Write Your Days, in Your Own Unique Handmade Journal

Lately, I’ve been in love with handmade journal/notebook. Ever since I found the tutorial for bookbinding in Pinterest, I wanted to try it. I have to say, I hate you Pinterest!!! For giving me so many inspirations, but no time to work on a project. Heh :p Just kidding.

This is the first journal that I made. The inside pages are HVS paper and the cover is cardboard covered by felt fabric. It’s for personal use, so I make it blue, my favorite color. I also made a mini book charm using the same bookbinding method. Some people seem to appreciate it, and a friend asked if I could make one for her. I said sure. She wanted it red, her favorite color, so I use red wool thread for the binding. For the paper inside, I choose 4 colors: white, pastel rose, pastel ivory, and pastel peach.

Here’s the cover; made of cardboard from milk box, covered with felt fabric. It just happened that I have a sheet of cherries-patterned felt that went well with the bright red color. IMHO.

Hmm… let’s see… the cover looked too plain, so I added a flower 😀

Now let’s compare the new journal with my old journal (I have filled nearly half of it, not only with my handwriting, but also with chocolate wrapper and instant coffee sachet–it turned to be some kind of scrapbook. LOL).

 

Another friend of mine saw this second journal, and she liked it. She also wanted a red handmade journal, so I made one for her. This time, I wanted to make a different design, so planned it beforehand. For the paper inside, I used 5 colors: white, pastel rose, pastel ivory, pastel peach, and pastel lagoon. The color of the wool thread is purple. The cover design is a bit more complicated.

I doodled a bit on the inside cover, and also added a coloring page from Johanna Basford’s Secret Garden. I thought it would be fun!

Here’s the front and back cover of my third handmade journal. I’m pleased with the result 😀

I won’t stop here; I already plan the fourth journal, for a friend who’s currently pursuing her study in Aussie (ganbatte nee!). It’ll be cute, because there’ll be a cat’s head on the cover. I’m so excited! I’ll share more next time. ‘Til then, have a nice day! 😀