Bee Junk Journal

Hey guys. Nik the Booksmith, a member of our talented Junk Journal Design Team, has created a beautiful junk journal for us today. As you know, we feature one new Junk Journal every week created by our awesome team of book artisans. We want you to be totally inspired by this series! Nik created a marvelous Ode to the Bee Junk Journal project this month. Be sure to check out the video tour at the bottom of the page…please scroll all the way down to see it. Are you ready to view this creation? I will let Nik tell the intriguing story of her book…

Inside the Bee Junk Journal

Can you believe it’s 2019?? I think I need to lie down. Okay, now that we’ve come to terms with the insanely rapid passage of time, I would love to show you my design team project for January!

My inspiration for this journal is the humble, yet essential, honey bee. Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” Well, that’s sobering! But maybe it’s something we should all keep in mind. In light of how indispensable bees are, I created this book as an Ode to the Bee. On the cover, I’ve used a graphic I created for Spoonflower, but printed it onto a high-resolution paper. Then I covered the spine with a mocha brown, distressed textile, and a patch of aged, tattered muslin.

Another vintage graphic graces the lower left of the front cover with a vine and the initial B. I finished off the cover with a metal bookplate and the title of a book about bees from the 1850s, called “The Hive and the Honey-Bee.”

Along with this book comes an assortment of ephemera of the bee variety! At the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership site, I found a bundle called Beekeeping. It has 17 brushes (or clipart) for Photoshop/Photoshop Elements and I used most of these! It also has some projects already made up and ready to print. The bookmarks were absolute perfection!

 

Because bees’ best friends are flowers, they also made an appearance in this book. I used colorful, floral clip art that was also found at the Membership site in a bundle called Roses and Bees. That bundle was helpful because not only did it have clip art, but also some black and white photoshop brushes. I loved the bee and the roses page art! A Nik the Booksmith journal would not be complete without some poetry, so of course I had to include some of my favorite quotes and verbage and sprinkle them throughout the pages.

The California Poppy and Goldsturm Rudbeckia are among the favorites of my bees. So as a special inclusion, I made up some antique-looking seed packets and filled them with seeds from my own garden. I think they add a personal touch to this journal!

Thank you for taking the time to peek at my book. I hope you enjoyed my Graphics Fairy design team project for this month. If you did, I hope you plant some bee-loving wildflowers in your yard this Spring and join me in thanking our busy bees. They truly are the gentle, modest caretakers of pollination!

Bee Themed Graphics Fairy Images

I love the garden and bee ephemera bundles that the Graphics Fairy offers! I used Beekeeping Bundle and Roses and Bees Bundle.

The Hive and the Honey-Bee Flip Through Video

I have a complete flip-through of his Poet’s French Junk Journal on my YouTube channel.

Thank you for taking a peek at my Bee Junk Journal project for The Graphics Fairy! You can find my work on My YouTube Channel or in My Etsy Shop. See you next month.

Nik the Booksmith