Altered Journal--Christmas Gift for Mother in Law

Hi everyone:

The Artistic Outpost Stamp release for December sneak peeks ended yesterday so you will still see lots of Artistic Outpost cards and projects from me but just not every day.

I wanted to make a Journal for my 86 year old Mother in law as she still writes in a diary or journal every day. Here is the altered journal that I made for her:

Isn't that little chereb writing in the journal just the cutest little angel. I noticed a month or so ago that the Yesterday's Scrapbook store just a couple of blocks from my house had a few Clear Stamp sets in one corner of their store. I finally had a few extra dollars burning a hole in my pocket and went in and bought this little set and Kitchen Classics.

I colored the chereb with copic markersand sponged around the edge with Antique Rose Distress Ink by Ranger and sponged over that layer with Pixie Pink Stampin Up ink. I used a pink from the Berry Bliss Designer Paper from SU and the brown polka dot is also from SU Designer paper series Chocolate Chip.

I knew that the journal that I wanted to alter would not work with the SU spiral punch so I just marked the binding placement and used my small round punch and cut a slit with scissors so that it would slide over the binding. I placed a piece of narrow brown checked ribbon over the seam so that it would fray from being handles. Placed a piece of the same brown check ribbon under the image layer on the top so that the journal could be tied shut.

I wanted the journal to be functional so I didn't want to embellish it too much but wanted it to be pretty so I added the half pearls in the corners of the main image on the front and placed a large half pearl with a gold band brad in the center of my two pink prima flowers.

I like the way that this altered journal turned out and I know that my mother in law will like it too.

Thanks for looking. See you tomorrow.

Cathy