Midnight Manor Disk Bound October Daily Junk Journal Tutorial, a Country Craft Creations Design Team Project

 Hi all, and welcome back! Today I have a fun project for my fellow Halloween Junkies. I wanted to make a sort of October Daily/Junk Journal and I'm using the magnificent collection by Country Craft Creations called "Midnight Manor". This collection is so beautiful, and made a great project. The best part is that this is so adaptable that you can make this project for any type of journal or notebook. Country Craft Creations has many different collections that would also work. So if you aren't a Halloween Junkie, and would like to make one for Fall, or Christmas, or whatever...check it out Country Craft Creations.

I used the "Lay Flat Method" for making the cover of the book. If you haven't seen this method, check out this tutorial I did here. I use 5 Happy Planner Disks, in black, that are approximately 1 1/4" in diameter. Any disk for this type of notebook will work. I also used the We R Memory Keepers Disk Punch. Below is a cut guide for the cardstock and chipboard needed for the project. I cut the patterned paper for inside the journal/on the pockets at 1/8" smaller. For specialty cuts, I include directions in the video. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon with another tutorial. COVER Chipboard 2 - 7 x 9 1 - 2 x 9 Cardstock 2 - 9 x 11 1 - 5 x 11 1 - 6 x 8 7/8 MATTING FOR THE COVERS The covers are 7 x 9. I triple matted the patterned paper for the front and back covers, but only single matted for the spine. Silver Mirror 2 - 6 3/4 x 8 3/4 1 - 1 3/4 x 8 3/4 Antique Winter Gray, 2 - 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 Burgundy, 2 - 6 1/4 x 8 1/4 (Note, this paper is available but won't be for long, so if you need it you should order.) Patterned Paper 2 - 6 x 8 1 - 1 1/2 x 8 1/2 INSIDE COVER POCKETS (Note: these are the same size but are scored and trimmed differently) 2 - 7 7/8 x 12 BINDING MECHANISM FOR DISKS 1 - 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 1 - 1 x 8 1/2 POCKETS #1 1 - 11 x 12 #2 1 - 8 1/2 x 12 #3 1 - 10 x 12 That's it! The remaining inserts for this junk journal are up to your individual style! I did size this project to hold 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 papers, so one sheet of copy paper will make two pages for your journal.

The patterned papers, artisan cardstock, seambinding are all available at Country Craft Creations... Please check them out! Have fun, and let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for watching!!

5 Year Journal

New Years Resolutions...I always have them, seldom get around to doing them.  NOT THIS YEAR!!  I have a few resolutions that I already showed you in my new planner post here.  One of my projects that I wanted to start was a five year journal.  I already am working on one that is just a sentence about what you did for the day, this one is a daily question to ask.

Last year I saw this blog post, in the middle of the year, and decided to collect all of the journal prompts and start this year.   (This is not a link, but does show you what the questions look like).  Tammy Taylor wrote this awesome article about the project and there is a link to all of the PDF sheets of questions you can check out.

So, I made my journal and got busy!  I'm actually up to date on it, haven't missed a day yet!

 I found this journal on sale at Michaels.  I paid $1!!!  I bought it a while ago, knowing I would find a use for it.  The cover looks like leather and is actually quite nice!  The pages are also heavier than you would think for a $1 journal, and when I use my Uniball 207 Micro pen (MY FAVORITE) it glides like butter.

 I set it up so that there are two days per page, and I wrote each question on the side of the day.  It gave me ample room to have space to write 2-3 sentences.  Now, some of the questions are "thinkers" but some are "What does a gallon of gas cost?"  That will be fun to look through in five years, seeing the progression of the cost!

This is the four day spread.  Nice, huh?  I could also see this in a junk journal/smash book style, making the pages prettier.  Maybe I will make one like that for the next five years.

Go check out the project...its not too late to start, it's only the 5th!  HURRY!!!

Stay crafty, my friends!!!

Calendar Journal

You might be wondering what a Calendar Journal is.  Well, it is a kind of daily journal that only requires that you only write down one thing that happened that day.  It is perpetual, so you just choose the card date, write down the year, then write down that one thing.  It can be anything from someone's birthday to what TV show you watched that night.  It is something simple...short, sweet, and to the point.  The fun thing will be to look back and see what you were doing on that day over the past few years.

This is not my idea.  I got it from Kate Pruitt from Design Sponge.  Go check it out, she has a lovely tutorial for it.

It does take a while to do it.  I suggest popping in your favorite movie and getting comfy.  I watched "Rocky Horror Picture Show" while I did mine.  If you do this, please let me know what movie you watched!

I used a paper mache box to put my cards in.  I also used the Echo Park papers from the "For the Record" line.  I thought it was appropriate for the theme of this project!  I made dividers, and on the backs of them is room to write more things...maybe like that months birthdays and anniversaries!

I am debating on whether to start it now, mid year, or wait until January.  Hummmmm...

Stay Crafty, My Friends!

Daily (Kinda) Journal Project

...Continued

Finalizing October, can you believe it!  Need to add the Halloween photos & then we can start on November!  Are you keeping up?

Daily (Kinda) Journal Project

....continued


So I started printing out my collection of pictures and narrated them in Office Word, my hand writing is illegible! So I added a few smaller pics & journaled on a separate piece of note paper & embellished once again with sticker remnants.

More to come....

Daily (Kinda) Journal Project

continued.........

I've been taking my photos & adding them to my book, but this week I thought I would focus on page dividers. 

Here I took a envelope did some distressing, placed a tag inside that has important dates to remember & added a couple of journaling spots. 
Hope you are enjoying this as much as I am!

Daily (Kinda) Journal Project

Well, I started adding my photos, skipping only a couple of days.  I've decided to fill some pockets with journaling and maybe a 4x6 mini scrapbook page here and there.  

If your new to this project, check out Monday & Tuesday's post :)

Daily (Kinda) Journal Project

Hi! Today I thought I would show you some of the little extras I started dressing up my journal with!

 What is nice about the album that I decided to alter is, the inner liner was cute & didn't need covering!  So I started by creating a double pocket to tuck away goodies! Then I took one sheet of 12x12 paper & made another pocket page.

 Here I added a couple of distressed envelopes.  I have used envelopes like these in the past to hold receipts & programs.

As you can see my album has many pocket pages for photos & journal cards.  The book came with 40 pockets, front & back it will hold 80.  I bought a few extra books for $2 so that I would have extra pages to complete the year or possibly go longer.  


So, what do you think?

Daily (Kinda) Journal Project

I've done daily picture journals in the past & wanted to start up another one.  I like the idea of Project 365, where you document your life daily in a photo, but didn't know if I wanted to take on such a big commitment? So I decided to attempt a daily/every few days, project.  Starting January 1st is not a requirement. I started mine on Oct. 1st & have kept up well these past few days.  

 Here I took a Paula Deen cook book I found at Michael's on clearance for $2, and did a little altering. 

Here is what I did with the cover.

   Over the next few days, I will show you how I started mine & then I will check back now & then to show you my progress.  If this sounds like something you would like to attempt, I would love for you to join me!