2020 Christmas Gift Idea #2 - Journals

A few weeks ago I took an old spiral notebook we had laying around and started using it as a journal of sorts for retirement planning.  I thought it would be a good thing for me to make all of my many lists in.  I love to plan and part of that is making lists of all kinds for all kinds of reasons.

This notebook still had most of it pages inside, still very usable

This spiral notebook was one my daughter had used only a few pages out of for her math class last year.  The cover had worn spots on it and it wasn't overly pretty.  Not like my cute retirement planner I put together a couple weeks ago.  So I grabbed my scrap bin full of various size pieces of scrapbook papers I had used for card making and got busy.

Lots of scrappy leftovers

I "laminated" the cover with strips of packing tape

I had a lot of fun selecting the papers and arranging them on the cover.  I used my glue stick to slap them onto the notebook cover and arrange all of the pieces like a crazy quilt.  Once I was finished I let it dry overnight.  In the morning I decided to "laminate" it for added durability.  I don't own a laminator so I grabbed a roll of packing tape and covered it with strips.  I also went along the edges to add some extra reinforcement too.

I added some cute little tabs to separate my lists

A handy little pocket

When I was finished I cut some short pieces to make tabs so I can easily separate and locate my various lists.  I also used a scrap piece of cardstock which I covered in more scraps and let that dry.  I "laminated" that too and added it to the inside of my cover as a pocket to hold slips of paper.  It worked so well I made another one for inside the back cover too.

I think this is the perfect companion for my planner

Afterward as I sat and admired my work I thought what a super cool idea for a gift.  How fun to make one of these and include a notepad and pen, a sheet of fun stickers too and give it as a gift.  What do you think?  I love it!