Summer Sunflowers for Writing by Hand

August has just flown by! Of course, two trips in the first half of the month really helped to shorten the time. It took a while for me to figure out what to do for the Sunflowers Blog Hop & Linky Party. Then I had inspiration from two unusual resources. First, I was visiting my sister on one of my trips and found out that she like journals. Cool to know, but I just filed that info away in the future gift ideas folder. Next, after I got home, I heard an ad on the radio about the “BIC Fight for Your Write” campaign. Then it clicked. A journal is a great way to celebrate the dying art of good ole’ fashioned handwriting. So, here is my project:

All the supplies came from my Club Scrap Sunflowers Lite kit, with these additions: 

**Earth Club Scrap Ink to distress the cut-a-part on the cover
**Mustard Seed Distress Stain to alter the color of the outside binding and the inside cover paper
**some ribbon from my stash for a bookmark,
**regular copy paper and some left over waxed linen thread for the signatures.

I combined several different methods to put this book together, but got most of my inspiration from this video I found on YouTube, and this video of Tricia from Club Scrap (also found on YouTube). I also need to give a shout out to my friend Mary Beth for planting the idea of adding lines to the signatures. I did this by making two columns of underscore lines in a Word document with the narrowest of margins and printing them out on both sides (being careful to turn the paper the correct way when printing on the backside so the lines would be “lined up” on the paper).

I learned a couple of things while doing this project. First, it can be fun and rewarding to challenge yourself and push your own creative limits. Second, never give up! After a lot of planning and work, I was almost finished putting my journal all together when I made a major goof-up. I resisted the urge to first throw a tantrum, then throw the book out the window, and instead walked away from my desk for a little bit. When I went back, I studied what I had and looked for a way to make it work. This book may not match the vision I had in my head, but I am pleased with the way it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by!