DYI JOURNAL

A few weeks ago Emily showed me her journals she was making out of old books she got at the antique shop, and I thought it a great Christmas gift idea as I am trying to make all Christmas presents this year, or at least most of them. Unfortunately, Em left before I could have learned (and remembered!) the way she makes them. So I thought of my own way and it's pretty simple! And I decided to share it with you all.

I have pictures for you, too but you have to excuse me for maybe they won't be very clear, because I took them after it was all done... Oopsies! Hope it helps a bit though!

First of all you will need an old book (hard cover) which cover you like for a journal. I chose this simple blue book with no writings on it:

Step 2: Take the cover off the book.

Step 3: Take a piece of paper and measure it to the cover or the book, and cut it out as your template.

Step 4: On as many papers as you want, copy the size of the template page and cut it out. I made my book out of 13 sets of 5 pages - that makes 65 pages of the journal I made. It depends on you how you do this, and also on the cover.

Step 5: On the template page, mark spots when you fold it, where you want to saw the 5 (or whatever you decided on) pages together - I chose to sew it a bit both up and down just as you can see on the next photo:

Step 6: You will need a thick needle now to put through the spots you made, to make holes there.

Step 7: Once you've made holes, you can saw the pages together using a whatever coloured thread - I used a simple white one for this journal.

Step 8: When you do the sewing with all the sets of 5 pages you want to use, place them on one another in the book and first do up or down and then the other; put another thread or ribbon, whichever you decide to use, through all the white thread you sewed the pages together, at the back, and put it through the hard cover on both sides. This might not make sense but hopefully the photo will help. Then do the same with the down part, tie it and here you go, a journal's done!

You can do little bows or something creative on the outside as you tie it, too. I hope you have fun making these and make people happy by giving them out! It's simple and fun! Enjoy!