Making a Journey Journal tutorial.

I think the key to having fun with any crafty project, is organization. Having all of your supplies at the ready. It can be quite frustrating to start a project and realize you are "out" of something in the middle of it or interrupt your flow of creativity to go and find it. That being said, here is my attempt at writing a tutorial on Making Journey Journals.

Supplies needed for your project:

• Iron
• Ironing Board
• Composition Notebooks
• Fabric
• Scrapbooking paper
• Embellishments (stickers, foamies, flowers, buttons, etc)
• Tacky Glue (Aleene's tacky glue)
• Scissors and /or Rotary Blade
• 2 pieces of wax paper
• Yardstick for measuring
• Black Sharpie for marking fabric
• Pencil for marking paper
• "Old" credit card/plastic card for spreading glue
• Moist paper towel/cloth for wiping sticky fingers

Gather all of your supplies to a work/craft space that you are comfortable using. I prefer my kitchen table for this project, because it allows me to spread out.

 

Next, you want to make sure your fabric is ironed as flat as you can get it. Creases are not fun to try and get out once you have glued it to the cover.

 

Once your fabric has been ironed, you can begin marking your measurements with the yardstick and black sharpie on the wrong side of fabric, then cutting along those lines with the scissors or rotary blade. The cover measurements are: 16 3/4" x 11".

Once your fabric has been measured and cut, you want to position the composition notebook evenly on the fabric, so that when fabric is folded over, it has an even amount on all sides.

 

 

You will then mark and cut the folds for the notebook spine. This really isn't "measured" with a ruler or yardstick, you are just going to "eyeball" it or use the book as a guide. This allows the book to be opened and will give it a clean finished look.

Apply glue, fold them up and glue them in place.

 

 

Apply a line of glue from one folded spine end to the other, then place your notebook spine to this line of glue. Hold it in place for a few minutes to allow the glue to "set".

 



You are now ready to glue the major portion of fabric to the cover. Place a piece of wax paper between the cover and pages and back cover and pages, so that you don't glue the pages together on the inside of the book. Now swirl your glue around on the front cover (doesn't have to be an excessive amount, but enough to evenly coat the cover).

Using that old credit card, spread your glue to evenly coat the cover. I always do the edges first to help with "not" glueing those inside pages together.

 

 

 

Fold your fabric over and glue in place, taking care that there are no wrinkles or creases.

 

 

You will follow these steps for the back cover as well. Once they are glued, cut the corners at an angle.

 

 

 

Open the front cover of the notebook and lets get ready to glue all of those edges! I always have a moist paper towel or cloth nearby to wipe my fingers, because they do get sticky!

 



 



Apply glue to the corners and fold over, hold for a few seconds to allow glue to set.

Next apply glue to remaining edges (one at a time), using that old credit card to evenly coat the glue. Fold fabric up and glue in place.

Follow these same steps for the back cover, keeping the wax paper between the cover's and pages. You are now ready to measure, cut and apply your inside front and inside back covers.

Measure and cut two pieces of scrapbook paper 9 1/2" x 7".

We are almost there!! You will now glue the paper to the inside front and inside back covers to hide the fabric edges and give your journal a finished look.

Apply a line of glue around the inside edges of your front cover, again using that old credit card to evenly coat the glue and avoid a "wrinkled" look.

 

Carefully apply your paper evenly centered on the glue, it doesn't have to be perfect, but once it is stuck to the glue it isn't fun to "unglue" that paper! :)

Keep the wax paper between the covers and inside pages until the glue has dried. You are now ready to embellish the front cover! Make sure your journal is positioned correctly, front and right side up. It is quite frustrating to realize you have decorated the back of your book!! You can use whatever you like to embellish the front, stickers, foamies, buttons, flowers, ribbons, etc. Be creative!!! You can even embellish the inside front cover and pages if you so wish.

TA DA!! :) You have just completed your first Journey Journal! Make one for yourself, make as gifts, or make and donate to a great cause <3 Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals <3! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I didn't confuse you too much with my directions. Please feel free to email me any questions you may have at either of the email addresses on the Contact Info page, or just leave your questions in a comment below (just be sure to leave your name so I know who I am answering). Use your awesome imagination and be creative, but above all HAVE FUN!!!

Until my next blog update (soon I promise), may the light of God's love help you to Glow from Within.....<3

Two more hats to add.

Good Morning all! :) It is still dark outside my window and I am busily working on a child's Mardi Gras hat. I realized that it is not only the month for Valentine's Day and Heart Disease Awareness, but also Mardi Gras started also! So because I wanted to do a little boy's hat, but really didn't want to make another Valentine's themed hat, I decided to try my hand at a Mardi Gras themed hat. So far I'm loving the colors, deep purple, deep green and lemony yellow. I love the colors so much, that my mind is whirling around making an afghan for myself in these colors and putting maybe some beads throughout, but finding the time to do it is completely another story! :D So my last creation was Valentine themed, but I chose to go with purple, what do you think?

The pink heart button in the middle was made by my little sister out of some sort of dough or clay. She is thinking of doing a guest tutorial blog on here to show how to make them. :) I would also at some point like to do a tutorial on making the Journey Journals.

My beautiful niece (who moved to Missouri, I miss her and her family so much!) made a "bookworm" hat for our project. This is her first hat of the year for <3 Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals <3. With the move to Missouri, she has so been so busy packing, etc that things have been kind of crazy for her! I am so glad things have slowed down a little bit for her and they are happily settling in to their new life! Here is her first contribution of the year.

 

I just love the little worm, he is just adorable! And, of course, I am a totally nerdy bookworm!! I just love getting lost in a good book! No, I really don't ever want one of those "Kindles" or "Nooks", because I LOVE the smell of books and turning the pages. To me it is just magical to get lost in the characters of a well written book, my escape from the reality of this sometimes harsh world we live in.

 

I hope to maybe have a couple of Journey Journals done this weekend, as well as, the Mardi Gras hat I am working on. I am running kind of late on birthday presents AGAIN! I get so caught up on making beanies, that I forget birthdays (even though I have a calendar with them all written in) coming up and end up rushing to get something done. Ah well, I am so happy that the people in my life understand that to me this takes priority over everything else LOL! I guess that means I better sign off and get busy on this hat while I can, as I must clean in few hours and get ready to have the "kids" over for a barbecue. :)  Until my next update, may the light of God's love help you to Glow from Within.....<3

 

 

Heart Disease Awareness month is February!

Happy Saturday to all! I have just put the finishing touches on Hat #10, a man's red and white hat in honor of a friend's parents and father- in-law and also in honor of my sister's significant other, who suffer from Heart Disease! I know that my group focuses specifically on cancer, but heart disease is very prevalent also and affects all. I work for a fantastic group of cardiologists, and you would think that I of all people would have remembered that February is Heart Disease Awareness month!! I hope to NOT make that mistake again! Thank you Mo for the reminder, hope I did okay on this man's hat and it doesn't look too "girly"! What do you think?

Yes, Heart Disease Awareness is represented by the red awareness ribbon! I researched it and this color of ribbon represents A LOT!!! Heart Disease, SVT, AIDS, Stroke, Alcholism and Drug Abuse, Hypertension, and the list continues on....

I was watching "Bones" about a week ago with my wonderful hubby, and it brought to mind the reason I do this, but also I wanted to let everyone know that I have this blog simply to display my creativity and keep a log for myself of my progress and my journey, and it is a way to get support and donations of supplies as I can't afford much. It in no way is meant to "boast" or "brag"  or "puff" myself up and make myself seem important in any one's eyes. I prefer being anonymous and enjoy being in the background very much. Quite simply, I LOVE making things for other people and feeling like I am making a difference!  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up...1 Corinthians 13:4   And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13:13.

Until my next update may the light of God's love help each of you to Glow from Within....<3

New hats and donations!!

Good afternoon all, hope everyone is having a fabulous day! :) It is time for my weekly update and the first update for the month of February, the VALENTINE month!! <3 I must say I am not a huge fan of Valentine's day, simply because society has commercialized it way too much. I am, however, a huge fan of hearts, I just LOVE hearts of every shape and size! So as promised, my first hat of the month has a Valentine theme, and I think it is darn cute! I really didn't use a pattern, except for the basic ear flap beanie. I just crocheted different heart shapes from patterns found throughout the internet and one of my favorite sites Pinterest, and sewed them on the beanie how I wanted it to look. This is hat #9, a little girl's ear flap Valentine hat.

 

Not too sure of how to make men or boy's hats themed around this "girly" holiday though, maybe just a couple of plain red hats? LOL

My little sis made hat #2, an infant hat. I think this started out as a hat for a friend (one of those bearded beanies), however, I am so glad she "accidentally" followed the wrong size pattern and made it for <3 Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals <3 instead! :) I love the little pompoms on it, and I attempted it for my Valentine hat, but no can do, I didn't like how it looked on mine. I think I need to invest in a pompom maker or something. LOL

 

 

I received several donations in the last week. My beautiful Mother-in-law donated lots of scrapbook paper for the inside of the Journey Journals for which I will be forever grateful, has anyone priced scrapbook paper and embellishments? That stuff is not cheap!

 

 

And I received an awesome donation of all kinds of yarn from her boss on the same day! The balls of yarn will make so many different flowers and the skeins of yarn will make lots of hats!

 

 

And the last donation received, was today from a wonderful lady I work with. She donated another 6 composition notebooks for Journey Journals. She has donated before, a scrap booking kit with all kinds of paper and little things in it. :) I have a total of 31 composition notebooks now that I can turn into Journey Journals! I feel a trip to my older sister's is in the near future so maybe she can help me with some creativity.

 

Donations make me HAPPY!!! Now I don't want that to seem like it is selfish and greedy to my reader's, it is definitely NOT meant that way! Without help from friend's and family with donations of supplies and help with the crocheting of hats, what we do would not be possible. I know I sound like a stuck record also, but I just can't explain the feeling you get when you know what you are doing and giving is bringing a smile to someones face and joy to their heart! <3  We CAN make a difference by scattering kindness! Come help me scatter the seeds of kindness so they can grow and we can be the change! Until my next update, may the light of God's love help you to Glow from Within...<3