Altered journal - Christmas planner

I am so excited about this project. For one reason, I have looked at these for a few years now and been dying to make one. I am a total list maker...(confession time here) and I have lil notes everywhere. So this just screams out to me, make me, make me.... For another reason, I am a gal who prefers to start anticipating Christmas early. I feel like starting early makes me less crazed during the actual season and I just love the whole fall and winter, Halloween to Christmas time! WAHOO!!!! Bring it on.

Aren't these papers gorgeous. It's all all I have used so far, this year for my Christmas projects. It is CTMH's Mistletoe papers and I love them! To decorate the front cover I used CTMH's Snow Flurries stamp set (D1384) and taking a cue from the patterned paper I made a ornament and hung it on a ribbon with a bow. I stitched the bow on through the 2 paper layers before I adhered it to the front of the book. I'm hoping that will make it much more sturdy then a glue dot.

I divided my composition book into 4 sections and covered a page with card stock and patterned paper at the beginning of each section. The strips of paper actually create pockets. I wish I had thought to stick a receipt in one so you could see this in action. There are 2 pockets on the front of each divider and 1 deep pocket on the back side of the same page.

See, this is the back side of the first divider.

Another section divider, with 2 more pockets.

The back side with 1 big pocket, again.

You get the idea, right?

I just have to say CTMH's Cranberry red is my fave. Gorgeous! I love the traditional Christmas colors best.

And snowflakes!!! Another favorite. Yeah this paper pack is pure perfection.

So, here are the tabs. I put them across the top of the book because I will slide it in and out of my work bag each day. This will save them getting mashed, I hope. I printed them on the computer, To Do, To Buy, To Bake and To Create. Then I punched them out with the SU! label punch, ran them through my Xyron and attempted to evenly space them across the top. Attaching them to the dividers.

Some things I learned during my research to make these altered books. I did not mod podge this cover. I have not had consistently great results with mod podge. Sometimes it warps or bubbles. So I used Scor-tape and placed it ALL the way around the outer edges of the covers, and added some of my Scotch ATG gun tape to the centers for additional adhesion. After I adhered the paper (which I intentionally cut wider and longer then the cover, just to give me some wiggle room) I used a nail file and sanded off the 3 outer edges. Its a much neater edge (IMHO) then attempting to use a xacto knife or scissors. If you hold the file fairly straight up and down to the edge of the cover and only rub the file against the edge on the downward motion you don't get a lot of distressing or removing the color from the decorative paper along the outer edges. For the dividers throughout the book, I did not cut the papers exactly as wide as the page. This would have added a lot of bulk against the binding and made the covers stand up to make room for the extra bulk. I left a little less then .25 inch gap, yes the lined white paper shows through at that gap but I thought it was a good trade off too keep the composition book closing flat. I also used the super strong Scor-tape for the papers that would create the pockets, but for the decorative pieces I used the less expensive Scotch ATG gun tape again. That's all the tips and tricks I can think of right now.

I anticipate great productivity and organization with this gorgeous altered composition book/Christmas planner. I see more of these in my future: Disney planner, Books/Movies/Websites lists, Crafts planner. Oh my, what about the smaller cute composition books for a passwords book? I don't know about you, but I can not remember all the combinations of user id's and passwords for all of the different message boards and websites I belong to.  I'm rambling, I will sign off now. Thanks for stopping by.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!