The Good Witch: Polish, Pictures and Pixie Dust: DIY River Song TARDIS Journal

I live for the days I see him,

but I know that every time I do,

he’ll be one step further away.

The day is coming when I’ll look into

that mans eyes, my doctor, and he won’t

have the faintest idea of who I am.

And I think it’s going to kill me.

-River Song

Hello, Sweetie!

River Song- or Melody Pond, whichever pseudonym you care to use for her, is my favorite Doctor Who character. I love her wit and charisma, her cunning and her guile. And I LOVE her diary. I’ve wanted one since I first saw her use it.

But oh… My… Goodness… Have you seen what they’re going for? Anywhere from $20 on Etsy to $80 on Amazon.com. EIGHTY DOLLARS?! WTF!!! Granted… It’s supposed to be awesome… Chock full of spoilers, pictures, notes etc. But I can’t fathom spending $80 on a book with blank pages in it.
So I decided… Why not make one of my own?! I sat and mulled and fussed and quibbled with myself and I finally came up with this tutorial. If you have any questions, please let me know! And if you end up making one, I wanna see it!!!

Supplies You’ll Need:

Blue tissue paper- I used a darker blue, but you could use any shade.
Blue craft foam- .33 cents at Walmart!
Tacky Glue- Or any other glue of your choice.
Mod Podge
Foam brushes.
Exacto Knife.
A burnisher or something else that would help you tuck the tissue paper into the crevices.
A template of the front of the TARDIS like I have here:

Note: You may have to shrink or expand this image to fit your journal.

And you’ll also need a journal or diary. The one I have pictured is a Christmas gift from my sister that I’ve been using. While it’s gorgeous in it’s own right, I wanted something else lol.
You’ll also need some acrylic paint and ribbon.

Cut out your template pieces.

I ended up cutting the black edges off the pane pieces so they would be smaller than the openings on the door.
Mark out all the squares. You’ll need 16 in all, so you can double up each pane.

There’s all the little squares etched out. Carefully cut them out with your exacto knife.

Use the piece of foam the squares came from and mark out your next set of squares. Once you have them done, glue two together and set aside.

Cut out the door panels. Cut two out. Four in all.

Glue the pieces together and let sit.

Cut your top and bottom pieces, two of each and glue together.

Place them upon your journal and get a rough idea where everything needs to be. Don’t glue down yet!!!

With a pen or marker, mark where everything needs to be. I marked the left panel left and then marked each pane L4, L3 and so on. The sides are marked R or L and top and bottom marked with a T or B. After you have this step done, you can work on getting everything glued down.

Let everything sit and mellow overnight.

Then comes the fun part. Open your tissue paper and separate the sheets. Fold in half at the fold and then cut into strips.

Apply a thin layer of mod podge, then place your tissue paper. Using a popsicle stick or a burnishing tool, ease the tissue paper into the gaps. Some will tear, but don’t worry. You’ll be covering it with more tissue paper.
Continue this process until you feel that you’ve reached the desired look. It took me around 10 strips of tissue paper.

Day Three: I blamed the Santa Anas! I don't even know what the Santa Anas are!!

After each application, fill in the creases.

Cover the entire surface with a generous coat of mod podge and let sit for a few hours or until dry. The longer you wait, the better.

Then do the same for the back. This’ll be a lot easier to do because there aren’t any crevasses you have to fill or watch out for. This time it only took like six layers of tissue paper and mod podge to get the desired look.

Cover the entire surface with mod podge again and wait a few hours or overnight until you continue.

Now trim up the edges, not too much, because you’ll want to fold them over and mod podge them to the inside. Do this one layer of tissue paper at a time or you’ll end up with a big mess.

Again, let this dry for a few hours.

Once everything is dry, get out your ribbon, scissors and Tacky Glue. Cut a length of ribbon that will cover the spine of your book and then snake back into the book to form a bookmark.

Using a lighter, melt the ends of the ribbon so it won’t fray out.

Slather a good amount of Tacky Glue on the ribbon.

Using a good amount of force and patience, affix the ribbon to the spine of your journal and hold your mouth just right to make sure it stays. This took me three tries. I hate not having patience.

Using some black acrylic paint and a thin paint brush, go in and paint the edges of your journal and around the panes of the door to make it look more authentic.