How to Make Your Own Homemade Journal

A good journal can be expensive. It's possible to make a high quality one for very little money. It makes a great gift idea, project to make with your child, or even for yourself.

To begin, you need the following materials:

Three hole punch

Fabric (preferably a thicker grade, like velvet)

Inexpensive sketch book (I bought one at my local dollar store for $2.50)

double sided tape

Sewing Needle

Thread

Ribbon

Ruler

Scissors

Pencil

Large embroidery needle

Clear packaging tape

Elmer's glue

To get started, take your sketch book apart. Carefully remove all the pages, making sure not to rip any of them. Also, make sure that the cardboard backing is kept intact. You will need this shortly.

After you have taken the book apart and have a stack of loose leaf pages, carefully fold the pages in half. If it is a 10½ inch by 8 inch sheet of paper, you will want to fold it so that it measures 5¼" by 8 inches. Make sure to keep the pages as even as possible. Now that you have a sheet of paper folded, take a ruler and and go back over your crease insuring that it is as flat as possible. Now, very carefully, tear the paper into two pieces along the crease. To make it easier, you can take a cotton swap and dip the tip in water. Carefully run the wet tip along the outside of the crease. This helps the paper tear more easily without leaving the crease.

Put your finished pages to the side. The next step involves back of the sketch pad. Measure it lengthwise and divide by two. This will be the center of the cardboard, and should be the same length as your pages. With a pencil and your ruler, mark a cutting line with your new measurements. Once you've made your mark, cut it in two with your scissors.

Once you have done these things, get out your three hole punch. Take a sheet of your paper and punch holes on the long side. Make sure to have the paper pushed all the way up to the top so that all the pages will be punched in exactly the same place. Once you have punched your first set of holes, turn the paper over and punch it again. Make sure your second punch is on the same side that you have previously done. This last step will put an additional two holes in your paper, so that you have four even holes all on the same side, much like looseleaf binder paper. Do this with all of your pages and the two pieces of cardboard as well.

Now that you have all of your pages cut, measure the dimensions of one of your cardboard pieces, width and length. Add two inches to the width and to the length. Cut out two pieces of material using these new measurements. Again, lie your cardboard piece directly in the middle of your cut piece of fabric. An inch of fabric should overlap an inch on all four sides. With your double sided tape, adhere the overlapping edges to the cardboard. When you're done one side of the cardboard should be completely covered in fabric, while the other side should have an inch of fabric adhered to all four sides. Do this to both pieces of cardboard.

Next, cut another two pieces of fabric that are the same size of your cardboard. Fold one size of the fabric under a half inch. Tape this to the unfinished side of your cardboard right above where the other fabric ends so that no cardboard shows. Continue in this method for all four sides, so that the entire piece of cardboard is covered with fabric. Do this with both pieces of cardboard.

With your sewing needle and thread, whipstitch around the edges of the new piece of fabric to the first piece you taped. This will insure that the fabric stays put and does not fray. Pay special attention to the corners.

Now take two sheets of your loose leaf paper. Cut off a piece of packaging tape that measures the length of the paper. Place half of the tape on the punched out side of the paper, making sure to cover the holes. Flip the paper over and adhere the tape to the other side. Be careful to get the tape even and that all holes are covered. This can be tricky, so try to make sure the tape only sticks to the paper with no creases. Cut off any tape that overlaps the paper. Punch the tape out of the holes using the same process your originally used to put the original holes in the paper. Do this with both pieces of paper. These will be the first and last pages of your book. The tape insures that the paper does not tear when they are turned.

Put your book together, with all the holes on the same side. For the cardboard, you can feel through the fabric where the holes are. You may want to tap the book on the table to make sure all the papers and covers are even and all the holes are in a straight line. This will make it easier when you put your ribbon through. It is more aesthetic if the outside of the book's covers show the fabric that is not layered.

Run your ribbon through the eye of the embroidery hook. Stick the needle through the first group of holes. You may need a pair of pliers to help, but pull the needle through so that ribbon sticks out of both sides. Cut the ribbon. You will want to make sure that the ribbon is long enough to knot twice and tie in a bow, which is the next step. Before you tie your bow, however, put a drop of Elmer's glue on the knot to make sure it stays in place. Also, you will want to make sure that ribbon is loose enough to be able to turn pages before you knot it. Tie your bow. Again, drop a small amount of glue on the center of the bow to keep it from untying. With your fingers, smear a little glue on the ends of the ribbon to keep it from unraveling. Do this with all four groups of holes.

Lie your new book aside for a couple of hours to allow the glue to dry, and then its ready to use.