Indiana Jones style Journal

This was a really fast and fun project because I had the material almost ready to go.  I followed the directions posted by Bobbi in a website called How Does She?  (http://www.howdoesshe.com/reusable-nature-journal-tutorial-and-template#respond)

It is a super tutorial on how to make a Reusable Nature Journal and Bobbi links the template that I used for my Indy Journal.  Look at how cute it came out:

I absolutely love the texture of this thing!  It is sort of like fake leather with pits on most of it, but smoother texture on the fold-over portion.  

Look at what I used to make the journal:

It's my old day planner.  I always loved this one.  I usually keep all my annual daytimers, but I knew I would eventually re-use this old one for something.  Using Bobbi's template, I cut out my new nature journal cover and since the texture of the 2010 planner was so awesome, I didn't have paint over it or do anything to it.  In a future blogpost, you will see that I also made some mini-nature journals, also using old daytimer covers, but there was writing on those covers, so I had to paint them before using them.  

Here's a view of the inside of my Indy Journal.  I used 90lb hard-pressed water-color papers for the inside of the journal, dimension 5 1/8 X 8.  The cover of the journal is 6 X 10 1/4.  

You may not know this, but I am often reluctant to paint on the very first page of any of my journals.  So I decided to put a cover page with a pocket on the first page.  That way, I can add some tags or put my journaling pencil in it.  I chose a very nice sheet from the Teresa Collins Fabrications paper line as my cover:  

You may notice that I chose to sew the pocket instead of gluing it.  I also stitched all the pages together straight down the middle.  Once I am done arting in this journal, it can be removed and saved as is, since it has such a cute cover.  

Here is the cover with some tags so you can see the front pocket in use!  

I'm so inspired by this journal that I plan to not only complete the two mini-nature journals I began today, but also try one out using a canvas cover, perhaps from the Jolee's French General collection.  That may take me a little longer to complete because I may have to reinforce the canvas with book board.  I will tackle that project tomorrow! 

For variety, I may put the pocket on the inside of the next journal.  I may also add some notebook papers and some grid-lined papers because I like to sketch and takes lots of notes, and I don't want to waste the watercolor paper on notes or sketches.  

Already excited about the prospects for my next project(s)!