Custom Made Art Journals

This year for my after-school Art Journal class, I decided I was tired of ordering them online, paying almost $9 for a small 7" x 10" book. I found that if I went to a local paper supply store, I could buy 8.5" x 11" chip board and paper, and my local Staples could put them together with a black coil binding. This  paper cover allowed me to try out a painting technique, spreading acrylic paint with old credit cards. I tried out about 5 or so different colors on this sample, each spread very thin with a card before adding another. I plan to have students choose and apply maybe one color at the end of each class to build up lots of layers over time. Cost of these books? About $6 and I get a much larger size to work with – works for me!