About Our Journals

Bella Classica Art Journals was born from a love of watercolor painting adventures and vintage books. Each journal is hand-sewn using professional quality watercolor paper to transform old books into new canvases for those who love to paint and draw as much as we do. 

We are excited that you are here and hope that you will take some time to learn more about our journal creation process. We have provided the information below to address some of the common questions about our journals and to explain more about our custom journal option. 

If you have additional questions about any of our current journals or if you are interested in talking to us about creating a custom art journal please reach out so that we can assist you. We can be reached at bellaclassicaartjournals@gmail.com or you can also use the chat feature or contact form on the website. 

We believe each journal finds the artist meant to create within it. Once you find your journal, we would love it if you would share what you are making with us on Instagram @bellaclassicaartjournals.

Happy creating!

The Team at Bella Classica

Our Paper Options

The pages in each journal are deckled by hand and are made of 100% premium 140 LB 300 GSM watercolor paper that is perfect for sketching and painting with a range of mediums. We offer both cold and hot press paper as standard options for most of our journals. 

Cold press paper is the most commonly used watercolor paper and is usually the preferred selection on our site. It has a slightly rough texture that is more absorbent than hot press. It allows for much looser paintings because the paper holds a lot of water. Hot press is a smooth paper that people prefer if they are painting very realistic or finely detailed watercolor. The smooth texture of the hot press paper is also useful for those who want to focus on sketching. The quality of the paper we use also allows for beautiful mixed media art as well. 

Our Books

The books used in the journal-making process are selected from antique stores, used bookstores, and private book collections. The covers are made from a range of materials including leather, paper and linen and each is chosen for its unique qualities including interesting colors, wear patterns and cover art. 

In addition to featuring vintage and modern books with unique and interesting covers, we also emboss the covers on many of our journals to create pieces that are as special as the artists that use them. 

Journal Construction

Our journals are constructed by sewing the signatures by hand. The journal is then hand-glued for a professional finish without gaps between signatures. The journals are designed to lie flat to make creating fun and easy to do. Small details such as hand-crafted pockets with room for color swatching and ribbons to keep track of your current works are added to make the use of our journals functional and special. 

We take care to assess and repair books that have been damaged by wear and use, when needed, in order to create new pieces of art. Older books do sometimes need some reinforcement and repair in the spines in order to create journals that will last. Examples of wear can be slight cracks or tears in the spines or watermarks on the covers. We take our time in posting photographs of our covers that show you how each journal cover is unique to help you in deciding which piece you will love.

Custom Orders

We have so many unique artists that use our journals to create. Because we do have to limit the number of choices on our website, we offer custom journals for those who may want a special feature.

Custom journals give our customers the opportunity to chose the book, the paper and other features such as a leather wrap or an additional pocket for storage. Pricing for the custom journals is based on the materials used and any additional labor that may be required for a special order. We do not automatically charge extra fees for custom orders. 

Some examples of custom orders have included paper beyond those that we offer on the site such as mixed media paper, 300 lb watercolor paper or toned papers. We also create journals with a mix of different papers for artists who use different mediums.  We have added unique title pages or simply added a particular stamp for embossing a cover. Some customer have had a book they love that they would like to transform into a journal or have seen a book we have used previously and we have tried to locate additional copies for them. We are also able to offer journals that use tape rather than glue to secure the signature sections for those who prefer that method of construction. 

We are excited to make a journal you will love and most importantly a journal you will use. So, if you have an idea please reach out to us. We are happy to work with you to craft something special!