Getting Scheduled

I have been puttering around with getting my schedule ready for the 2012 year.  I have been looking for the right form, the right calendar, and the right way to put it all together.  I finally found a form that laid out a week on two pages without a lot of extra stuff I don't need.  The form I found has two spots for each day, so I could list appointments and my to do list. 

I added to that monthly calendars, a wonderful plain budget form, and a grocery list.  I didn't leave much space for notes, but that's what I have a notebook for. 

I printed out all the pages in a booklet form of about four pages for each signature.  Each page is an 8.5 x 11 inch regular printer paper.  Folded in half, it becomes a 5.5 x 8.5 booklet.  I bound the signatures together using cotton thread and wrapping them around cords for extra support.  The cords went through a hole in the cover, were unraveled, and were glued to the inside cover.

I haven't added extra support between the cords yet, and I haven't covered the book to make it look all nice and pretty.

But right now it works and it keeps all my pages in one place. 

Create: A Book or Two

One of my favorite new crafts is making books.  If you have been following this blog long, you may know that by now!  :)  You may also know that I am a terrible hoarder when it comes to paper.  Some day I will make it to the hardware store and get screen so I can make my own.  Then it will all be worth saving when I make it into new paper, mwahaha... ahem. 

One of the easiest ways to reuse paper, or envelopes, that have only been printed on one side is to cut them up and staple them together.  Tadaa, you have a notepad.  But one of the downsides is that you have to work around the staple.  I make my notepads at work kind of thick so I don't have so many laying around.  The staple always annoys me.  I have to bend the pages around it, hold it open, and then it won't lay flat when I'm done with it. 

I decided to take my elmer's glue to work and make my own, easy notepads.

It could be the (second) easiest way to make a notepad, but it does take some time.  You have to line up the pages, clip them together, brush on the glue, wait for it to dry, add more glue, wait, more glue, wait, etc, up until you get the nice binding that you want.  I only used a few layers on these notebooks but made it pretty thick each time. 

I use binder clips to hold them together and add a piece of cardboard (the thicker the better) along the edge to be glued.  Keep the cardboard back from the edge just a bit or it will become glued to the pad and you may loose a few pages when you take it off. 

You could cut a piece to size and glue it to the notepad as a backing, if you wanted to.

I'm off to enjoy my new, no staple, notepad.  Have a great weekend!

Create: Inspiration Notebooks

I may have mentioned this before, but in one of my last swaps, I received a fantastic notebook.  It was an inspiration journal with lines from one of my favorite poets on top of each page.  You are supposed to be able to open up the journal and write about what is written on top if you are stuck for inspiration.  I find it a fantastic idea and have shared it with my writer's group.

This last group meeting, we realized that it would take a lot of time to fill out an entire notebook with quotes.  So after sharing the idea, we decided to take one line from a book and write for ten minutes and see what we came up with.  It was wonderful to see the different ideas people came up with.

This journal idea could be modified for whatever craft/art you do.  Do you draw? Write your lines on top of your sketch journal pages.  It will just require a little inspiration to tweak the idea to your needs.

Create: Moving Inspiration

I found that wonderful song from Monday's post while driving in my car (which is now down again... grr... I hate mechanical things).  Luckily, I had stuck a matchbook notebook in my car and try to constantly keep a pen handy.  My son must have thought I was crazy to be writing and driving at the same time.  Yeah, I know, he was probably right but I forget lyrics immediately after hearing them.

So today's project is that wonderful little notebook!

I always use recycled goods when I make books.  So here I have a stack of recycled paper and a UPS envelope I received.  Cut your paper into the size you want it.  Mine ended up being a four and a half square there abouts.  Once you have your paper, you can measure and cut your cover. 

Here I added a half inch to each side, but that was too big.  I forgot I was halving the pile of paper I had.  Ooops.  Make sure to measure the height of your stack of paper and at it to both sides of your main measurement.  Then add a half inch to one end and take a quarter inch off the other side. 

Put your paper in place, fold over the smaller flap, and staple in place.  The one in my car is actually sewn instead of stapled.  For sewing, take small sections of paper, measure where you want the holes and poke through with a big needle.  Take the first sheet from your poked pile and place on top of your new pile to make sure the holes are the same.  Do the same for your cardboard backing.  Then sew through it. 

Fold the cover over and under the ledge left in the small flap.  Then you are done!

Enjoy!