How To Decorate Notebooks to Make Personalized Journals

 Hello Everyone!

I ended up decorating 30 journals for the cancer patients. I know this post is coming a little late BUT I have some news for this project. I will still be doing projects each month but all donations will be made the first week of September. So any projects you choose to help with, can be done this summer and will be collected in August to be delivered in September.

Here's how I did my journals:

You'll need a paper cutter, decorative paper, mod podge, paint brushes,
and the chosen notebook. I prefer the composition notebooks
but spiral notebooks work as well.

Cut the chosen paper to fit the notebook size.
For these composition notebooks, I did a "binding" piece and
 two cover sheets. The binding piece was anywhere from 3"-6" wide.

Put a LIGHT layer of mod podge (not as shown in the picture)
on the binding area. About 2" on the front and back as well as the folded area.

Line up your binding sized piece of paper and push it down on the notebook. Some of the mod podge may squeeze out. I just have a lightly damp paper towel near by so I can wipe that up easily.

Lightly mod podge the rest of the cover page and lay the cut paper.

I like to jazz my journals up a bit, so I added an
extra strip of paper to add more color.

I used some ink around the edges to make a little "antiqued". I also put some stamps and wrote some quotes on pages throughout the journal pages.

Here is how I completed a spiral notebook journal.
Simply take the spiral out of the notebook. Match you cover paper up to the front page
and use a mini hole punch. Mod podge the paper on and re-spiral the notebook together.
Again, add decor to the front and throughout the pages.

Here is a smaller journal I completed. Just have fun with the supplies
you have :)

Another Example of one I made.

Here are 20 of the journals completed. There are three different sizes.
This was so easy and really fun to be creative. 

I will be doing a post on how to make the heating rice packs shortly. And then I'll give the schedule for projects throughout the rest of the summer! I can't wait :) Thanks for anyone who is helping!