Journals

I must confess that while I love journals, I’m not terribly good at keeping or using journals.  I think I’m attracted to the “possibility” presented by the blank (or lined) pages bound in the hard or soft covered journals.  I’m lured in by the colors and patterns, promise myself that “this time it will be different” and end up with a couple pages filled and a whole pile of unfilled books.

A couple of years ago I came across this blog post from GetItScrapped.com talking about a 5 year journal.  Funnily enough, a five year journal is a journal you keep for five years.  Now you would think given my confession in the previous paragraph that my fate would be the same.  But this journal is different.  (No really it is)  Each page in the journal represents one day and you write one line every day for five years.  Just one line.  The blog post includes daily questions for each month and ideas for different types of “journals”.

Girl Scouts

I have a friend who runs her daughter’s Girl Scout Troop.  The girls earn badges and the next one they are working for is Book Artist.  My friend mentioned that she was having difficulty finding bookstores that were willing to teach a group of Girl Scouts about the art of book binding.  I had dabbled with book binding and stitching techniques in the past so I said I would teach the girls.  Secretly I wish I could still earn badges.  I was a Girl Scout for a couple of years, but didn’t take it seriously.  I would totally need several sashes for all the badges I would collect if I was a Girl Scout today.  And this brings us to, wait for it…

Bound Books

As I was compiling my Quest46 list, the 5 Year Journal was definitely on my list.  I also knew I would want a special journal for this project, but was having trouble finding journals with 365+ pages.  Since I needed to prepare my lesson and project for the Girl Scout troop, I decided to make my own book for my 5 Year Journal.

I used 5″X8″ index cards folded in half and assembled into 3 page signatures.  This book required 31 signatures.  I’m not entirely sure what stitching method I used, but the tutorial was very instructive and easy to follow.  The tutorial called for a fabric cover, but I chose to use patterned paper adhered to chipboard.  I was so pleased with the results, I think I’m going to make a larger book to use as an art journal.  Keep an eye out for that post. 😉

Here’s my bound book process in pictures.

Item #13 – Start 5 Year Journal

Do you keep journals?  If so, do you have a secret to keeping up with them?

I hope one of the questions in your journal isn’t, “Who’s your favorite dog?”.  ‘Cause that’s going to be awkward when you have to write “Ellie” every year.  You won’t be able to let Woody and Mindy see that page.  They wouldn’t understand.