Hi there and welcome back for Day 2 of sneak peeks at my newest stamp set, Gratitude Journal! Gratitude Journal and all of the new goodies you're getting peeks at this week, will be available for purchase at Papertrey Ink beginning on August 15.
For today, I have a couple more projects to show you.....the first of which is a gratitude journal I made for my husband, to tell him how much I appreciate him. His birthday is coming up, on Papertrey Release Day in fact, so feel free to get yourself some new crafty goodies to celebrate, if you'd like! Haha. See there....I'm here for you......even if you just need an excuse to buy some new crafty treats! Ha.
Anyway, back to his birthday......it's coming up in just a few days and I wanted to put together a gratitude journal that is filled with reasons that I'm thankful for him -- something he can look thru any time he'd like. Honestly, he's been soooooo wonderful with puppy Win, helping out in a million different ways, particularly this week during the Countdown when I'm working a gazillion hours each day in and around puppy's sleep/eat/go outside schedule. So I really wanted to create a book just for Bartley and since I have only left the house 3 times now since we got said puppy two weeks ago, this will serve as one of Bart's birthday gifts. Something thoughtful and sweet, that didn't require a trip to the mall.
I told you yesterday that I'd be showing you several different ways to approach making a gratitude journal of your own, be it a gift or something you're keeping for yourself. Yesterday, I showed you how to make a little stitched book, however I know that many of you may not sew or have access to a sewing machine. If that's you, then today's gratitude journal may be just the ticket for you to be able to whip up your own book.
To get started, I pulled out the Tabbed Mini Book Page die and several sheets of card stock and patterned paper that I thought I wanted to work with. I die cut a variety of papers, not worrying too much about what or how many of anything.....I just wanted to get a few papers laid out to get going with. You could, of course, map out ahead of time, exactly how many pages you want in your book and then think about what colored pages you'd like to go where in the layout of your book.
One thing to note though, some of these pages will end up going on the "back side" of others, so some of your patterned papers, may need to be die cut with the holes on the right side of the die. You'll see what I mean in a bit.
The other thing I did before I got started, was to die cut several tabs using the smallest Journal Tabs die and then I stamped each tab with numbers from Gratitude Journal -- one number on one side of the tab, and the next number on the flip side. That way, the tabs can number the pages for me, when it's all put together. (Don't you just LOVE those numbers on the tabs?!! I want to make numbered tabs for everything....but maybe that's just the office supply lover in me!)
So now that the pages are die cut, I figured out which papers I wanted to be next to each other when each page is turned. Once you've got the basic order of your pages established, it's time for the FUN part......simply decorate each page just as you would a card front.
Basically, you just decorate the "front" of each page (keeping track of which side of the page, the holes are on) and then when you've got two of the page fronts decorated, simply adhere those two pages together, back to back, with scor-tape. See the two pages in the photo above? They got adhered together, back to back, so that the page on the left became the front cover of my book, and when we turn the page, the page you see above on the right, becomes the book's first page. Make sense?
I used a couple of 1.5" metal rings to bind the book together.
Let's get to the details of the pages!
For the front cover of my gratitude journal, I wanted to use a couple of sentiments from Gratitude Journal ("So very grateful for" and "You"), to let Bartley know right off the bat, what this book is all about.
The woodgrain mat stack 5 image (from a new set that Nichole designed for this release) was stamped directly on the front cover with dark chocolate ink. On top of that, I layered a couple of leaves (melon berry and terracotta tile) that were die cut with Leaf Prints dies and on top of that, some Road Trip patterned paper die cut with a Heart Prints die. A couple of Hero Arts gems finished off the cover.
Here are the first couple of pages....on the left, I used Road Trip dotted patterned paper as the base and added a kraft mat stack 5 layer as well as a couple of dark chocolate buttons threaded with a bit of rustic jute button twine. The button card die was used to create the little journaling card and at the top, I stamped the "So blessed because..." sentiment and across the bottom, the striped image -- both from Gratitude Journal.
On the third page (on right), I used a strip of Library Ledger patterned paper to house my journaling and stamped "Counting my blessings" and "one by one" before listing out some of those blessings as they relate to Bartley. The "Grateful" image at the bottom was stamped in dark chocolate ink and a couple of faux corrugated hearts were added on the right. Those were made by die cutting kraft card stock with the heart prints dies and then running them thru a paper crimper. The medium scalloped border die was used on terracotta tile card stock, to create the scalloped accent strip.
I kept it fairly simple with these two pages......the one on the left started out with more Road Trip patterned paper. I stitched a border around 3 sides of the paper before adding any embellishments. The nice thing about doing your pages like this and then adhering them together, is that any stitching or anything else on the back side of the paper, can easily be hidden. I used all 3 of the Seeing Stars dies here and stamped a pretty new sentiment (from a new set designed by Nichole) on the largest star. It says, "Because of you my world is brighter".
For the page on the right, I stamped Background Basics: Woodgrain in versamark ink on the melon berry card stock. Another button card was used here and I stitched a Table Service die cut to the button card. I also stamped a flourish and "Thankful for" sentiment on it, both from Gratitude Journal. Sandwiched in between the button card and Table Service die cut is a bit of kraft card stock stamped with the word "priceless" from Gratitude Journal, and die cut with a fillable frames #4 die. Another little Hero Arts gem was added for a little sparkle.
I love these next two pages. The one on the left is kraft card stock. On the bottom, I stamped another image from Gratitude Journal. This one says, "Blessings, So much to be thankful for". Above that, I added some vintage book print that was die cut with the mat stack 5 die and stamped a couple more flourishes on the top and bottom. A bit of dotty Road Trip paper was die cut with the double-ended banner die. Next up, the limitless layers: 1 3/4" circle dies were used on terracotta tile card stock and rustic cream card stock. The cream layer was stamped with another new woodgrain image (Watch Nichole's blog for more about it!). Lastly, is a sentiment strip that says, "life is beautiful", from Gratitude Journal was added as well as a threaded dark chocolate button.
The page on the right is a piece of Library Ledger patterned paper. At the top, I stamped a sentiment from Gratitude Journal -- "Gratitude, the state of being grateful" and then below that, I simply jotted a note to Bartley telling him how much he means to me.
For the page on the left above, I started out with cream card stock and stamped it with Background Basics: Newsprint and inked the edges with a bit of vintage touch tea dye. The terracotta tile leaves were die cut with a Turning a New Leaf die and a few dark chocolate buttons serve as a little accent. The mat stack 3 die cut was stamped with the journaling lines from Gratitude Journal as well as the larger flourish from the set and the scalloped border along the bottom.
For the page on the right, I used some more Road Trip patterned paper and added a strip of Library Ledger brown paper, on which I stamped the sentiment, "It's the little things that matter most" from Gratitude Journal. The leaves were die cut and stamped with some new goodies Nichole will be telling you about this week!
And of course, in the bottom left corner of that page, I stamped the "Date:" stamp from Gratitude Journal and wrote in Aug. 2011.
Here is the back cover of the book. I love how this turned out. Kind of reminds me of the back of a store-bought card! I stamped the "I'm so Grateful for you" sentiment from my Signature Greetings stamp set. I LOVE how perfect that stamp is for this gratitude journal! And below that on a strip of kraft card stock, I stamped a "Happy Birthday" sentiment from Birthday Basics.
And of course, the "Gratitude, a journal" sentiment at the bottom is from Gratitude Journal.
Before I go today, I thought I'd show you a little card I whipped up with a sentiment from Gratitude Journal.
As you can see, I used the "life is beautiful" sentiment and I also stamped the little scalloped strip on a scalloped strip of new leaf card stock. Love the double scallops! The background patterned paper is my favorite from Green Boutique and the card base is kraft card stock.
I LOVE the embellies on this card! I die cut some kraft card stock with a Doily Details die and then ran it thru my paper crimper -- SUCH a fun look! On top of that, I added another of those new die cut flowers you've been getting peeks at this week. The flower was made with hawaiian shores card stock and the edges inked a bit with vintage touch tea dye ink. A vintage cream button was stitched thru the center with rustic jute button twine. The leaves were die cut from new leaf card stock with the Sending You die.
All right, Dearies.....that's it for me today. Can you think of someone you could make a gratitude journal for as a gift? I can't wait to give this one to Bartley! Or perhaps a card such as this one would be ideal for someone you know, huh?
I hope you've enjoyed both of today's posts! (If you missed my second post for today, SCROLL DOWN!)
Be sure to visit Nichole Heady and Melissa Bickford today for more sneak peek fun, as well as all of the girls on the Design Team.
Take care and I'll see you again tomorrow,
{Grateful For You Journal supplies -- click on thumbnails}
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{Life is Beautiful Card supplies}
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