Tuesday Tutorial: I'm Thankful Journal

Welcome to a new feature, Tuesday Tutorials! This won't be a weekly feature but it will be regular, at least one a month. And for the very first tutorial I am going to walk you through the process of making this cute 20 page journal.

I designed the journal two Fridays ago for my GEMS group (Gems is my church's girls club) to make. My goal was for them to make a book to record what they were thankful for. I was inspired by a few different mini books I had found on Pinterest and when combined and tweaked this is the result.

Step 1: Gather Supplies
As an independent Stampin Up! demonstrator I used all Stampin Up! products. If you are interested in any of them contact me or you can shop on line with me here. I love the stamp and the pattern paper we used. This is the full supply list.

Stamp Set: I'm Thankful For..
Ink: Blackberry Bliss
Paper: DSP Color Me Autumn, 1 sheet of 81/2 x 11 Blackberry Bliss cardstock, 1 sheet of 81/2 x 11 Crushed Curry cardstock, and 3 sheets of 81/2 x 11 Whisper White cardstock.
Other: Fast Fuse (could be any adhesive or glue), score board, and paper cutter

Step 2: Prepare the Paper
I found it easier to do all the paper cutting and scoring first. You will need four 41/4 x 51/2 cards for the front and back covers. This is the same size as the front of a normal card. I made two Blackberry Bliss and two Crushed Curry card covers.

Next, you will need 5 small cards that are 4 x 51/4. To make these cards cut the whisper white cardstock so that it is 4 x 101/2. Score these in half which is at 51/4 mark.

Take one sheet of 12 x 12 designer series paper (double sided pattern paper). Cut at 4". Score at every inch and fold. Before you begin folding decided which image you want to be showing in the book. I decided on the leaves. The side you want needs to begin with a valley fold.

Step 3: Stamp Image
On each side of the whisper white cards stamp the "I'm Thankful For..." image in the ink of your choice. I used Blackberry Bliss ink for every page. On the front side move the image over an inch or so or it will be covered by the pattern paper binding. The other pages can be stamped centered.

Step 4: Attach the Pages
This I found the hardest step to explain. Maybe a video would be better. You are going to be attaching the five completed pages to the pattern paper on each of the full mountain folds. When you attach the pattern paper to the while sheets only put the adhesive on the right side of the mountain fold and the front page of the white cards. Also, do not attach anything to the the first or the last flap of the pattern paper, These are used on the covers.

It will look like this when you are done:

Step 5: Secure the Binding
Flip over the book. Add adhesive to the five mountain/valley folds.

It will look like this when you are done:

Step 6: Add the Front and Back Covers
Use adhesive to attach the inner cover to patter paper. Repeat on the back cover. It will look like this:

A few of the girls chose to move on to step 7 after this point. Others then covered the Crushed Curry inner cover with adhesive and carefully placed a Blackberry Bliss over top.

Step 7: Decorate
Using any stamps, ribbons, buttons, or other accessory decorated the cover. We ran out of time at our meeting so the girls and I will be decorating the covers next time we meet.

Step 8: Use Your New Journal
Take the time to write on your pages.

Thank you so much for reading my tutorial. It is the first one that I've written. I hope the instructions were clear. If you have any trouble, or my wording doesn't make sense please let me know in the comments. Also if you have suggestions on how to improve this tutorial or future how to's please let me know.