How To: Altered Book Inspiration Journal

I woke up this morning super tired and not feeling quite up to my schedule of cleaning, laundry, diaper changing, cooking, and designing in the free moments between it all. My boy was up last night what felt like about 40 times an hour, but I won't complain.

So, this morning when I woke up from a practically sleepless night, I just wanted a little change, some sort of project I could do in a very short amount of time. At the same time, I've been admiring some photos in a magazine of antique Halloween items. I wanted to save them but didn't really have a feasible, neat way to do it... Until now.

If you want some sort of journal where you can just paste in bits of inspiration, photos, or notes, this would be perfect. First, you need a book. One that you won't want to read later on.

Mine is a 1941 Brazilian book, entirely in Portuguese, and seemingly having to do with the socio-economic future of Brazil... I think. I got it a few years ago at my college library's semesterly book sale for like 10 cents or so. I liked the spine of it, and figured I'd do something with it someday.
It isn't in super great shape. But for my purposes, it'll work.
After you've gathered your book, you'll need to cut out three shapes, each slightly larger than the next. I freehanded these--But feel free to use circles or squares or hearts or whatever you want.


Then I glue 'em all together. The smaller shapes go on top. I used Mod Podge for this project, but I don't know why Elmer's wouldn't work, too.

Then I put another layer of glue on the bottom shape and slap it on the book:


You might have to rub it down a couple times until the glue sticks.

Next, grab your trusty Micron pen. I love these pens. They're awesome. They're also about $3-$4 apiece so if you feel like you don't want to spring for the Micron, you can also go with your computer and printer, or a Sharpie. Either way, it'll look great.
Then write whatever you feel like on the cover. This cover may become more and more decorated as time goes on. It just depends.

It was a little bit of an off day for my handwriting. Oh well. I'll probably eventually doodle on the cover of the book until it becomes unreadable.

Next, pasting things INSIDE...
Grab your magazine clippings, and cut them up.
Then grab your Zig 2-way glue pen. I know I'm using a lot of brand names in this post, and even if you don't want to do the Micron thing, I'd really recommend a Zig for the inside pages of your inspiration journal. It's not messy, it won't bleed out, it dries fast, it stays sticky, and it doesn't warp the paper. You can get them at any craft store in the scrapbooking section.
And glue to your heart's content!
I'm pretty sure I'll have this filled in no time, especially since I always end up ripping pages out of magazines every time I go to the doctor's office.

I'm terrible. I know. It's terrible. I guess that's the price that my doctor pays every time he makes me wait in his waiting room longer than 30 minutes. I start to get antsy. My eyes get shifty. I pick my nails. I look at the split ends in my hair. It inevitably spirals out of control until finally I'm surreptitiously tearing pages out of the waiting room magazines and stuffing them into my purse until I hear my name called.

And no, the pages of this particular magazine were not stolen from the doctor. They came from a magazine that I actually own. Just thought I'd clear that up.

Please don't be a thief like me. Do make the inspiration journal, though. It's awesome, neat, and it'll keep your baby from eating stray magazine cutouts that fall out of your purse and into your kid's waiting hands.