Online Handmade Bookmaking Course: Willa Journals
If you’ve ever wanted to make a real handmade journal — one that feels bespoke, tactile, and deeply personal — this course was made for you.
The Willa Journals Course is a beginner bookbinding course that teaches you how to design and construct beautiful, functional handmade journals from start to finish. These are journals meant to be used, loved, filled, and returned to again and again — not precious objects that sit untouched on a shelf.
Make Journals That Feel as Meaningful as What You Put Inside Them
This course is perfect for…
Artists who want to make their own custom sketchbooks or journals
People drawn to junk journals and fabric-based books
Makers with a meaningful fabric stash they’ve been saving “for something special”
Anyone craving a slower, hands-on creative practice
No prior bookbinding experience is required.
Everything is taught clearly, calmly, and with room for experimentation.
~Enroll in the course here~
ONE-TIME PAYMENT ($187 USD + tax)
PAYMENT PLAN (Three $65 USD payments + tax)
Discover What’s Waiting for You: Lesson Preview!
What You’ll Learn
In this course, you’ll learn how to:
Construct sturdy, flexible journal structures
Design and assemble fabric-based journal covers
Combine papers, textiles, and ephemera into cohesive books
Create journals that are both beautiful and durable
Adapt the techniques to your own style, materials, and aesthetic
Use either Machine Sewing, Slow Hand Stitching or Both
The focus is not on perfection — it’s on possibility.
A Course Built Around Fabric, Memory, and Use
Many of us have fabrics we can’t part with:
Old clothing
Vintage linens
Scraps from past projects
Textiles tied to people, places, or seasons of life
This course shows you how to turn those materials into something functional and lasting. Instead of staying folded away in a drawer, they become part of a journal you can hold, write in, paint on, and live with.
These techniques also translate beautifully to junk journals, mixed-media books, and art journals — giving you endless ways to personalize your work.
~Enroll in the course here~
ONE-TIME PAYMENT ($187 USD + tax)
PAYMENT PLAN (Three $65 USD payments + tax)
Willa Journals Course Curriculum
Lesson 1: Welcome, Tools & Materials, Building Your Stash
Lesson 2: Construction of a Machine Stitched Willa Journal Cover
Lesson 3: Construction of a Hand Stitched Willa Journal Cover
Lesson 4: Signature Wraps, Keyhole Binding, and Closures
Lesson 5: Building Your Signatures
Lesson 6: Embellishing Your Signatures
Lesson 7: Binding Your Willa Journals
Lesson 8: Fabric and Paper Snippet Rolls
Lesson 9: Original, Intuitive Decorative Mixed Media Paper
Lesson 10: Creating Loose Watercolor Leaves and Florals Pages
This Course Is For You If…
You want to learn handmade bookmaking without rigid rules or intimidation
You love fabric, paper, and tactile materials
You’re drawn to junk journals and handmade books
You want a creative practice that feels grounding and personal
You want skills you can reuse for years
The Covers You’ll Use Again and Again
The journal covers taught in The Willa Journals Course are the same covers Wendy uses for the handmade journals featured in her course Watercolor for Relaxation.
These covers are:
Soft but sturdy
Flexible enough for watercolor and mixed media
Durable enough for repeated use
Beautifully suited to both writing and painting
Once you learn this construction method, you’ll be able to return to it whenever you need a fresh journal — customized to your materials, mood, and creative needs.
Lifetime Access, Creative Freedom
When you enroll in The Willa Journals Course, you receive:
Lifetime access to all lessons
The ability to work at your own pace
Bookbinding techniques you can return to whenever you need a new journal
This is a foundational course, one you’ll come back to again and again as your materials and creative needs change.
Plus 4 Incredible Bonus Lessons!
Bonus Lesson 1: Watercolor Leaves and Florals
Learn how to create simple, expressive watercolor leaves and florals that can be used in your journals. This lesson is about loosening up, enjoying the paint, and creating organic elements that add beauty and softness to your pages.
Bonus Lesson 2: Mixed Media Decorative Papers
Create your own decorative papers using mixed media techniques. These papers become perfect journal pages, pockets, backgrounds, and accents — and they allow you to extend your color palette and visual language throughout your book.
Bonus Lesson 3: Mixed Media Messy Papers
This lesson is all about freedom and play. You’ll make really fun pages for your books that are layered, imperfect, highly random and messy papers that add energy and contrast to your journals. These pages are ideal for junk journals and for artists who love expressive, process-driven work.
Bonus Lesson 4: Snippet Rolls
Learn how to create snippet rolls from leftover fabrics, papers, and trimmings. These rolls are both beautiful and practical — perfect for adding texture, storytelling, and decorative elements to your journals while using up cherished scraps.
~Enroll in the course here~
ONE-TIME PAYMENT ($187 USD + tax)
PAYMENT PLAN (Three $65 USD payments + tax)
↑ Tap the arrows above to scroll through REAL student testimonials! ↑
Meet your Teacher!
Wendy Solganik
Wendy Solganik, aka @willa.wanders on Instagram, is a life-long artist and crafter, currently working in watercolor, hand lettering, mixed media collage, art journaling and handmade book arts. From production wheel pottery to scrapbooking to knitting and so many more passions, Wendy always dives deep to master a craft.
After a fifteen year stint as the co-owner of Luscious Verde Cards, a successful, Louie award-winning, custom invitation design, printing and manufacturing company, you can find Wendy at home in her spare bedroom art studio moving around from art project to art project. It is the experience of a delicious flow state while she is creating that keeps Wendy coming back to making day after day.
Wendy balances making art with energetically running her online art course platform, Willa Workshops. Over the past four years, she and other artists from around the globe have launched over 40 new online mixed media art, handmade book, collage art and watercolor painting courses. This includes the epic year long mixed media collage art experience called Fodder School, which is the creation that Wendy is most proud of.
Willa Workshops General FAQs
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There are no refunds on online courses
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You will have “Lifetime” Access to all classes unless otherwise mentioned—"Lifetime" is relevant to the lifespan of the Willa Workshops business (I don't plan on leaving anytime soon!) or the longevity of the technology.
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This class includes captions in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Hindi, and Hebrew
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All Willa Workshops lesson content is prerecorded video. Once your purchase is complete, you will have instant access to the classroom, and are free to work through the content at your own pace
You can access Teachable and watch the lessons in your browser (PC, Mac, Android) or the Teachable app for iOS (recommended for iPhone and iPad)
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No, at least not available as local downloads to your device. The Teachable app for iOS may allow you to download lessons for offline playback.
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No. One student per registration. This is an honor system that if violated will result in your removal from the course with no refund.
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Please do! Always tag @willa.wanders and mention the course in your post description
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Yes! Please keep them for yourself, give them as a gift, or sell them.
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That's a hard no.
There's an endless amount of incredible art tutorial content in every Willa Workshops course. For some creatives, it's tempting to want to use these videos as a well of inspiration for their own creative enterprise, YouTube channel, brand, etc.
Willa Workshops Courses are not sold with permission for anyone to use it in this way--specifically, as a source of inspiration for any one's free how-to social media tutorial content, whether that be on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or any other social media platform.
If you are a creative who loves to share your work with the world, that's wonderful! I love it when participants share their finished projects in photos and videos on social media. Please tag me @willa.wanders, I'd love to support you!
But making how-to videos of yourself while creating from the lesson content or obviously inspired and derivative of Willa Workshops course content, and then posting those tutorials on any free social media platform, will get you banned from Willa Workshops with no refund issued.