Happy New Year!
I don’t know about you, but I am ready for an adventurous new year! I am ready to see what I have not yet seen. I am ready to live in such a way that I can experience fresh joys that fill me so completely it splashes out and overflows onto others.
Can you relate?
As you enter this New Year, don’t you want to make sure you are not
merely alive, lifelessly going through the necessary motions so to fulfill the
demands of each day, but instead actually purposefully and joyfully living and loving?
What if you could take the simple things within
the constraints of any given day and make it into something special? That is what I want. I
don’t want to escape my day but instead I want to use the ordinary things contained
within it and make it thought provoking, make it fun and memorable,
make it into not only a better day but a better me...and still accomplish everything I needed to.
Each day is a gift from God full of intriguing mysteries
and priceless treasures ready to be discovered and shine forth if one ventures in close enough to see.
I want to see! I'm moving in and opening my eyes and tuning my ears. Let the adventure begin! I invite you to come along with me on this journey as I unwrap each unique day. A journey, after all, is much more fun with friends.
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When I think of people from long ago setting out on new journeys, I know they would take journals along with them so they could capture the thoughts and details of the trip that they wanted to remember. I'm going to do the same. Although many spectacular journals are readily available at the store, I have decided to go the thrifty route and just make my own. A simple composition book is perfect and it costs under a dollar. I have plenty of scrap booking paper around that I can use to decorate it. If you would like to make one too, here is how I did it!.
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A JOURNAL IN THE MAKING
1. FOR THE OUTSIDE If you don't already have one, purchase a standard composition book. I got this one at Target and it was under a dollar.
2. Select some fun paper that you will enjoy looking at. (I used an 12 x 12 pieces so I would have enough left over for storage pockets in the inside flaps.) Take your paper and place it right against the black binding on the left side of the book. Have the paper overlapping the journal on the top, bottom and right side of the journal. Press your fingers along these edges to create a crease in the paper on the three edges that overlap the edges.
3. Once you have a crease on all three side, take the paper and fold the paper on those three creases so
the shape is obvious.
4. All three edges are now folded.
5. Cut off any excess paper of the long flap, leaving about an inch or two for the tape to adhere to.
6. Tape all four edges of the front of the journal with doubled sided tape. You will not tape over the binding, just right up to it's edge.
7. Align your paper up to the edge of binding and match up the folded edges with the journal edges. Press to secure the paper against the tape.
8. INSIDE THE JOURNAL Open the journal. You will be folding in the edges and taping them to the cover. First, cut out the little square that formed in the two corners so that the edges can turn in independently. You can see a partially cut square on the bottom right hand side of the picture. The left side has already been cut so that the left flap can turn in and the center flap is not connected any more to it.
9. I cut the outer edge of the journal at an angle for a cleaner look when it gets folded in.
10. Run double sided tape along the two short parallel short edges and press down those two flaps. Now run a strip of double edged tape along the long edge of the journal and secure the paper to it.
11. DECORATING THE INSIDE To cover the words in the inside, I measure a piece of polka dot paper that will cover the words in the inside surface area. Now fold the paper to the size you want and cut along the fold lines.
12. I wanted a pocket for the inside of my journal. I made a pocket by wrapping paper around the polka dot paper I cut in the last step. In this picture you see the plain white back side of the polka dot paper.
13. Cut away any excess paper, then secured the pocket to the back side of the paper with tape. After that, run the double sided tape along all four edges of the back of the paper.
14. Position the paper onto the inside cover. Press and secure into place.
15. I decorated the pocket.
16. If you want, you can copy, paste and print this for yours.
17. Complete this same process for the back cover.
You may have noticed that the front of my journal is a bit plain. Feel free to decorate yours. I did not decorate mine yet because I am going to do so with things that I discover as I journey through the days ahead.
For now though, it's time to sit down, open it up, and began writing down my hopes, dreams and goals for this coming year. ~
