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If you're looking for the perfect gift for a teen or
pre-teen
girl or female friend, then you might want to consider
a handmade
journal. Use these tips to get started, then use your
own
creativity to create a personalized work of art. These
journals
also make great birthday or graduation gifts.
To get started, pick out some pretty card stock for
the cover,
maybe a favorite color of the girl the journal is intended
for.
I used a paper cutter to cut the piece of paper in half.
You
should end up with two sheets of paper 4 ¼ x
5 ½ .
Select the paper you will use for the inside pages
of the
journal. I chose about 50 sheets of unlined copy/printer
paper
and cut them in half.
Then you get to be creative and decorate the cover.
You can look
at my example photos for inspiration. For one I used
decals used
for scrapbooking and card making. I placed a floral
border down
the left side and used rubber stamps to stamp the girl's
name
vertically on a scrap of white card stock that I then
glued to
the right side of the cover.
On another cover I placed the girl's name horizontally
on the top
of the cover, also using rubber stamps to spell out
her name.
Behind the cardstock that the name was stamped on I
glued a piece
of mulberry paper (craft paper that is thin like tissue
paper)
that I had torn around the edges. To finish this journal
I
placed a large floral sticker in the center of the cover.
To bind the journal together, I used a comb binding
machine. If
you don't know someone who has one of these that you
can borrow,
you can go to a local office supply store like Office
Max or
Office Depot, and they will either let you do it yourself
in
their copy department, or they will do it for you for
a small
fee.
Photos of finished project:
http://www.crafty-moms.com/articles/051604a.shtml |
