Beginning your journal...............

A blogger asked me how to do a journal.

The most important thing is that you have to WANT to.  It's that easy.

The kind of book you use is strictly up to you.  You can go the Barnes and Nobel and buy an elegant Moleskine or you can make a book out of recycled cereal boxes or anything in between.  This summer I kept one that was a little  4"x6" spiral notebook that I got at the $1.00 store.  That and a pen and pencil are all I took with me on my trip to California.  The following shots are of it.

You may recognize the cover - a catalog cover from Victorian Greetings.  Somewhere I cut out the word summer and the drive-in movie ticket was from a Tim Holtz paper stash which you can order online.  I always use a little double faced tape for insurance on my paper and I've found out that I like UHU stic glue which I buy at the office supply store. 

The only thing I even glued in these pages was a picture from a restaurant we went to.  Then I decorated the bottom with a shelf of clay pots like they had under their windows.  I want to try the clay pot thing - maybe next year.  This helps me remember.

These pages have images mostly from the Graphics Fairy.  She has some wonderful things on her blog. 

On these pages I've cut out pretty paper the size of the page and glued them on and then embellished as I went.  You can do your pages however you want to. 

You really need the glue I mentioned - I've used other kinds and your things fall out - and it isn't taht expensive. Some little scissors (can't remember the name but they're in the paper craft section and they are yellow and black - very precise and sharp!)  Some good markers are nice, ZIG Memory System are the ones I like....so far, and you should have a white gel marker which is almost impossible to find.  A paper punch if you're making your own pages and some rings which you also can purchase at Walmart or an office supply store.  But all that said - you can use a pen and crayons for that matter - until you get the supplies you want. 

What to write on your page?  What's going on that you want to remember?  What's going on that you'd rather not remember but you need someone to talk about it and your journal is just waiting to listen, a beautiful thought you ran across, things that you love, the subjects are endless but if you find yourself staring at a blank page there are many Internet sites of journal prompts which will give you lots of ideas. 

Let me know how you're doing but mostly remember - this is yours, this is you, there's no right or wrong way to do it.  Sometimes a page just doesn't come out the way you want it to - glue something over it  - or glue a manila envelope over it and put some little things in it you want to keep.  It's endless.  Diane