I got the idea into my head to make a felted journal cover. I had seen some on Pinterest and thought, HEY! I can do that!

So I proceeded to Google it and Youtube it and here is what I made!

how to make a felted journal cover

Isn’t it scrumptious as all get out?

I am WILD about it.

If you too would love to be the owner of such a gem, here is what I did to make it:

1. Buy a journal. Mine was a plain, hard-cover, spiral artist’s pad from Joann’s Fabrics.blank craft journal

2. Measure the cover so you know how big to make your piece of felt. (Mine was approx. 14″ x 11″)

3. Buy some wool. I purchased organic polwarth/silk mix roving from woolgatherings on etsy. 4 oz.  But you can do a search on etsy or google for roving OR batts (which might be easier, as they are already in sheet-like form)… JUST MAKE SURE you don’t get superwash wool. Superwash wool has been processed at the mill to prevent shrinking/felting. So you’d be up a creek without a paddle. It just wouldn’t felt.

4. Make a sheet of felt for the front and back of your journal. Wool shrinks when it felts, so make it several inches bigger on each side to allow for shrinkage during the felting!

Here I am laying out my wool to start felting it:

how to wet felt wool

And me actually wet-felting it:

how to wet felting wool

So how do you felt it? I watched these 2 YouTube videos to see how it’s done:

Wet Felting Part 1:

Wet Felting Part 2:

 

I made 2 sheets; 1 for the front and 1 for the back.

Let them dry. Took about 1 or 2 days over the heat vent.

Step 5: Needle felt designs onto your sheets! I did some flowers:

needle felting how to

 

And a butterfly:

how to needle felt a butterfly

I chose to decorate only the front sheet, basically because I broke all of my felting needles before getting to the back sheet. Oops.

Here’s the back:

felted journal cover

Not sure how to needle felt? I didn’t really know either.

You can again, check out YouTube. Basically you just need a needle-felting tool (about $20) and some loose wool (etsy!) and something soft to put under your wool ( I used my footstool), and start punching your loose wool onto your sheet of wet-felted wool. It will tangle and adhere together, as the needles have little tiny barbs on them. I actually started by needle-felting some of my hand-spun yarn onto the sheet.

how to needle felt

Easy and FUN!

Step 6: Hot glue on some jewels like I did, if you like. These were from an old broken bracelet I had kept.

Step 7: Hot glue your finished felt piece onto your journal. Wrap the edges around, cut away the excess on the corners and hot glue the edges to the inside.

hot glueing a felted journal cover

Step 8: Hot glue some ribbon like so to the front and back insides, which will serve as your ties to close up your journal.

felted journal cover inside

 

pretty felted journal chandi

Step 9: Cover the insides with paper/fabric or more felt. I used colorful scrapbook paper I had gotten at a yard sale.

inside a felted journal cover

Step 10. Tie some yarn onto the spirals for a fun look. I spun up the remainder of my polwarth/silk roving from woolgatherings, mixing in some sparkly angelina (etsy!) and used that. If you don’t know how to spin, you can purchase hand-spun yarn on etsy or get a drop spindle and learn to spin ( I use a wheel, though… a lendrum saxony, 28″ double treadle, about $1000). OR! Use ribbon, store-bought yarn, twine, strips of gorgeous fabric, or whatever.

hand spun yarn journal

I chose to make the top yarn really long, and added some beads (from Joann’s Fabrics) to the ends, to function as a bookmark.

handspun yarn and beads bookmark

And DONE!

Hurray!

felted journal cover flowers how to

It sounds like a lot of steps, but it’s simpler and easier than I made it seem!

Not wanting to do all these steps?

TIP! You can buy thick sheets of felt in your local craft store, and pre-felted flowers/animals/shapes… you could just hot glue the shapes onto the felt sheet and hot glue that onto the journal. Voila.

You can usually find this felty-type stuff near the yarn section. (I’m not talking about those thin sheets of felt in the kid’s section, although you could use those too I guess).

So there you have it!

I chose to put stickers and little cards and envelopes all throughout the inside to make it even more special!

stickers hand made journal

I’ll be using this as my creative journal… writing down my dreams, my goals, my plans…poems, things to remember in years to come. Things I’m grateful for, etc.

I hope this tutorial helps you! These would make awesome gifts.

You know I love your comments, so comment below and let me know what you think! Would you make one of these?

XOXOXO

Chandi