Craft: Customized Journals.

A friend of mine made me a prayer journal like this back in college, and when I just recently finished filling that journal, I decided to try my hand at making my own. Here is the finished product.

And now here's how to make it....

Supplies:
composition notebook
scrap of fabric
piece of ribbon
hot glue gun

The fabric is cut to size. I realized the black of the notebook was still going to show through the fabric, so I just taped on some paper to the covers. Cut slits in the fabric where the binding of the notebook is. Then open up the notebook and wrap the fabric (like a present) to the cover, gluing the edges of the fabric with a hot glue gun. I didn't have a hot glue gun but when I asked my mom to borrow hers, she ended up just buying me one for only $3 or 4. It held pretty well, as long as you get it stuck down quickly while the glue is nice and hot.

This is what it looks like on the inside once the fabric is all glued. Not the prettiest, but that doesn't bother me even a little bit.
Outside view of the journal so far.

Now for ribbon to pretty it up even more! Cut your ribbon the length you want it to wrap around your journal and tie.

Then glue it. Remember not to put glue on the part that ties. But if you did get a little bit on that part, just let the glue dry and then pull it off carefully. Not that I would know from experience or anything, certainly not! But there she is! Aint she purty!Great gift idea, don't you think?

You could definitely do a lot more with this if you wanted. Heck, you could even SEW stuff onto the fabric before you glue it on, but that's just really not my thing. I prefer to keep it simple.