Add a little color to your world

Do you love paper dolls?  I always have!  Janet Lennon used to be my favorite, but a few months ago, Graphic 45 came out with a line of paper doll paper that was just too cute.  And while the paper was nice, I love to cut up their stuff and re-engineer it into something even better!

This 8 x 5 1/2" journal took quite some time to finish.  Tons of paper dolls to be cut out.  I hope you can see from the photos and explanations just how interactive this journal is.

Starting with the cover, the dolls will lift out of the paper doll's arms.  Silk ribbon covering every ribbon on the paper.  Feel free to click on the photo to enlarge it and see the details.

This is the "sister's page.

A couple of postcards lift out for future journaling

Next is the family page.....little tiny daisies sprinkled about....

The 2 center "cards" fold up and down for more journaling spots.

This is the "mother" page

The tag on the top pulls up, the card opens to the left and bottom, the cut out paper dolls all come out.

 Next is the father's page.  I love the tiny banner across the top!

A page folds down

then it folds out and the paper dolls come out

And the "brother" page.  Nothing folds out, but the paper dolls and clothes come out of the pocket.  The hats can be found in a variety of spots.  

This is the "friends" page with 2 pockets for the dolls to tuck down inside.  3 paper dolls, 3 outfits and 3 hats.  Can you find them all?

 The back page....all blue and cream....and then the sentiment.  Think it's perfect!

Someone once told me that if you can hear it, you will retain 25% of it.  But if you can see it, hear it, touch it, feel it, and interact with it, you will remember 90% of it.  No idea how much time I put into this journal....but what fun!  Definitely adds a touch of color to my life!

Enjoy the little things.....like cheesecake!

This journal is 4" thick and only 4 pages.  It was so much fun to make.  All Graphic 45 paper.  It's a gift for a very dear friend who happens to own Creative Impressions.  See if you can find her product!

I'll help you get started....on the cover I've used her buttons, flowers, ribbon and twine.  A total of 10 items....can you find all of them??  The ribbons were "dyed" to match the project.  

Here's a view of it standing up.  Loads of pockets, tags, flip-outs.  You could spend an hour or so exploring this!  My kind of journal!

 And this is what it looks like opened up.  Yep, lots of blank pages.  I'll let her decide what goes where!

Here's the first page with the flap folded in.  As you can see, she could add photos, recipes, or just write about what she's baking today!  Be sure to click on each photo if you want to see a larger view!

This is the same page, but with the flap opened out.

Page 2....each page has a flip-out, but each one is slightly different.  I do love this paper filled with cupcakes, donuts, roses and forget-me-nots.  And I happen to love the peach and turquoise colors.

On this flip-out, I used a glassine envelope - you can almost see through it.

Page 3 - the left square with writing - that will also flip out to the left, so a double flip-out page!

Here it is with the right flip opened out.  Another pocket for a recipe.  Yum!

Page 4 - I like the idea of a 4-cube page so you could add 4 recipes, 4 notes, 4 photos.

This flip out has a recipe holder on both the front and the back.

And the back page....2 flip-up recipe card holders on the left and a large pocket on the right with tags as inserts.

A quick view of all the tags.

This didn't get created overnight, but it's definitely been a fun project to work on.  I dearly love the papers, the colors,  the flips, folds, and the fun!  And I just decided that I need to include mom's cheesecake recipe so must run jot that down!  This gets delivered tomorrow!!!

Celebrate!

Celebrate 2014!!!  It's going to be a wonderful year!  Tickets to Israel are booked and I'm so excited.  I'd like to lose a few pounds before we go and I find I do that best if I write down every single bite that I eat....but I certainly do not like the cover or the colors of this little journal I found.

But my altered result below?   I could pick this up and look at it every single day!  This month at Backroom Babes, I'm teaching "pockets, tags and envelopes" so I decided that the front of the journal should be covered in just that.  Note, there's a clear acrylic cover open to the left (it just wouldn't photo) but it's there to protect my front page.

These tiny pockets are filled with my goals and thoughts for the year.  A great way to keep them tucked away, yet close to my daily journaling.

Tons of stickler glitter - not sure you can see it at all.

Here's a shot with all the tags, etc, pulled out.  I used Graphic 45s new paper - Sweet Sentiments.  I'm not so pleased with all the holiday sentiments, but I think I did a pretty good job of covering them up and making this a vintage journal.

And I love how the back cover came out!

This might be the fastest journal cover I've ever done!  Just about an hour.  Slide out the spiral binding, cut and adhere paper to the existing covers.  Cut the front acrylic cover.  Punch out all the tags and envelopes, adhere to the front cover.  Add stickler and let dry overnight.  Got up this morning and ran the spiral binding back through the end.  With all these new punch-out embellishments you really don't have to do a thing to create something this pretty!

Now....can I keep at it for the 120 days in this journal - writing down every bite I take all day long.  Hmmm.....maybe I should have done something a bit thicker!  :o)

What to do with all those empty toilet paper rolls?

You are going to want to make one of these for sure!!!  I had so much fun...just giggling every step of the way!!!  Yes....toilet paper rolls.  Start by flattening them with your bone folder, then adhering paper all the way around.  I  used my xyron 910 for this and loved it!  Then use your bind-it-all to punch holes in the end.  Distress ink all the edges, assemble it and start decorating.

That's a dress form shaped paper clip on the left.  With a stamped face on the top.  Graphic 54 paper and stamps.  Lots of die cuts and stickler.

The paper is "Princes Diary" and I just laughed....a diary out of empty TP rolls?  Just perfect!!!
After all, they do call it a "throne", don't they???

Tags fit perfectly inside the rolls, so just cut paper and cover and add embellishments

You can save spots for journaling, or decorate each page with images cut from the paper

The lace on the far right is a paper die cut

I diecut the dressform in clear acrylic, then inked it with alcohol inks

Ah!  IF you are going to use toilet paper rolls, then  you must do something with the toilet paper!!!  So this is just a fun decoupage tag using toilet paper like you'd use tissue paper to make the crinkles.  Again, I just sat  here and laughed!!!  Who on earth would decoupage with toilet paper???  I sort of like the "end" results!  :)

And just to add a little class, this is a fine silver (Art Clay Silver) die cut dragon fly.  Best not toss this into the trash!

Diecuts behind inked flowers.  I buy them all in white so I can color as I want.

Just love these cut-apart flourish die cuts

More tags made from the same line of paper

Of course, when you ink a paper, it can change what it originally looked like into something so much more colorful!

This pocket has a dressform tag

Really, I promise....toilet paper rolls!

Willing to give it a try?  You could make one and put your 12 tags of 2012 in it!  Much smaller tags, of course....but what a great way to display them!

I gave this as a gift to  my dear friend Judy at Stamp of Excellence.  Come visit and look at it in person!!