The Summer Journal

OH-KAY! So yesterday I was talking to my friend Kristin about my newest obsession (see yesterdays’ post) and I showed her my She Art girl. She told me about a project she’s working on and how it would be perfect for a She Art girl and I was totally inspired!! So I created a little project that I want to share with you. But first, let me tell you about Kristin’s project so it makes more sense.

Kristin recently shared her digital scrapbooking solution on her blog. It’s called Snapbooking and you can read more about it here! It’s really awesome! It’s basically a super fast and easy way to get your memories documented. For me, this is a perfect solution for phone/instagram photos, pictures that friends send me or pictures I snap that aren’t really enough for me to make a whole layout with or about but that I still want to document. There was a good reason I took the photo and I don’t want to forget it! I love, love, love snapbooking!

It also helps me stay on top of my memory keeping and allows me to take more time with my bigger 12 x 12 layouts. For me, it’s given me back one of the things that I love most about digital scrapbooking- the joy of creating. I can take my time making the full-size layouts I want to make and use my snapbooks for the memories I want to keep but that aren’t inspiring me to scrap. It’s a brilliant idea and I definitely recommend it!

SO- as we were talking, Kristin told me about a spin-off of her snapbook project she’ll be making for her daughter this summer. To keep her daughter writing while school is out, she’s going to make her a little snapbook album where she can take a photo, put it in the album and then write about the photo (brilliant, I tell ya!) and she thought a She Art girl would be the perfect cover for the album!

I’m always looking for fun summer activities, especially ones that will keep Zoe reading and writing, and I immediately fell in love with this idea. [Incidentally, we were having this conversation while I was waiting to pick Zoe up from school]. So as soon as Zoe got out from school, we had some errands to run and one of them happened to be to Michael’s [If I spent as much time at the gym as I spend at Michael's, I would be one sexy-beast]. I picked up a couple supplies for Zoe’s journal and as soon as we got home, I went to work. I love how the journal turned out, it was super easy- not including the time it took me to make the journal cover, it probably took me 30 minutes to put the album together, and Zoe absolutely adores it!!

To make the album I used a 50 pack of white Recollections card stock, a piece of chipboard and my Zutter Bind-It-All machine. I cut the white card stock in half (5.5″ x 8.5″) to make the journal pages.

For the cover, I cut 4 pieces of chipboard to 5.75″ x 8.5″ (a little wider than the journal pages) and made two covers by gluing [mod-podging] two pieces of the chipboard together. I wanted the cover to be sturdier. Then I used some paper tape to seal the edges. The paper tape is more for decoration- I just didn’t like how the edges looked with the two pieces glued together.

Then I took one of the covers and added a She Art girl!

I punched holes in the cover and journal pages using my Zutter Bind-It-All machine and bound it all together (heehee)!

Super simple!! Afterward, I realized I forgot to add the word art to the cover, so I just cut out some words and glued them on:

Zoe loves the journal! She immediately wanted to start journaling! I gave her an old point-and-shoot camera that I have and I’m using my Epson PictureMate Charm to print the photos at home (L.O.V.E!). [And if you're thinking about snapbooking- this little printer comes in way handy!!!]

Zoe made her first journal page last night using some of my paper scrapping supplies. She had a blast!

And the first thing she did this morning when she woke up was ask for the camera so she could go take a photo. I just got done printing it and she’s in the other room journaling! I LOVE IT!! Thank you so much Kristin!!!

On a side note- last night while I was printing Zoe’s photo, she personalized her journal and I had to share it with you. **Deep breaths…. deep breaths….**

Heehee. I love that she made it her own and that it is encouraging her to create. But I secretly hope she just continues to create on the inside pages….. LOL!