Crafty Secrets October Challenge

(For my Craft Hoarders Challenge #17 post, please click HERE.)

Welcome to the Crafty Secrets Design Team October Challenge! (I do have two posts this morning, so make sure you click the link above to see the second post. It just happens that the Crafty Secrets blog party is always on a Monday...so one Monday a month you get slammed! {wink})

The Crafty Secrets designer challenge for October is Thanksgiving/Recipes. I created a journal in a Thanksgiving theme.

I love journals, and what can be better than a custom journal, fit for any occasion? I created this journal to be 5 x 7 inches. I decorated the cover in a Thanksgiving theme. A fun activity to do each year, is to allow family (and guests) write in their blessings each year. It is also fun to read previous years' entries as a way to see how God blesses us greatly! 

I created the journal to be about 1/2-inch thick. Since I used an O-wire binding, it is easy to increase the size of wire to make the book thicker.

To create the journal, I cut chipboard covers to 5 x 7 inches. I printed Thanksgiving-themed papers from the Digital Thanksgiving Collection at 8x8 inches onto cream cardstock. I trimmed four pieces to 5 x 7 inches and attached the plaid pattern to the outside of the covers and the vine pattern to the inside of the covers.

I measured where I wanted to place my binding and punched the holes with the We R Memory Keepers Cinch. (You can use any hole punch that will punch through chipboard.) I always punch my holes BEFORE I decorate the cover. I do not want to accidentally place decorations directly over where my holes will be!

To decorate the cover, I smudged a doily with Vintage Photo ink and attached it to the center of the cover. Then, I trimmed the bird image from Seasonal Calendar Creative Scraps and inked the edges. I mounted the image onto canvas ribbon with foam squares on top of the doily. 

I cut apart some floral sprays (found at the craft store) and added some leaves and "berries" to the corners of the image. I also added some stickers from the Family Matters Heartwarming Vintage Stickers set.

Before binding the journal, I added a pocket to the inside front cover. I trimmed a 2 x 5 inch piece of the plaid paper and added it to the inside cover to form a pocket. I decorated the top of the cover with a sentiment from the Digital Thanksgiving Collection, which I printed onto cream cardstock and trimmed out with a label die. I added a few tags to the pocket.

I rubbed all of the edges with Vintage Photo ink.

To create the pages for the album, I trimmed cream cardstock to 4 7/8 x 6 7/8 inches. I rubbed all edges with ink and then punched holes in the cardstock. I added my wire binding as shown.

I added images cut from Seasonal Calendar Creative Scraps and stickers from 
Heartwarming Vintage Stickers: Family Matters to the cardstock pages. My journal has plenty of blank pages to write upon!

I hope this inspires you to create a custom journal of your own! Now hop along and see what the rest of the team made!

Crafty Secrets Design Team

Kathy Clement, DT Leader  

Darlene Pavlick

Diane Hover

Elizabeth Lincoln
Gloria Stengel - YOU ARE HERE
Lee Ann Barrett - October Guest Designer

Melody Clement

Michele Kovack

Shantaie Fowler

Sheila Rumney

Crafty Secrets Blog

Create a new project featuring a Crafty Secrets products, link it to the Crafty Secrets BLOG, and you’ll automatically receive a $6 store credit. One lucky participant will be randomly chosen to win a $50 shopping spree in the store! If you don’t have any Crafty Secrets goodies, you can download FREE images from the Crafty Secrets blog; just look in the sidebar! You have until 11:59PT,  Sunday October 19th to play!

Come and play along! I mean you get $6 just for linking up your project! How can you pass that up! And a $50 shopping spree for the winner...come on, people! Make something and link 'er up!

Crafty Secrets products:
Digital Thanksgiving Collection
Creative Scraps: Seasonal Calendar
Heartwarming Vintage Stickers: Family Matters

Other products:
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Very Vanilla
Chipboard: WorldWin  Papers
Tags: Recollections, Staples
Floral sprays: Michael's Crafts
Ribbon: Really Reasonable Ribbon
Doily: Wilton
Ink: Ranger Distress Vintage Photo
Dies: Spellbinders Labels Four, Labels Four Small
Tools: We R Memory Keepers Cinch
Adhesive: Aleene's Tacky Glue; Scotch 3M ATG tape; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L 3D Foam Squares