Evalicious | Meet Me In The Sunshine

Hello everyone!  I’m on the Evalicious blog today with a layout that I created about Peppermint’s visit back in May.  I wanted to fit a lot of journaling about what we did while she was here, so I decided to layer circular punched out shapes on top of patterned papers and journal cards to write my journaling.

For each day, I used a date stamp and also the Days of The Week stamp set and stamped on top of a punched out file tab.

I layered some Amy Tangerine diecuts underneath the journaling circle.  I also used round stickers from This Way and Life’s Sweet as embellishments. 

I love adding wood veneer to a page to give it some different texture and dimension.

I used some stamps on the circle journal spots such as Good Eats stamps and Best Day Ever stamps. 

The geotag stamp from Destination stamp set is still one of my favorites!  I love using it to indicate where we were in our fun outings and travels.

Embellishments such as the camera love shape clips and the This Way Puffy Stickers V3 put the finishing touch onto the page.

Hope you enjoyed having a look at how I fit lots of days and journaling onto a one-page layout!  Thanks for stopping by!

Evalicious Products Used:

life's sweet large tags	this way wood veneer v1	life's sweet snipsnip labels
life's sweet round stickers	this way wood veneer v2	this way round stickers
life's sweet badges	this way puffy stickers v3	camera love shape clips
destination stamps	good eats stamp set	best day ever stamps
days of the week stamps

May Crafty Things and Obsessions

I know it’s almost June, but I did a lot of crafty things in May, and obtained new things and became obsessed with other things.  So I thought I would share them here.  I was writing posts for my personal private blog today and discovered a bunch of these fun photos from May, so I thought I’d post them over here on my public blog as well.

I Copic colored a bunch of things, because my Copic collection is finally at a place that I have enough colors to use!

I got a laminator and started foiling things.

I cleaned up and messed up my craft room many times over.

I got obsessed with traveler’s notebooks (Midori + fauxdoris) and ordered this Sojourner (Field Notes sized) from Rowena Curtis (@retrowtures on Instagram).  It arrived on 5/20.  I love it and have used it a lot!  I have four notebooks in there currently:  a calendar, a brain dump one, a sketch/draw one, and then one for lists (such as movies I’ve watched this year, crafty ideas to try, etc.)

I got obsessed with making DIY folders to go into my traveler’s notebook. 

I also got obsessed with Hobonichi planners and did a lot of research.  I finally ordered a Hobonichi Techno Avec from Japan at the end of May.

I got some more new pens from Jetpens.  That combined with my new traveler’s notebook obsession, I tested pen and ink pads on papers and notebooks quite a bit.  This was on the 32 lb Hammermill copy paper that I had a ream of already.  None of my pens bled through this, even the fountain pens.  Some of my inks bled through, especially the dye inks.  I think pigment and chalk inks work best in notebooks/planners, if you plan to use the other side of the paper.

I got two $9 containers from Amazon to hold my Copic markers and my pen collection!  Best thing is they stack, so it’s an expandable system.

I also re-discovered my Pilot Hi-Tec-C 05 pens and used them a lot.

I made Monika’s baby a softie kitty.

I made Peppermint a nerdy cat pen pouch for her birthday.

I made a bunch of cards in May.

For Todd’s mom Sylvia for Mother’s Day.

For Jen Carlson’s birthday.

Foiled cards.  This one for Sally’s birthday.

The next two for Paper Issues sponsored by Therm O Web.

This one for Monika’s baby shower.

This one for Peppermint’s birthday.

This one for Todd’s dad Tim’s birthday.

I got this set of stamps from Kelly Purkey and I love the pile of crap emoticon stamp!  I want to stamp that on my work notebook every day!

I actually do a lot of crafty things that aren’t for creative teams.  Those hardly ever make it onto my blog anymore.  If there’s anything you want to see more of, or that you want me to discuss in more detail. please leave a comment.

Tutorial | DIY Reversible Leather Traveler’s Notebook

The Midori-style traveler’s notebook is all the rage currently in the crafting/planning/scrapbooking world.  I have jumped in head-first, because I’ve always loved notebooks and list-making.  Um, my blog is called listgirl.com, right? :-)  The original Midori Traveler’s Notebook is from Japan.  It was intended to be used to document life’s adventures.  Nowadays crafters, planners, and scrapbookers are using it to doodle, plan, make lists, and document their lives like a scrapbook.  This style of notebook consists of a cover, along with a series of elastic cords to keep notebooks, folders, pouches, etc. in place inside the notebook.  If you google “fauxdori”, you will see a ton of people making DIY traveler’s notebooks either for themselves or for sale.

I decided to try to make my own traveler’s notebook, just for fun and experience.  I wanted it to be leather on both sides and reversible. 

And I wanted to make it as cheap as possible.  After all, this is DIY.  I did purchase a genuine Midori regular size in brown, and it cost about $45 on Amazon.  I wanted to make one a lot cheaper on my own, just to see how economical it could be to make your own.  I got my materials from Michaels and Joanns.  I had all the tools already in my craft studio.  If you needed to purchase more tools to make them, then you would need to spend more money investing in the tools.

MATERIALS:

• Light blue leather 8.5x11 ($4.99 after 50% off coupon at Michaels)
• Chocolate brown leather 8.5x11 ($4.99 after 30% off coupon at Michaels)
• Metal star charm ($0.46 after 30% off coupon. It was part of a three-set charm for $1.39)
• Therm O Web Heat N Bond Ultrabond 17”x 1 yard ($0.29.  The entire sheet was $1.75 after 50% off coupon at Joann, and I used about 1/6 of it.)
• Elastic cords ($0.22.  It was $3.99 for six colors for a total of 18 yards.  I used not even one yard.)
• Sewing thread (negligible cost)

So my total cost was about $10.95, under $11!

Here’s the two pieces of leather laid  out side by side before I got started.  The underside of the leather is more uneven and fibrous. 

I used Heat N Bond Ultrabond with an iron to fuse the two undersides of the leather together.  I didn’t take photos of that because I was using an iron.

After fusing the two pieces of leather together, I measured the middle of the leather piece and punched two holes toward the top and two holes toward the bottom.  These will be for stringing the elastic cords through to hold the notebooks.  I used my WRMK piercing tool.

I also pierced a hole in the middle of the notebook.  That’s for stringing the elastic loop for holding the whole thing together.

Then I used a big needle to string the elastics through the leather cover. 

I was basically done with the construction at that point.  However, after handling the notebook for a while, I decided that the Heat N Bond didn’t hold the two pieces of leather glued together well enough, especially on the edges.  So I decided to use my sewing machine and and add a stitched edging to hold the two pieces together.

The stitched edge really gives it a finished look!  I really love how my reversible leather traveler’s notebook turned out!

The star charm in the top loop.

Since the chocolate brown leather is just as good quality and the light blue one, I can use that side as the outside when I feel like it.  I would just need to re-string the elastics.

 

Sideways view.

 

The finished notebook cover is 8.5x11 (I didn’t cut the leather, except to trim the edges so that both pieces are straight). 

I strung the elastics so that there are two vertical ones.  It holds two or more notebooks.  You can add elastic bands (or long rubber bands) to hold even more notebooks together. 

The width of the cover is exactly perfect to hold two 5x8.25 large Moleskine Cahier notebooks.  I happened to have the same sized Piccadilly Memo Medium notebooks, so I used those. 

The 5x8 May Books would fit in here too. 

I really love how my DIY reversible leather traveler’s notebook turned out!  The leather is soft and I love that it’s reversible.  I also love how economical it was to make something like this, with coupons for Michaels & Joann.  I just wish that the leather came in more colors, because I would make many more, ha ha!  This is my biggest sized traveler’s notebook.  It will most likely stay home.  I will use it for crafty planning & ideas.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how I made my DIY traveler’s notebook, and are inspired to make one of your own!  ♥