For the LOL's - Suzanne's Small Traveler's Notebook / Journal

Hello Crafty Friends!
We have a fun week ahaed with lots of OMG projects from our fabulous Creative Team.
Today Suzanne focuses on that super cute Emoji Love paper collection from Simple Stories to create  a fabulous laminated Traveler's Notebook / Journal.
Enjoy!

Using the July kit from Aunty Vera Scrap and Craft has been lots of fun and for this project I decided to make a small travelers notebook/journal.  I had a small 2017 Diary that I found at a local discount store and decided I would use it as a guide for the size of the notebook/journals. 

small diary from discount store

The small diary measures 3 1/2 inches wide by 6 1/4 inches high.

I chose some of the paper from the Emoji Love collection to make a cover for the traveler's notebook/journal and cut it about 1/2 inch taller and 1 1/4 inches wider than the small diary cover.  I then laminated this piece of paper.

the paper I chose to laminate for the cover

the laminated cover trimmed closely to the edge of the paper

 I then scored the paper at 3 3/4, 4 1/2,  so that the cover has a 3/4 inch spine

the cover of the notebook/journal

I used a small punch to make the holes required in the cover

 I punched the holes 1/4 inch from the top and bottom of the cover and 1/4 inch apart from each other

three holes 1/4 inch apart both top and bottom and one hole in the middle of the spine

 I then threaded the cover with elastic.  To do this I start on the outside and choose one of the top holes to start threading and go through the back first and then go down to the bottom, then across the outside to the next hole, push in to the inside and then up to the top, then across to the next hole and down to the bottom.  Now take the elastic back to the middle hole and push it through to the inside and make sure you have enough elastic to reach the centre of the cover.  The top piece of elastic should also go across to the centre hole and though to the inside of the cover and meet the other end in the centre of the cover.  Make sure the elastic is tight enough to hold your inserts but not that tight that it pulls your cover inwards.  This gives you four strands of elastic on the inside of the journal, so that four inserts can be added.

I also used another piece of elastic for the centre hole to use as the closure.  You just need a piece of elastic long enough to go around the journal to hold it closed.  Push both ends of the elastic to the inside of the cover and check that it can stretch over the journal and form a firm closure.

the outside of the cover should look like this

Next, I  made three little booklets for the inside of the cover.  I cut the papers the same size as the small diary.  Each book consists of one cover from the emoji love decorative paper from the July kit and also 10 pieces of copy paper, to give it 20 pages plus the front and back cover.

one of the covers

ten pieces of copy paper cut to the correct size and folded in half

the cover and pages ready to be sewn together

 Before sewing the pages into the cover I used my  Tim Holtz ruler to find the centre and then 2 inches each side.  I mark these spots with a pencil

marked centre and 2 inches each side

I use a large needle to push through the papers ready to start sewing them together

I use a small needle and some overlocker thread and start in the centre hole

Go through to the back and up to the top of the booklet and back into the inside

Now go down to the bottom hole and through to the back

now back to the centre making sure that the thread is on the other side of the centre string.  Your loose thread should be on one side of the thread and the end your working with should be on the other side so that you can tie a knot on top of the centre thread.

tie a knot several times to secure the booklet

 Here I have added each small booklet to the inside of the cover

diary

insert 1

insert 2

insert 3

the three inserts that I made

 Here is the finished project.  I added some beads and charms  and a bow to the closure.  I have also used some of the cute emoji paper clips on each booklet.  And of course, I also added a flower to the cover with some E6000.

I hope you enjoyed this project.

You can see a tutorial of how I made this cover and booklet HERE.
You can get the July kit from Aunty Vera Scrap and Craft HERE.