Journal Maker
Tiny Free Journals:
February 1, 2021:
Sometime during last year I went crazy and made a ton of tiny journals. It was something I wanted to do, to see if I could do. I used up a whole stack of lined filler paper on my shelf. And used scrapbook cardstock that I bought with the intention of making journals with because I loved the paper and wanted to use paper I love instead of just experimenting with whatever scraps or ugly paper I wouldn't normally use and then end up using the ugly paper all the time. But the ugly paper would look good in the end. But I want to use stuff that makes me happy from the beginning and through the whole process. So I did. And made almost one hundred of them. Then I set them out for free, six at a time, on the stump outside my house, in the yard, by the sidewalk. We get decent foot traffic so thought maybe there would be some takers. There were some takes. Only a couple days all six journals were taken. They might have been taken by the same kids every day. Oh well. I kept setting them out until people weren't really taking and it got too rainy, well, rainy at all. Journals don't hold up well in even a tiny sprinkle. I live in Oregon.
Now that it's winter I've just been including a journal with my Etsy orders. People have seemed to really like them and they're a nice, lightweight addition to a package. An added little goodie. This could be useful to someone. I may just save the rest for this. I don't know that I'll set them out again when it gets nicer out. I'll probably want to move on to something else. I like setting little handmade things out. Sometimes I see neighbors picking them up, squealing, and then taking one with them. It's nice.
Paper Scraps Journals:
February 1, 2021:
All those tiny journals made a lot of paper scraps, cut offs from the filler paper. The margins and holes and the bits to get the paper to size. I couldn't just recycle that huge pile. It was a lot of waste for something that wasn't meant to create more mess than the final products. I did recycle the more useless parts, like the holes and torn edges. But I put most of the scraps into notepads. For four of them I went simple and used my Cinch machine to spiral-bind them. The other four I hand-stitched, using the chain stitch which is a labor-intensive stitch but looks pretty. I worked so long on those sewn notepads! It was too much work. I learned a lot. In fact, I hated them through most of the process. But in the end they came together. They don't stay closed flat, but they look, I don't know, artistic? No, handmade. Yes. Intentional, though. Like, I meant to do that. You can find all these guys in my Etsy shop in the Journals and Notepads section. Hey, I used up most of that pile on the floor. That was the point of the project. Was it worth it? Probably?
