Where can we get one?
As is true with many things, the way to get something exactly how you want it, is
to make it yourself.

The best way to do that in this case, would be to create a great handmade book with a beautiful cover, binding, and luxurious paper inside.

And, we will hold that as our dream - for when we have enough time.

But, there is an immediacy to art journaling and so we need a plan that lands a little short of that dream - but takes us beyond the choices available on store shelves.

There are wonderful journals on the market, but they don’t always contain the paper you need for the media you want to use, or they may be the wrong size, or they won’t lie flat so you can work in them.

So, we are going to explore two ideas here for quickly coming up a journal that works perfectly for you. The first is really fast and easy and the second takes a little more time, but gives you a few additional options.

Either method will get you what you need in a hurry and you can create that handmade masterpiece at a later date.
Plastic Coil Bound Customized Journal
Ok, ok, so it’s plastic. But, if you can get past that issue, there is so much to be said for this type of binding.

You can get it done for about $2 at most print shops or Kinko's type places in most locales, and there are even several choices of personal coil binding machines so you can have one at home (www.coilconnection.com).

You have a vast choice of both the color and the size of the binding. That means it can perfectly match your cover design, and that you can have a much larger coil inserted than the thickness of your pages - which will allow you to collage and add things to the pages and still have a book that will close flat.

You can bind any thickness of paper and even heavy covers.

The feel of the binding is much nicer than wire binding - soft and flexible.

Your book can be any size - limited only by keeping a spine length of less than 13" to accommodate most commercial machines.

And, maybe best of all, you can easily remove and replace the coil by hand, so you can rearrange pages at will - or add some, using a punched page as a template for punching a new one by hand.

The Pages
As far as page choices, the sky is not even the limit. You can pick anything that works for you - even big sheets of art paper (Arches Text Wove or Cover for example) that you can cut or tear to whatever size you want.

And you can mix and match - maybe half white and half black pages or Sheer Heaven overlay pages bound in, or mixes of your favorite colors of cover stock or pastel paper or watercolor paper of *any* weight - I could go on forever.

All you do is cut or tear the pages to size. (If you tear for a deckled edge, you must still cut the spine side straight for the correct alignment on the machine.) Then, just stack up your pages, choose a cover and carry it off to the print shop. The journal above shows a beveled mat used for a cover - creating a frame for a photo or any artwork you might want to feature on your cover (and this could be changed out to suit your changing moods).

So, coil binding is one great way to go. Now, let’s look at another alternative.
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