Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Be a UNICORN - Mini Journal

Hey, Friends!! Happy Hump Day! Today I have a bright and cheery project to share! 
All month long the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team will be sharing Junk Journal projects and let me tell you right off the bat I am not a Junk Journalist!!

Don't get me wrong, I love journals! I love making them. I love that I can personalize each book... but I CANNOT for the life of me fill them to the brim and decorate the innards of said books.

The thought of decorating each and every page, staining the pages, and having hidden flaps and compartments terrifies me and gives me anxiety. 

Well, my daughter's birthday is coming up and she has been begging and begging me to make her a pretty journal. She has seen the handmade journal I make and has always tried to stake a claim on them. But since lost of my projects are for different teams I'm on so sadly I have to remind her that they already belong to someone or need to be mailed off somewhere.

This time I made this one for her! She doesn't care too much for overly extravagant or any of the "foufou" stuff. Which is absolutely perfect for me because I can't compose a junk journal to save my life. Instead, her journal is more of like a journal/ scrapbook/organized hybrid. 

Don't let the Junk Journal title turn you off and intimidate you. It can be whatever it is you want to be. And you can use it and fill it as YOU want. This is YOUR JOURNAL. And you can do (or not do) with it as you want.

Let me show you what I did with this one...


Supplies Used
Eileen Hull Passport Die (Sizzix)
Eileen Hull Place Card & Flowers Die (Sizzix)
Eileen Hull Bookmark, Tag & Pocket (Sizzix)
Tim Holtz Stitched Oval Dies (Sizzix)
Mat Board(Sizzix)
Mega Runner (Xyron)
Essentials Paper Pack (Kingston Crafts)
Unicorn Mini Books (Hampton Arts)
Unicorn Envelope
Inktense Pencils - Fuschia 0700 (Derwent)
140 lb White Cardstock (Accent)
2mm Elastic Cording
Bonefolder 
Clear Drying Liquid Glue
Clothespins- OPTIONAL


I started off by cutting my mat board into smaller segments. To make the passport, you really only need to cut the cover and spine pieces with chipboard and not the entire die with chipboard. You will need two cover and one spine. Then, I cut my paper down to the same sizes as the chipboard pieces. 

I ran my paper through my Xyron Creative Station and adhered them onto my mat board pieces to cover the fronts and backs of each.


Then, I placed my pre-covered mat board over just the cover and spine piece as shown in the pictures down below.

As a rule of thumb (and to determine what side will end up where), I always put whichever side I want to end up on the front directly against the die. The side I can see is always going to be the backside.  So if it's faced up towards you, it will end up on the inside of the cover.


Once die-cut, I folded the spine along the crease lines. Then added glue along the sides and attached them to the cover pieces. I held the cover pieces in place using clothespins until the glue set.


I die-cut the page portion of the die from cardstock and folded it along the crease line and scored it with a bone folder. 

I'm not creating my own page inserts for this book. Instead, I will be using these as divider tabs.


To add tabs to my dividers, I used Eileen Hull's Place Card & Flower Die to die-cut fun patterned filled paper.

Again, folding along the crease lines.


I used my Xyron Mega Runner to attach the place cards to the sides of my die-cut insert piece.

I also die cut a few coordinating flowers (also included on the Place Card die) from white cardstock and attached them to the flower tabs- covering the front and back of each tab.


Pretty dividers weren't enough so I used Eileen Hull's Bookmark, Tags, & Pockets dies to create adorable tags and pockets to attach to each divider.



I also used the scalloped corners in the die set to mount a removable photo mat.

I aligned and attached the two bottom corners first and used the top of the photo mat as a guide for placement for the other two so that they would be perfectly spaced.


To decorate the front cover, I fussy cut this pretty unicorn I found on a paper bag! 

I die cut an oval and place the unicorn over it to gauge how I wanted to cut it. I didn't want the hoof to get cut off so I placed it over the top of the die, through the oval, and not under the cutting edge so it would die cut the unicorn without cutting off its leg.


I attached the unicorn onto the oval then attached that onto the front cover.

I threaded elastic through the spine and slid in pre-made books from Hampton art I found at my local Walmart. They were perfect and were already Unicorn themed so I didn't have to alter the covers.

Here is the finished journal...






 

It turned out great! It's bright, cheerful, and super fun!!
Just like my daughter!

I just know she will love it!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you are inspired to create one for yourself.

HAPPY CRAFTING!!
~Mitsyana