Stenciled Travel Journal Cover

by Deb @ NomadicDecorator.com

10 Minutes

Easy

I love keeping written journals when I travel. I make notes while learning and researching before the trip, and I write down memories during the trip. I have 15+ years worth of journals from trips! With an upcoming trip to Morocco, I decided to stencil a Moleskine journal with a Moroccan stencil.

Here's the blue stenciled journal cover with the books I'm currently reading about Morocco culture, design and shopping.

I used the Moroccan Starry Nights stencil from Royal Design Studio. It's a big stencil and you'd usually use it on a wall or something bigger. But that doesn't mean you can't use it on smaller things! Just place the stencil to make a partial design, as you can see I did here on the journal cover. I placed the stencil so it made radiating rays with the Moroccan "star."

Stenciling was super fast on a small item. Like 2 minutes!! I chose a blue-on-blue palette. It looks sophisticated. Although after living with this for awhile, I might add more pattern on to the painted parts!

Final result: The cover after stenciling it. I used the stencil creme in Peacock Fancy from Royal Design Studio. It has a beautiful shimmery sheen to it. It really dresses up the journal cover.

Then I decided to paint the edges of the papers gold, like you see on fancy books. I held the pages away from the covers as you see here, and ran a brush full of gold paint along the edges.

Ta-da! Gold edges!

Because I slopped some gold paint on the inside covers in a way that looked like a mistake, I decided to brush casual swaths of gold paint along the edges so it looks intentional.

Here you can see the journal cover and the gold edges.

If you do this, choose a journal cover with a smooth surface. It's easier to stencil. I used a Moleskine journal.

This is a super fast and easy project. It took more time to find my supplies around the house than to actually paint the journal!

And now I'm excited to collect notes in this fancy journal for my trip! :)

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1 question

Abigail Ellis on Oct 31, 2017

I love this!! I took up bujo a few months ago and I've been looking for a way to jazz up my journal! Question-- did you use acrylic paint?

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2 comments

Hannah V on Sep 22, 2014
I love it! Especially the gold edges.

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- Deb @ NomadicDecorator.com on Nov 01, 2014
  @Hannah V Thank you so much! :)
  
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