Recycled Journal

Materials needed:
• thin cardboard
• thick rubber band
• stick from the yard
• brown paper bag (or whatever paper you want to cover it with)
• news paper (again your choice of paper)
• blank paper for the pages on the inside
• glue (I used glue stick and Mod Podge since that was what I had lying around)
• craft knife
• hole punch

I also added these materials for mine:
• thick cardboard from a box I got in the mail
• some scrap brown paper
• scoring tool
• hot glue and hot glue gun



My mom got this magazine in the mail the other day and it had a cute craft inside that I just had to do. It's a homemade recycled journal for father's day (I think it would even make a cute scrap book or really any sort of book- like one with your recipes in it - yum!). What I love so much about this project is that it cost me nothing- just supplies I had lying around my house and yard!

I took my own liberties with it and made it mine.

To start this journal, I got my thin cardboard out. The board I was using was already cut to size but if you have a big sheet of it cut into the dimensions you want your book to be. Mine is 8.5 x 5.5 inches. Make sure you have 2 pieces the same size for your book. What I did next was punch 2 holes on one side of each of my thin cardboard pieces. I used a grommet punch (I got it from a fabric store a while back). Then after doing that to both pieces I got my craft knife and cut thin strips about an inch from the edge with the holes punched. I did that for both pieces as well.

Next I got a brown paper bag and laid the thin cardboard pieces on it. I lined them up holes in the center with about 1/4 of inch in between hole punched sides and I even left on the thin strips I just cut out for measurement sake. Once both sides were lined up I picked up once piece and started gluing it with my Mod Podge (you can use any type of glue- white craft glue, glue stick, whatever). I didn't glue the little sliver we cut off before it is only there to keep the distance from your hole punched piece and your solid piece. Once all 4 pieces were glued (2 hole punched ones and 2 solid pieces) I turned it over and I should have smoothed it out but I didn't- I recommend that you do smooth out any bumps or bubbles.

Once it is dry I turned it onto the side with the cardboard showing and trimmed off the excess brown paper bag. Then I cut holes out of the bag where the holes from the cardboard were. Then I grabbed some news paper and tore it into strips and glue it to the side with the exposed cardboard (this is optional but I find it reinforces the hinge of the book). While I let that dry I got my plain paper and cut it to size (8.5 x 5.5 inches) and then I measured 1 and 1/8 inch from the side and scored it (this is optional- it just helps the book open easier). In that area (the 1 and 1/8 inch area) is where you will punch your holes. To do this I took my book which was mostly dried now and places the paper flush with 3 sides and hole punched them (you can mark them first and then punch but I found this method more accurate for me). Once I had about 20 sheets I stopped. This will be your book guts.

Now that the book was dried I went on to decorating. For my book I got newspaper and ripped it into thin strips and made a tree branch design gluing it down with a glue stick. Next I took my scrap brown paper and crumbled it up as much as I could and then using my craft knife cut out leaf shapes and placed them where they looked best to me. Then I sketched some bird sillouettes and cut them out with my craft knife then glued them onto thick cardboard I got from the flaps of a box. Cut them out again (this was just to give it some dimension) and hot glued them in place.

Once all the decorating was done I lined up my pages and book cover and got a thick rubber band and worked each end into the holes of all the pages and both covers (to do this I used the end of my small scissors to push it through and then a fabric pin to get it out- you can use whatever is available to you- like chopsticks or pliers). Once it was out I placed my pencil in there to hold it while I got a stick from the yard (which I had cut and sanded- this is optional you can leave it natural if you want but my stick was far too big so I had to cut it down). Then I switched my pencil and stick and voila a beautiful handmade recycled journal.