Fairy Tale Journals made by Slow Design

My good friend just found the coolest journal in the world for me-the pink "Beauty and the Beast" one below. The series, Libri Muti, features two other fairy tale titles:

Libri Muti fairy tale notebooks-One Thousand and One Nights and Beauty and the Beast

Once Upon a Time

Product description:
"Libri Muti (Italian for Mute Books) are inspired by the “forbidden books” of the revolution period in many cultures.

The Mute Books collection reinterprets classical titles, mixing traditional printing and binding techniques together with a fresh spirit, added by hand-coloured edges.

These classical titled empty notebooks allow anyone to now freely fill with its own feeling."

The journal is beautiful in person. It's great for someone with a lot to write about, it's very thick and really feels more like a book than a normal journal. The exposed binding is really the only thing that gives you a clue it's not a regular book from the outside. 

Figment Studios Journal Review

A while ago I posted the fairy tale-themed journals at Figments Studios, and I am now the owner of the Once Upon a Time journal.

Now these are rather pricey-this one was $58.95 plus shipping. But a journal is a pretty special part of your life for a while, and then you (hopefully) keep it for the rest of your life, so I think it's worth it to splurge on a beatuful one like this (or you could just do what I did and request it for a birthday present).

The journal comes in a complementary gift box:

Then you open it to find a precious elfin seal guarding your treasure:

And there in the packaging lies your journal, just as ornate in person as the pictures indicate on the website.

I absolutely love it; my only complaint is the smell. It came with a very strong almost metallic scent-unfortunately it doesn't have that "old book" smell its appearance might suggest. At first when I took it out of its box my whole room smelled odd, but after spraying a little Febreeze and letting it sit in the sunlight it's not so bad.

So, if you're willing to deal with the smell, I would absolutely recommend any of the journals on the website. There are several pictures to choose from if you want a large frame journal, many of which are fairy-inspired, and you can also send in a picture to make a custom frame journal, which is a pretty neat feature.

Speaking of fairy journals, I've had my eye on this one on etsy for a while, made from vintage fairy tale book cover. Again it's fairly expensive, this one is $60. Hopefully it will still be around for me to request for Christmas...

How to Make your own Beauty and the Beast Journal

This post could really be applied to making any fairy tale or any other kind of journal, but my examples are Beauty and the Beast.

For fairy tale fans who journal and also happen to be adults, it can be hard to find appropriate journals. Most look much like one of these:

So for a little more sophistication, you can create your own journal. The easiest thing to do is simply create a collage over an existing journal. You'll need a journal with a smooth cover you don't mind ruining, some kind of glue (I recommend using Mod Podge, which is made to use for collages and dries clear), and pictures you'd like. For the below images, I did internet searches for' "Beauty and the Beast" -Disney' and printed out my favorite results, or used scans of pictures from my favorite picture book version of BATB, illustrated by Angela Barrett. Surlalune's illustrations pages is also a great place to find classic fairy tale illustrations.

Collages give you a lot of freedom to be creative. Another way to create a fun journal is to reuse a children's story book cover. Techniques for this can be as simple as folding a stack of papers in half and stapling them in the middle, then gluing the outside pages to the inside covers, or you can get fancy with different kinds of bookbinding, sewing sections of paper together for more sturdy and thick books. This tutorial seems to be relatively helpful but doesn't provide help in sewing; this video shows someone sewing a book. For the one below I did the old fold-staple-glue routine.



For the journal below I sewed sections of folded paper together. I made this years ago so don't have step-by-step pictures to show what I did, but I used techniques I learned in a Japanese bookbinding class. And for those who are appalled at my turning this beautiful vintage book into a journal, in my defense, I was young and foolish and the cover had already come off; I probably wouldn't do it again now but it was one of my favorite journals to use...

Magical Journals

I've gone through many journals and tend to be very picky about the ones I buy, but thanks to an ad in Faerie Magazine I have just possibly stumbled upon the most perfect journals ever:

Available at FigmentsStudio. I will definitely be buying at least one, eventually, despite the high prices.