Decorative Journals

I bought a book a few days ago called Decorative Journals by Donna Downey. I love this book! It provides instructions for making 25 journals, some from scratch and some personalizing an already made item. I just had to make one right away! I chose the prong fastener journal first, a from-scratch project using chipboard (I used a cereal box), decorative paper and cardstock, and, of course, a prong fastener. When I dragged out a box of scrapbooking papers yesterday, my daughter Emily excitedly asked, "Are you making me a book?!" So, of course, I just had to make her one, too LOL! In the book, it's listed as a to-do journal for keeping track of errands, but I decided to call mine a "check it out!" journal. I keep a running list of books and videos that I want to check out at the library in the future. Instead of a few scraps of paper hiding in the bottom of my purse, I now have a nice little journal to jot these titles down in. I even have the perfect little pen to keep with it ... now when I go to the library, remembering which books I wanted to read will be a snap!

Emily chose a fun blue fuzzy paper for her journal. She was so impatient to get it going that she cut a big rectangle of chipboard herself before I could stop to help her LOL! I took the piece and cut it into the 3 pieces needed and then we worked together on making it. Because she cut the rectangle without knowing what size to make it like mine, it ended up being smaller, and now it's the perfect size for her ... fun when things work out like that! Mine is 5"x8" and Emily's is 4 1/2"x5 1/2". Now Abby wants one, too! She wants it to be fuzzy like Emily's, so I dug out a piece in a nice deep shade of purple. I will hopefully get it made tomorrow. I'm sure she'll remind me to work on it!

Not sure which one to try next ... I really want to make the DVD tin journal, but I don't have one handy. I'll have to keep an eye out for one, but in the meantime, I think I may make the simple spiral notebook journal ... it'd be perfect for keeping track of all the cute things my girls do that I'm so sure I'll remember, but then can't remember when I want to share the story with the grandparents LOL!

If any of you have the book (or buy it soon) and make a journal from it, please be sure to share pics ... I'd love to see what others have done with these fun projects! Thanks, Donna, for writing this book ... so fun!!