Craft for the month of December

The craft for December is.... making your own journal/smash book!

To make a cloth covered book, you need, cardboard (sturdy), cloth, and some kind of glue. I used Mod Podge.

 I was using scrap cloth here, so it was challenging to piece it together, but basically you want a piece of cloth that is 2 in bigger than your cardboard all around. You'll be folding it over as you go. You can see too that I have 3 pieces of cardboard. The front, back and the spine.

 You will then fold over all the cloth and glue it in place, covering the remaining inside with card-stock paper.

As you see below, this one I had the cloth cut right and was able to properly cover the spine, by tucking that cloth in.

(uh.... yah, how can you tell I have kids! Diaper box right!!!)

And here we prepared our paper. for the smaller book above, I just folded plain white sheets in half and glued the folded edges together before putting it in my book, but this big purple book below needed big sheets 8 1/2 by 11.

So I took my writing paper, put those gold thingys in there to keep the paper from moving around, and then with the Mod Podge, glued all the back edges together.

 After folding in the cloth, I covered with card-stock paper and then also placed in my paper. I glued that first page to the folded card-stock. my paper I also glued to the spine, because this is a big book and somewhat flimsy. However on a smaller book there probably is no need to glue the paper the the spine and is probably better if you don't for it to function better.

 Next I glued a cover over the outside spine

 these turned out better than I'd hoped!

Next I began to fill my purple book. It's a journal smash book full of pictures, stories, momentous and memories. Anything and everything I'd like my kids to know about me.

Here is how I filled it.

Journal prompts

0. Name and Date of starting your journal

1. Where you were born –where you have lived –where you are now

2. Early memories from childhood

3. When were you saved?

4. Preteen years in a nutshell (or memories from)

5. About my Grandparents

6. A book you love

7. Teen years in a nutshell (or memories from)

8. Something you feel strongly about (personal beliefs or convictions)

9. Into your early twenties in a nutshell (or memories from)

10. Favourite scriptures and why they are

11. Five things to win your heart (or up your love bank)

12. About my dad

13. About my mom

14. Your second favourite book

15. Family Values

16. Family Traditions

17. Books you’ve read

18. Your Love Story (how you met, how he purposed, your wedding day)

19. Your kids –daughter –son (describe them)

20. If you could meet a character from any book, who would it be?

21. Dreams for the future

22. Your Hero’s (special people) in your life and what makes them so.

23. What has God been teaching you lately?

24. Top 10 favourite movies

25. What do you day dream about?

26. About your best friend (or spouse)

27. A Day in your life

28. If you could go back in time to the olden days, what era would you choose and what modern things would you take with you?

29. Write a letter to yourself to be read in the future

30. Make a timeline of your life

31. Story from your past

32. Write a letter to your spouse (or future spouse)

33. A story from this summer (year)

34. What did you read in your devotions today?

35. Write a letter to your children (or future children)

36. Your families names and the meanings of their names or stories behind their names

37. A list of your favourite things (food, color, music, activities,) and a list of dislikes

38. The story of your daughter’s/son’s birth

39. Describe yourself,  personality, talents, hobbies… etc.. and something about yourself that people might not know.

40. Write about the story books/novels you want to write

41. If you could choose any profession/job what would it be and why?

42. Family members and their characteristics (siblings, aunts, uncles)

43. Your spiritual journey

44. How do you want to be remembered?

45. Characteristics that you admire in your husband (or want in a husband/wife)

46. What is God teaching your today?

47. A prayer for your family or friends

48. Answered prayers that you remember (so you won’t forget!)

49. Bucket list (things you want to do yet)

50. Count all your blessings! Name all the things you are thankful for!

Extra prompts or substitute prompts:

1. Add a picture and the story that goes with it.
2. Add pictures to existing journal entries
3. Write in your favourite recipe
4. Your devotions for that day (prayer and Bible verse that stood out to you)
5. Glue in encouraging or special notes or letters that were given to you 
6. old journal or diary you want to throw out? Take out the entries you like and glue/tape them into your new journal.
7. Write in your favourite quotes
8. Write out the best advice that was ever given to you
9. Write advice you’d give someone else
10.  Glue in love notes from your spouse/special someone
11. Glue in mementoes from a special event and write the story behind them
12. Write about the people in your life who have died and what they meant/impacted you.
13. Old Drawings
14.  Whole Page Dedicated to your hobby
15. About your friends
16. About your brothers that aren’t your brothers
17. About family that aren’t your family
18. A fictional story about you
19.  Keepsakes from the past
20. Write your favourite writing prompts 
21.  If you could step into a book or movie, what would it be and who would you be in the story?
22. Write a short children’s story