Making the inserts

As I mentioned yesterday, I picked out some pairs (cover and lining) for my journal inserts. My plan is to have one per month. I will have 32 sides each month (28 for February) so I can fill a sheet or decorate to fill the space, and write as much or as little as I like. My first pairs:

For the pages, I had th idea to do a bit of upcycling and use some Amazon packing paper. In my heart of hearts, I fear it might be too thin and fragile in the end, but I am going to give it a go and see what happens. It comes in loooong pieces, perforated at just about the right size. I fold it along the scorelines then slice to the size I need and tear each sheet off then fold to create the signatures. You can see my little note of the measurements for each insert

I went back to my hand-made book cradle, and glad I printed a little image of the 5-hole pamphlet stitch – cause I always forget between bookbindings

The paper is thin, but I hope it will hold up. I also have some heavier paper so I can switch if Month One is really a disaster. The cover turned out nice too!

And it fits perfectly inside the cover of the holder. I can have two books in there (or even three if I want) and they will fit fine.

Happy so far! Let’s see if I am happy on February 1st!!

Made my cover – Traveller’s Notebook stylee

Well. That was interesting. I made myself a cover for my journal for 2023. I used one of the paper, transformed sheets (the one created by making a Masterboard from the crumpled deli paper experiments.

and one of the paper transformed experiments as well that was lurking on my desk

The final cover looks like this!

There are loads of instructions for making a Traveller’s notebook, mostly using leather, and mine is exactly like those but gel printed card instead. The location of the holes are the only bit of info you really need.

The four holes top and bottom are where the elastic goes to create the holders for the inserts. The middle hole gets a look you use to hold the whole thing closed. Not exactly the same but this link is as good as any for how to make one.

For the inside, I am recycling Amazon packing paper, using both Amazon UK based paper and Amazon USA paper, compliments of Dear Son and his shipments. I am curious to see how they both hold up, because my firm belief is the UK stuff is thinner, less sturdy, and more grey than brown. We shall see. Cannot believe it is WOYWW again so soon. The weeks are flying by. Yikes!

Junk journal labels – an experiment and some thoughts

I am hoping to start with some sort of brief daily journaling in 2023. This might be the year I manage to follow thru LOL! I have been watching so many videos about Junk Journals. As you know I have made these before, and even started to work in they, managing a few months of very sporadic entries before abandoning it. I have been considering what I need to do to succeed. There are a few things.

1. I need to have a journal I like and that is portable.
2. I need to make it fuss-free
3. I need to do it in a way that reflects my own style

One of the big issues is the style I see most often. It is all very vintage and botanical based, with lots of butterflies and the like. Not me at ALL. I keep forgetting this. I even spent WAY too much time playing about with a set of printables, labels, that I thought would be nice added to the embellishments. Just playing about really, but I do like how they turned out. Link to download via Dropbox.

Larger set, full page

So then I cut them and I thought maybe they needed to be a bit smaller, or at least have smaller options. I usually suggest you print the sheet 2 x per page but in this case I went ahead and just made an additional PDF of the smaller version.

Smaller set, 2x per page

And then, as I was cutting them out, I’m thinking Why? Theses are def. in the vintage arena, and that is not really me. I mean I can DO vintage, pretty well, I think, but it isn’t what I gravitate towards. So I feel like I really need to re-think this and consider making the sorts of embellishments that I will be inclined to use. I feel like I have given myself enough lead time that I can also come up with a reasonable storage solution and enough bits for a month or even two. I have ideas for the journal itself, maybe journals is a better description for how I plan it, and that needs doing too. So I expect between all the holiday stuff upcoming, and the adjustments of Dear Son+Cat, and just a crazy busy schedule, much crafting time is going to be consumed by this pre-new year project. Now off to watch a few more JJ videos and try to find some that are NOT vintage or shabby chic or floral or…not me. I wish I could think of a word that IS me, so I could increase my odds of success!

If you do grab the label sets, let me know what you think of them and if they are useful. Or not! always happy to have feedback…

ATCs final steps, custom stamp, and the beginnings of a new series

Just one of those compilation posts of a few hanging threads, finally all tied up. The first thing is all of the bare-backed ATCs have now had their backs created, printed and stuck. I always save the final signature for just before the ATCs go in the mail. I have them all (all my available ones, cards and coins) to my ATC Cards and Coins menu at the top.

As you can see, I also managed to fir in the no cash value text onto the small stamp for my ATC mailings. I cannot recall where I got the nifty little storage thing that holds all those tiny letters, perfectly organized, but it is so helpful.

I also started fiddling with those backgrounds I had hanging about – just placing the words leftover from the previous play and part of me wonders if nothing more is needed? Or am I just being a bit lazy? I like my ATC series to … mean something, or at least SAY something, and generally I am not one to do the single word slapped on as an afterthought kinda creator. Not that I have never done that, it’s just something I always think of as a crutch. Made a great card? Slap on one of these words to make it seem pithy: art, create, believe, inspire, play. I am much more of a quirky quote person than a single-word person. So these seem at once almost done and nowhere near done!

And finally, I spied my junk journal under a pile of chaos and managed to do a few entries, some hidden.

Skating comp this weekend so you won’t see anything from me till Monday. I feel like I need to re-charge my creative batteries by doing some mindfully mindless craftiness. Not sure what it will be, but my brain is full of too many ideas to focus on anything and I need to figure out how to focus it.

Enjoy YOUR weekend and I hope it is a creative one!

WOYWW 648 – throw back to last week and not much else

Happy WOYWW all! My desk is very very tidy at the moment

because I cleaned it up after my play of yesterday and the only thing I had time to drag out my much neglected junk journal. So much has happened over the last month and I have not documented it at ALL.

I don’t think I journaled a single entry in October, after doing very well in September. Maybe I need to take my own advice and use one of my Amazon line-a-day journals to instill the habit! I really thought after the 100 days project, then my 50 day project I would have nailed the every-day routine but I still didn’t. Maybe I am just a lost cause…

I also want to add in the WOYWW faux postage from last week, for those who might have missed it and would like a copy. I thought I would add the image (page 2 of the PDF) that has only the stamps without the faux postage border around them. If you have either postage edge scissors (like I do) or a postage-sized die that fits this is the one for you. Zsuzsa, you need to give me the dimensions of your dies and I can make a sheet that is sized exactly to fit, if you like. It’ll take me moments. If anyone else has a common postage stamp die, feel free to chime in as well.

As you can see my postage edge scissors don’t quite match. I might sort that out one day but not anytime soon. I don’t think the faux postage edge, cut straight, is a bad look but the option is there.

And finally, If you HAD to….

I am totally OK with running with scissors, it’s the marathon aspect that I worry about! As to the other choice, I suppose if Ben is still attached to the stubble, well then…. {wink}

Have a great and crafty day! I am hoping to get to Facetime or Zoom my poorly best knitting mate, who is recovering from Covid but slowly. It will be good to see her for a proper chat after what feels like an eternity.

My sadly neglected junk journal

{sigh} Without the structure of the 100 days project I have sadly allowed my junk journal to sit idling, unused, for most of the month. I managed to do 10 or so posts over July and about two (in the last couple of heavily guilt-ridden days) in August. The thing is, I really enjoy my time working in it but I always have so much on the go, so many ideas, I just can’t justify it as a top priority.

From 1 September 2021 I hope to be able to write something every day, as my first task when I sit at my desk. I have turned the page, added a stamp, and by the time this published there should be some writing on there. I will have to sort out a way to maintain accountability – maybe making a shot of my written in journal a Sunday thing?

In true Junk Journal fashion…

…I made use of some junk on my desk to add a journaling spot. I had printed out a couple of the quotes I thought I might use for that art journal page yesterday and one of them was just sitting there on my desk waiting to be utilized. I just inked the plain cream cardstock a bit to make it look more interesting

then added a bit of dyed lined paper and a stamped image from a Rubbermoon set that I don’t use enough

and stuck it down as a fold-over spot. I added the half-circle on the edge to catch and hold the fold-over closed so it doesn’t flap open every time I open the journal

and add my journaling for the day – private thoughts, as with most days. I need to be better about hiding the words and not depending on my crap handwriting to do it for me LOL!

I have to say, since the 100 days project I feel like I have done a better job of the recording-my-thoughts journaling than I ever have before. I do tend to focus on a few topics, and my thoughts are not always deep and meaningful, but I am finding the process useful and interesting to look back on, even a few months ago.

Another funny thing is I am looking forward to turning the page – the next spread has the little tea-bag pouches and some of the WOYWW swap stuff on it and I am keep to work on them. The page itself is a bit of a hot mess, with no cohesion, again, in true junk journal fashion, nothing pretty about it. But I am still looking forward to it. Why?

My junk journal is in use- yay!

I just decided to take the plunge and start using it. My plan is for it to be a sort of daily diary, with thoughts and maybe arty bits, just junk THOUGHTS as well as materials. I did finished the back cover, hinted at last week

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The words go together – Time flies…except when it doesn’t. Pretty much sums up the 18+ months of pandemic life and when you are immune-compromised, maybe more. The idea is to note the date with my date stamp, wherever I may write on the add-ins or on the actual page, not worrying too much about where the text may fall. The first bit of writing is on one of the fold-out tags:

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As you can see (maybe) I found the lovely little envelope of goodies from Caro, a WOYWW desk-hopper, and added on thereon the left. It’s very pretty and I have added a few of them to pages that needed a little somethin’-somethin’.

I also wanted to share a video I saw that was a super cute idea, a little folded belt that you can use as a closure for a mini-book or journal or whatever. I folded a couple of these and even without the grid she makes they are not hard. Because the wrap-around part can be cinched or expanded, it would be a good closure for a junk journal that you expect to grow. Have a look!

I could do photos, but really, this tutorial is so good, why? I do have an idea I want to try that…expands on this I guess. I’ll share it if it works LOL!

WOYWW Junk Journal Additions

Oh dear. I fear I might have forgotten all the correct people who sent what, but I am going to do my best! I got a LOT of stuff from Spyder. The ATC folder was actually cut in half, and each side filled with a little multi-coloured notepad made up of hand-dyed papers. The little top stapled holder was part of her envelope!

There was a belly-band around the holder, and that became a belly-band on another page, with the little journalingg cards created from another bit of the envelope:

The back of both cards again, lined with hand-dyed paper. This is some of the ones dyed with Dylusions spray ink! And that envelope was not yet done. The last bit made a pocke to hold more journaling cards:

Honestly, I think I used every scrap of that envelope except the tiny bit I punched out here and that bit was slightly ripped so it was fine to toss it in the bin. Lastly, I had the ATC holder from Susan Renshaw. It was so cute, and made a perfect pocket just as it was, although I added a punched circle (and promptly broke my punch, no idea how, and made the little folded journaling stripto fit inside from a scrap of card on my desk and yet more hand-dyed paper.

In the end I regretted chopping up Julia’s card so I opted not the use the lovely postcards from bothe Spyder and Sue. Maybe I’ll scan the writing and keep that then use the cards. Finally, eye test for me today and my daughter on Thursday, WOYWW tomorrow, and my knitting friends are popping round for a session in the garden, if the weather holds… Busy week!

Tea bag puches in my junk journal

Oops. Sorry about the typo. POUCHES. If I change it I think it will mess up the permalink to the post so Imma gonna leave it. Oh the shame of it….

I have been beavering away on that junk journal and am very nearly to the point where I can make the covers. Almost all pages have an addition of some spot for journaling added to them and I have used most of the bits from the WOYWW swap – at least the ones I can find. I know Caro sent me some bit and I know I tucked them away in a “safe place” (HA!) and will add them as soon as I remember where that is. But I had to make some tea for The Hubster yesterday and he had bought some tea with colourful packaging, so I decided to make use of it.

I needed to keep the box intact (mostly) as there are still many tea bags stored in it, but I felt the lid coud come off now. Not too complex at all. I cut down the tea bag pouches:

I wasn’t sure if I should cover the writing, but for now, I left it. I do have a die that MIGHT pretty much fit the spot but I don’t mind seeing the “junk” aspect of the things I am adding. I seem to have missed out a photo of adding hand-dyed paper with lines to the back of each half of the lid (cut to fit inside the pouches) and adding the ea bag labels as a pull to the top, but here they are in place in the journal:

I think they are pretty cute! I will probably do a quick re-cap of all the other WOYWW swap mailings that I used tomorrow, so the people who pop round on Wednesday can see them. Finding interesting ways to use as much of the stuff as I can was a fun process!