Kiwi Card House : Once Upon A Christmas Junk Journal

This journal was so much fun to design and even more fun to make! I absolutely love vintage themed journals and this vintage Christmas themed journal is just my cup of tea!

Working with all the vintage Christmas themed graphics was a real joy ( I'm surprised I didn't add any floral elements to this journal as I LOVE vintage floral) I couldn't wait to print it out and get started on making it.

I spent 2 days working on this journal and love the end result.

This post is a walk through of the making of this beautiful journal.

Pages are printed out

First things first, print out pages and cut to size. Then fold all pages in half.

Ready for cutting

Because the printed pages are blank on the other side I use decorative papers (Christmas themed for this journal) to glue on the blank side. After I've folded all the printed pages I then cut my decorative papers to size and fold them in half. They are now ready to be glued to the printed pages

Decorative papers ready for gluing

Selected decorative page ready to glue on blank side of printed page

Oopsy daisy! had a wee mishap with one of the printed pages...the color ink was running low... No problem, I fixed this page with a cover up. This is what I love about making junk journals, little mishaps like this can be easily fixed

All fixed up

Because I have sooo many scrap bits of paper, I like to get creative on the blank sides of the printed pages too

Getting creative

Now that the pages are all done, it's time to start the cover. I always make my covers a little bigger than the size of the printed cover page. This means my printed cover page does not fit MY cover properly so I need to get creative again to fill in the gaps of my cover page.

To make my covers I use thick cardboard and use a template to cut it out. I use this same template for most of the journals I make as I tend to design 5x7" journals

Preparing the bits needed to make the cover

Journal cover is glued into place. Now to 'fill in the gaps'

Washi tape is a fav in my craft room!

Now that the cover has been made it's time to stitch the pages in. This can be very tricky if the holes are not lined up properly. To make sure I get this correct I use my trusty cover template which has the holes marked out on the spine.

I line these holes up on the spine of my journal cover and use a sharp poking tool to pierce the holes through the thick cardboard of the spine. I then do the same to the pages. It's ready to be stitched now.

Once I've finished stitching in the pages, I always use PVA glue over both the back of the spine and front of the spine (middle of journal) just for added strength & support. These pages are now CEMENTED in place!