Posted by Emily

Hello Ladies!! I’m Emily (emilymomto3boys on most sites) and this is my first time posting here! I was a guest for CRD this fall and well…I just never left! No really, I’ve joined her new Hybrid Team and here’s my first post for y’all! (yeah, I know. I’m from Freaky Deaky Hot Texas!!)

So today I am bringing you a step by step tutorial on how to make an Altered Journal. If you aren’t familiar with my tutorials - I like to really break it down with lots of pics. If that seems a bit too much, I’m sorry! I’m a visual person and I go on the assumption that you need lots of pics to make sure I’m not confusing. Hopefully that is helpful! Although I am going to go with the assumption that you already know how to make your digi page! Anyway, enough chatter, here’s the tutorial!

I got this idea when I was at Target about a month ago. I use these small notebooks there for little purse size journals and I found a larger version. My husband and I are doing a Bible Study together right now and I immediately thought the larger size would be perfect for jotting down thoughts, notes and questions while we worked on it! And of course I couldn’t just leave it blank……so I altered it to make it mine! Because it is kind of a prayer journal, I wanted to include a few things like my favorite Bible verse, a picture of my boys - since they are pretty much my purpose in life, etc. And the easiest way to do that would be to digiscrap it - that way I could pile whatever I wanted on there and it wouldn’t get junked up during the course of our study. I mean, the book is going to get used, right?!

So I started out by measuring the cover of the book. Then I opened a blank document in PSE just a tinch bigger than the cover of the book. That gives you a bit of space (and I mean just a tiny bit bigger) to work with on the edges. I scrapped my page how I wanted it, flattened it, then copy and pasted it on to an 8×10 blank document. That way I could just upload it to wherever I print pictures (Costco for me) and I could just get an 8×10 print and not have to worry about them distorting my page. Here’s what that looked like:

(For the back cover, I used the same background paper and just cut it to 8×10 so I could print an full 8×10 of that pattern.)

Supplies: (please ignore the mess that is my crafting space!!)

front and back covers, printed on matte photo paper (this is required if you don’t want to seal the outside but also don’t want fingerprints to show)

book/journal to alter

mod podge

foam brush

sanding block (here’s what I use <here>)

embellishments - whatever you want to add! I left mine fairly simple for this, but you can do a lot more if you like!

1. Trim your cover down so that it doesn’t overlap the edge of the book cover. For this type of book, it was ok for the cover to overlap the binding.

2. “Paint” the front of the book with mod podge. It is ok to get it on the binding - it dries clear! Make sure you use enough (especially around the edges) to really get the paper to adhere. But not so think it’s going to be squishy to stick down.

3. Stick your page onto the wet mod podge. You will have little time to position it, then press firmly down all over the page to make sure it is nice and stuck down. You don’t want any air bubbles. Try not to get any of the mod podge on the photo though - it’s not the end of the world, but it is best not to get any on top. Take extra care to make sure all the edges are stuck down tight. Trim anything that hangs over the edge of the book cover.

4. After the front has dried a bit, I sanded the edges. I use acrylic nail file blocks for sanding - they are pretty inexpensive and they are great fit to my hand. I try to go at an angle and sand just til you can see the white core of the photo paper. Make sure you don’t sand too far in and it will scuff your page a bit.

5. For the back of the book, I trimmed the photo paper down (I just used the lined paper I had in the background on the front cover). To get around the hardware and the band, I then held the paper in place and “smooshed” down on the metal. Just enough so that it would make a mark on the back of the paper in the right spot. Repeat for the top hardware as well.

6. I then flipped the paper over and punched a hole where the mark was. I used a 3/4 in punch for this. It is slightly larger than the hardware on the book, but it made a nice slot for it.

7. After you punch the holes, cut a slit in to the hole from the edge of the paper. This will allow you to slip it around the band easily.

8. Then repeat the mod podge and sanding on the back cover of the book. When it dries - you’re done!

And here’s the final product! I just left mine as it was and tied some cream taffeta ribbon around the seam on the front. Since I knew I’d be using mine quite a bit, I didn’t want to put much on there. But now it’s so much better than a plain brown journal. I get to see my boys, my favorite Bible verse, etc whenever I do my Bible Study. And that’s all folks!

credits:

papers - CRD - Oh So Natural
frame - CRD - Grunge Frames 3
journal pages - CRD - All Layered Up
verse font - Nueva Std
butterfly - CRD - flutterflies
paper curl - Marcie Reckinger and Traci Murphy - Curled Border Template/Action
stitches - CRD - Ziggity Mess
label tape alpha - CRD - alpha bits blue
brown grid alpha - Shannon Lee Designs - Basically Brown Alpha
doodle alpha - Weeds and Wildflowers - Doodling Days Alpha (2)
ribbon - CRD - Skinny Minis
journaling tab behind photo - Amber Clegg - Date Stamps
journaling font - Kimberly Geswsein - Emily Script (my handwriting)

Lightroom Preset Peeking by Kelsey Smith