In for a penny or ha'penny as the case may be
I don't have the money right now to buy special materials for this project. So that leaves me with what I have, which is quite a bit.
I'm going to make a hardcover accordion book for this. I like that format because it's easy to work in for adding art on each page, and this will be pretty thick after finishing, so I can then make a custom slipcase for it.
The cover will be done in scrapbooking paper that features an oil painting by Renoir called "Seascape." I liked this because it had a lot of the blue, green, and teal colours that are in the cards, and Renoir was Victorian so it fits the theme in an artsy style which is my goal for the journal.
The paper accordion is done with pastel paper--in this case moss or olive colour since I have 3 big sheets of that which hopefully will be enough for 78 pages. It's going to be small though, 2.75 x 6 inches at most which is fine because I like doing small, detailed work. Rather an odd size to work with, which I like and because the pages are not bound there needs to be no margin.
Extra papers for collage will be in scrapbook paper Victorian motifs like postcards, letters and butterfly stamps, with some blue Japanese papers and who knows what else. I have Kraft paper photo corners to insert pen and ink artwork done on watercolour paper on the papers, or I will make my own photo corners from Victorian type paper. I have some Victorian wrapping paper too with cats and stuff.
I also have a calligraphy pen with black and gold ink for titling and embellishment.
I don't care for overwrought Victoriana, and I think the art theme of the cards fits something subdued but artsy.
http://www.jjcolourart.com/pb/wp_14adce0d/wp_14adce0d.html?0.08291455208668835