Life Lately Update & a Darling DIY Notebook

Hello there! Thanks for being here on my blog! I’ve been hanging out behind the scenes quite a bit this last month and things have been pretty quiet on the blog so I appreciate the fact that you are still here!! The month of July seems to rock my world a bit (actually a LOT) each year and this one was especially crazy!! On top of it being summer and having all 6 kiddos home every day, we have 3 July birthdays in our family, we were gone on a family vacation for part of the month, Brian and I went to China and Hong Kong!!! for a week, I designed a new collection for Crate Paper that will release in January at CHA, we had a huge photo and video shoot for my next collection that we are releasing this week, and about 50 other things that we had going on! How’s that for a Life Lately update! I have soooo many photos on my phone and camera that I haven’t even really looked through yet!!

So you can see July was just a tad bit crazy, but all amazingly fabulous and fun and we soaked up every bit of summertime with the kiddos that we could before they go back to school! It’s always a bit of a balancing act trying to juggle all the things of life (no matter what month it is) but July seems to be the month for me where something’s gotta give and for me it was the blog. If you’re the blogging type, I’d love to hear how you keep things going strong during these extra busy summer months! I’m all ears so if you’d like to share I would love to hear from you in the comments!! 

Anyhow, we do have a LOT to share here on the blog and lots of exciting things coming up, so you’ll be seeing regular and frequent posts happening again! Yay! Today we have a CUTE project for you from design team member Amanda Rydell. I’m a major sucker for notebooks…. Seriously I can hardly go to any store that has notebooks, without purchasing one. It’s a problem, but not really, because notebooks make me happy and in my world, they are an item that it’s totally ok to stock up on, aka hoard. haha! Well Amanda is teaching us today how to make a cute DIY notebook. The best part is you can completely customize your DIY notebook and add tabs, divider pages, photos, etc. There’s so many possibilities for cuteness and usability!! Win Win if you ask me! Read on for the full tutorial!

It’s that time of year!!! The school supplies start filling the shelves and the school supply lists are getting handed out. I have always been a lover of notebooks and fun pencils and pens. You could probably use the word hoarding because I seriously have a drawer full!!!! I just can’t resist.

After walking the aisles of Target wishing I was going back to school so I could buy all the things, ok I was just joking about the wanting to go back to school part….. I was inspired to make my own notebook out of my favorite Maggie Holmes pattern papers.

Making this notebook is SUPER easy!! I sized my papers to 5.5 x 8.5 (half of a regular 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper) so I could get 2 sheets out of one!!! After I had all my papers cut out I brought the notebook to my local printer and had it bound for under five dollars.

I kept the front of the journal simple. This pink floral pattern is my absolute favorite.

When you first open the journal, the first page is a gold envelope because every notebook needs a little folder to put all those random loose papers in. I am giving this notebook as a gift so I decided to insert a few notecards and envelopes for my recipient to have on hand. You can never have to many notecards! My day is always brightened when I get a little handwritten card from a friend.

 Underneath the envelope is a piece of gold floral velum. I added in lots of layers in this notebook to make it feel more like a mini album.

And what’s a notebook without notes!? I divided the book into different sections using different pattern paper tabs.

The first section is where I added in lined note paper. Each section has a handful of papers to write notes or write down ideas. Also, each page can easily be torn off!! I also included pages that were blank.

After the notes section comes the first tab divider in the book. At each tab divider page, I used a small pattern paper strip to attach photos.

Along with the smaller photos, I inserted 4 large full page photos. This photo page was so fun to create. After turning the image into black and white I added the saying “Today’s A New Day” using photoshop. Each photo was printed on cardstock paper.

The pattern paper really makes this notebook fun and interactive.

I didn’t want the full page photos to get lost in the book so I added a small embellishment to the top right corner so they would stick out slightly more than the rest of the papers.

The best part about all the tab dividers is seeing a different picture at each one.

At the back end of the notebook I added another pattern paper to compete the book. I just love how this turned out and I now want to make many more!!!

TIP >>> If you don’t want to include the tabs and photos, you can just use pattern papers. I think the notebook is cute either way!!

Thanks Amanda for teaching us how to make cute DIY notebooks and planners. This is definitely a project to save to your pinterest!!

Happy Monday Friends!

xoxoxo

Supplies Used >> Maggie Holmes Bloom Collection  Also HERE / Bloom Chipboard Stickers / Bloom Ephemera Die Cuts (Similar) / Bloom 12×12 Patterned Paper Pad  / Bloom Accent Stickers