I carefully peeled the front inside page away from the hardcover as I had notes on it that I didn't want to lose.  The back page was too tricky to peel off so I used a knife to slice the inner pages away.

I then used the old cover as a template to cut out a piece of leather.  My son loves making things with leather (he's made me a gorgeous little coin bag) and so I raided his stash (with his permission!).  I also cut the leather slightly longer than the original hardcover.

Before attaching the leather cover to the pages I trimmed a long, thin length of leather to create a cord.  I then made a hole in what would be the back cover, looped the thin leather through it then stitched up and down over the hole using my sewing machine.

I adore hydrangeas and these fabric ones were part of an unfinished project I didn't like so I stitched them to what would be the front cover, again using my sewing machine; this time dropping the feed dog and free machining.  I also added a button for the looped leather to hook around.  I forgot to take a photo of this stage but hopefully the above image gives an idea of placement.

I then spread UHU glue on the front and back of the text block, wrapped the leather around it and left it to dry with a heavy weight on top.

My journaling bible is now an absolute pleasure to use.  Just holding it in my hands makes me smile and I love the way it sits when open now.  It's also much more of a reflection of my creativity on the outside.

Is there something that's bugging you and that, by stepping out courageously you could make a change?  This might be something practical, but it might be something at work, within a friendship, at home...