5 x 7 Journal

I'm excited about the interest so far in the Joy Journal Project....it will be fun to get my first envelope of papers.

I wanted to take a minute and remind you that I need to manually publish a comment before it goes on the blog....allowing me weed out the spam. Also, blogspot is being finickly and sometimes doesn't let me respond directly to a comment and as of today it's not even letting make a separate comment. I don't know what the problem is...but could be my ancient computer. Yikes! I am able to get your comments and publish them so please know that I read every one.

Be patient with me on comments and if you want to contact me about the project please email me. Or you can just send your papers. I will always reply to your comments if I can. If you haven't heard from me it's because I'm having trouble with that feature. I continue to love any feedback and conversions. 

OK...enough of that admin stuff! 

Paul found joy in the snow as he headed off to snowshoe in the woods. 

I got out for walk too....and was quite impressed with some of our snow piles We did get 15 inches of snow in this last storm! 

I made a loop around the pond....it was fun plowing through the deep snow.

As promised...here's a glimpse inside Judy's 5 x 7 journal.

I have come to understand that the cover of a journal is pretty important...it sets the tone for what's inside. I'm excited about coming up with different techniques for the covers letting the papers lead the way.

Judy included three cards which coordinated well. It took a bit of nerve...but I randomly cut them up into chunks and created a patchwork quilt adding in just a few of my own papers. 

There is a neutral bookpage collage on the back of the cover and I folded the papers around to the front to cover the edge. I reinforced the spine and button closure spot with fused fabric on the front. It looks pretty sad at this point...but it all got covered with the beautiful cards. I wasn't worried...but I sure could have been.

I used an advertising flyer that comes with our weekly circular mailing...it was just the right weight for the substrate. I love using recycled materials and the fact that the word "toilet" is under the cover is our little secret now. 

I attached the papers onto the front with a glue stick overlapping them just a bit to create the patchwork quilt. I love the bit of fabric peeking out on the spine. I was pleased with how well it worked out.

I took it to the sewing machine and stitched around the all edges. I wasn't concerned if I went over a line twice...I just kept sewing until all the edges were stitched. 

Here's a little glimpse at some of the pages inside the journal. 

I like varying the sizes and shifting the pages off just a bit creating visible layers. Judy can add things on each of the pages that will peak through to tie them in even more. The pink flower is the rest of the card from the cover which I fussy cut along one edge.

I thought this green papercut was lovely....

so I left it just as it was so it became its own page.

I added some lined notebook paper from my stash

which works well for quotes or doodling. 

Graph paper is good to include I love that the pine tree is still peeking through.

This lovely translucent paper is a little pocket.

I liked the interesting way these papers lined up.

And I do love using some of the scraps!