Reinvented Journals in Action

One of my wonderful customers sent me some pictures of journals that I have made for her to show me how she's using them. It made me so happy to see the blank pages filled with stories and pictures from her life! Living in the Boston area, which is apparently the used book mecca of the US, she sends me the most amazing books to be made into journals for her own particular purposes. Always beautiful and often with a sense of humor, they portray a woman with a sense of her own personal style.

She and her husband took this journal . . .


on a trip to Germany last year for her 40th birthday. She said it was great to write about the trip and store memorabilia WHILE the trip was happening rather than try to do it after the fact.



I like to use "found pages" in my journals, themed with the book's title or purpose if possible. She sent me some pages from an old German child's book to include, and I added some maps and pages from the Germany section of an old encylopedia. Generally these pages aren't big enough to form a complete folio, so inserting them results in a 1 - 2 inch tab in the signature opposite the page. She said those turned out to be really useful for attaching brochures.

I understand that even in the big city, she's quite the farm wife, growing and preserving her own veggies a la little house on the prairie. This is her garden journal . . . .



She also has a journal for use at work meetings, one to record the bird action in her yard and, my personal favorite, one for she and her husband to keep track of compromises that they make so it is "in writing." I'd keep that one in the safe deposit box just in case!

Her husband is running scared these days, since she recently sent me nine (yes, NINE!) more covers to make into journals. Judging by the titles, most of them obviously intended for travel. I'm trying to make a deal with him on the side to dole them out slowly as his travel budget allows!

Thanks, Lisa! I'm inspired by you!