Moroccan Travel Journal For Cox & Kings

If you cast you mind back to last Thursday, all those days ago, before the weekend and everything, you might remember that I’m taking part in a competition being sponsored by Cox & Kings. Myself and four other artist / bloggers have been asked to make something inspired by the Cox & Kings Morocco Tours. We all got to choose a photograph to take as our inspiration and here is the one I chose…

Moroccan tile inspiration photo from Cox and Kings

[Photograph from Cox & Kings]

I wasn’t really sure what to make, but then it hit me, what do artists need when they travel? A travel journal of course!

Moroccan tile inspired Travel art journal by Kim Dellow

I was very glad I had a photo with Moroccan tiles, so I thought I would try to reproduce them in my make.

View of the binding of the Moroccan tile inspired Travel art journal by Kim Dellow

I used a French Link stitch to bind the journal, which was fun as I hadn’t used that particular binding before.

The signatures are made up of a range of different papers so there is lots of choice for sketching, painting, journalling in this travel journal. You can pop photos in it too and there is a folder in the back to store all your travel ephemera.


[There are some affiliate links in this blog post, so if you buy through them I do get a small amount of money at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for your support!]

View of the pages of the Moroccan tile inspired Travel art journal by Kim Dellow

I even found some paper in my stash that had a map of Morocco too!

inside the Moroccan tile inspired Travel art journal by Kim Dellow

If you don’t want to know how I put the cover together then skip down to the bottom now to check out the websites of my fellow participants.

The cover is a mixed media piece. I thought I would do a little experiment, I’ve been meaning to try designing some stencils and masks with software to then cut with the Silhouette Cameo, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to give it a go.

I started in Photoshop Elements with my inspiration photograph and selected the elements that I wanted in the tile portion of the photograph.

Setting up the Moroccan tile design in Photoshop by Kim Dellow

I also changed some of the elements to get a full tile and to add a bit more symmetry in the places where the picture wasn’t complete. Once I had my new tile I opened the file in Inkscape.

Turning the Moroccan tile design into a cutting file in Silhouette Studio by Kim Dellow

As you can imagine, working from a photograph in Photoshop meant that the elements of the tile were quite pixelated and I used Inskape to clean up the edges of the shapes so that I could then use the file to create a cutting file in Silhouette Studio.

The finished cutting file by Kim Dellow

I then used the cutting file to cut a mask from oil-coated card which I then used to paint the tile onto the cover with acrylic paint.

Using the DIY Moroccan tile inspired stencil by Kim Dellow

I had already prepared the cover with a collage of paper printed with my Thursday blog post translated into Arabic with Google Translate, fixed and then painted with Gesso.

Once I finished the stenciling I used the mask again to put a layer of clear texture paste over the pattern to give it the look of tiles and a bit of dimension, then lightly distressed the edges of the covers to bring the whole book together.

Close up of the finished travel art journal cover by Kim Dellow

It was a great learning process and a big thank you to Cox & Kings for the inspiration and motivation to try out my little experiment!

Going by their blogs I know that the other guys, Vandy Massey, Jenny Keal, Concetta Perôt and Alan Reed, will have some amazing and different pieces to show you and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has done. So pop on over to their websites to take a peek.

Thanks for popping by.

Kim


Kim Dellow

Kim Dellow is an artist–designer–film-maker living the creative life in London, UK. She's a freelance creative for the craft industry and others, and she loves to share her art-ventures on her blog.

This Post Has 27 Comments

  1. Christine

    beautiful work! So interesting to see your inspiration and progress.

  2. SLScheibe

    Wow! This is gorgeous and looks so good! Great info too. What a beautiful hand made journal 🙂

  3. Tammy N

    What an amazing travel journal. It is a work of art. I love the tile you did for the cover.

  4. Gio

    Wow, such a gorgeous and inspired piece, Kim!

    The cover looks like a real tile, so shining and vibrant in colours. And thanks for sharing the process!

  5. Candy C

    Kim…I remember when we were on the DT at SSS together; way back in the beginning. You were always so talented! 🙂 This Moroccan Travel journal cover is amazing! You have really captured that mosaic tile feeling seen so much in that country. Such a gorgeous journal. I love the binding and the inside pages as well. You always have such unique and interesting projects. Thanks so much for the nice comment you left on my blog as well. 🙂 <3 Candy

  6. Astrid Maclean

    What an amazing make Kim, love your tile designs, the whole thing looks fantastic!

  7. Cazzy

    Wow Kim, this is so clever, you are so clever!

    Carol x

  8. Danielle Champagne

    Wow… Kim, I read your post from first to last line. Love the tile you created, and your technique on Photoshop, absolutely outstanding. Love the happy colors and the idea of the travel journal. Wonderful project. thank you for stopping by my blog, and leaving such kind words. Hugs & cheers from Montreal.

  9. Paper Profusion

    Wow Kim – superb combination of top-notch crafting and techie design! Brilliant piece! Nicola x

  10. Redanne

    Oh my goodness Kim, how talented are you! The journal cover is stunning and really does sum up the feel of Morocco so well. The inside pages are wonderful too. A very inspiring piece! Anne x

  11. Lisa

    Oh wow, this is absolutely stunning!! What a gorgeous travel journal!! That cover is spectacular!! Love, love it!!

    Lisa
    A Mermaid's Crafts

  12. Patricia

    Wow!! I love that journal cover, absolute beautiful.
    Having lived in Turkey for many years this brings back happy "sunshine" memories

    Patricia

  13. Netty

    wow Kim, the results are stunning, the cover is pure Morocco, its wonderful. Annette x

  14. Valerie-Jael

    This is a fantastic journal, love everything about it! Valerie

  15. Karen Petitt

    I so wish that I had found this blog earlier. Thank you for the lovely comment.
    I love your stamps and am on a real learning curve with the ones that I won because I am attempting to make my own ink pad for the first time too.
    I used to do mosaics and when I saw this I thought that was what it was before looking further down the page – blooming awesome art! Gorgeous journal x

  16. Meihsia Liu

    Hi, Kim, wow… this is such an amazing piece of artwork. Love the gorgeous colors. 🙂

  17. Desire Fourie

    Oh wow Kim this is so creative. Love how you used the tiles in the photo as your inspiration. The whole creation will make one wanting to visit the country and start journaling in it. Good luck with the competition.
    Hugs Desíre {Doing Life}

  18. hazel

    A wonderful travel journal, the colours are gorgeous.
    xxx Hazel.

  19. Shirley Davis

    Utterly fabulous. Truly talented craft-artists don't just put kits together – they make items to go into their projects.

  20. kissinia

    Oh Kim! You rule/// Travel book and in this style. Super cool!

  21. denthe

    Oh wow, this is amazing! I first thought it was a real tile when I saw the first picture of your journal. Great work! Now I'm off to find out about Silhouette Studio …;-)

  22. butterfly

    Really stunning, Kim… not surprised it inspired all your fellow artists to vote – amazing work!
    Alison xx

  23. Lucy Edmondson

    Just followed the link to look at your winning piece – amazing!!

    Lucy x

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