To start an Etsy shop or not to start an Etsy shop.

My many excuses for not starting have included – there are already so many shops selling handmade journals; my journals probably aren’t good enough; is now a good time; when is a good time… And on and on…

One thing I do know, if I don’t do it now, I’m pretty sure I never will.

Though I do find it daunting as I’ve never done anything like this before, and I don’t have much of a social media presence.

But, if I don’t try, I’ll never know, and I keep telling myself taking a step – any step – is better than not doing anything at all.

So, I’m still in the process of setting up the shop but trying not to get hung up on making sure everything is 100% perfect.

I’ve made 10 journals for the shop, and here they are… well, some of them anyway.

This first set consists of 2 journals made from envelopes, and I’ve called them Envelope Journals; very original, I know.

The measurements are 11.5cm across and 16cm tall.

I used 4 envelopes folded in half, sealed them then trimmed the sides of 2 to make pockets on either side of the journals.

While the setup is the same, the papers used are different as are the order of layouts.

They’re made using a mix of scrapbook papers, fabric, and tea-dyed papers.

I used berry tea to dye the papers, so they’ve got more of a bluish-purple hue.

In the pockets are a couple of cards, scrapbook papers and a piece of tea-dyed paper.

Each journal also has 4 cards with bird images, which are from ‘The Graphics Fairy’; I overlaid them onto script card using a photo editing tool.

This is the Brown Envelope journal as the paper on the cover is brown.

Layered over that is a piece of fabric, then a bit of scrapbook paper, over which is the image of birds.

The birds are part of a digital paper set I got many moons ago.

The photos show different layouts/pages from both journals.

And this is the Green Envelope journal because of the green paper on the cover.

This next set of 4 I’ve called Tall Journals only because I can’t think what else to call them.

I used chocolate box-packets for the covers, which is why they’re the shape they are.

The measurements are 9cm across, 19cm tall and the spine is about 1.5cm.

There’s one signature of 30 pages, giving 60 sides.

The papers are a mix of scrapbook papers, tea-dyed papers (again made using berry tea), book pages, music paper, and notebook paper.

There are a few pages – yellow and blue – which I dyed using liquid ink; wasn’t sure how they’d turn out, but I’m pleased with the result.

I’ve included a mix of ephemera from ‘The Graphics Fairy’, ‘Public Domain Pictures’, Johanna Clough’s Etsy shop, and the Etsy shop of ‘RubyandPearlxo’.

Again, while the setup and the ephemera are the same for each journal, the papers used are different.

The frames on the cover of each are from ‘The Graphics Fairy’ and were originally plain; I added a rose to each using a photo editing tool.

The photos show different layouts/pages from all 4 journals.

Please excuse the white paper clip, couldn’t think of any other way to hold the pages open.

This is the Green journal with the Blue frame:

Then the Pink journal with the Pink frame:

The Yellow journal with the Green frame:

Finally, the Pink journal with Purple frame:

Next week, I’ll show the last set of 4 destined for the shop.

If you want to see each journal in its entirety, the video has flip-throughs of each one; I hope you enjoy it.

Tall Journals, Envelope Journals, and an Etsy Shop