DIY Minijournal and Greeting Card Cover
Minijournals are quick, easy-to-make booklets that are great to add to and easily take out of your journal.
My favorite way to make a minijournal makes practical use of one of my obsessions: collecting beautiful, funky, unique greeting cards, which I use for the covers. Other great materials for minijournal covers include decorative file folders (be sure to incorporate the tabs), cardboard and paperboard (look in your recycling bin and make a cover out of your favorite cereal box), and card stock–weight scrapbook paper, especially the kind printed on both sides.
1. Start with a greeting card you like. Set the envelope aside for now.
2. Open the card and measure the height and width of the open area. Subtract H″ of each dimension to get your paper size. A card that is 10″ wide by 6″ tall will need paper sized 9H″ by 5H″.
3. Collect your papers for the inside. Six to ten sheets is a good amount, depending on the thickness of the paper. Any kind of paper is fair game. Consider colored paper, construction paper, graph paper, and notebook paper. Add a few of your prized decorative papers for interest. Trim your pages to the size needed. Save your scraps—these are great for adding to your journal later. I like to save my scraps in the clear plastic sleeve the card is packaged in and then share full packs of scraps with friends who journal.
4. Organize the pages in an order that pleases you, and then fold each page in half. Staple to the card to create a simple pamphlet. If you don’t have a long-reach stapler, thread a string through two holes on the spine and tie on the inside or outside.
5. Add the minijournal to your guidebook in several ways:
• Cut a slit in a journal page, and slide the back cover of your minijournal through.
• Paste the envelope from the card into your journal. Tuck the minijournal inside.
• Use paper clips to attach the minijournal to a page.
6. Embellish your minijournal with labels, tabs, stickers, ephemera. The choice of cover itself offers a great title.