Hey, y’all! This week, I decided to make a lapbook with a removable journal/diary. I have tons of pockets and flips in my 2-inch thick lapbook, so there will always be someplace to stick little notes or ephemera in!

Make sure you check out my video to get an overview of what I did. It isn’t a full tutorial – because otherwise, it would be hours and hours long – but I tried to give an overview for you to pick some ideas from.

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I forgot to add this in the video – that’s a whole other issue! – but my lapbook idea did spring from this month’s mood board! I am not a particularly “frilly” type of person. I never have been – much to my mother’s dismay of not getting that delicate, sweet, “girly girl” who loves pink, ruffles, and such! (I tell her it was because of the trauma of the pink ruffle diaper pants she dressed me in! ROFL!!) (Disclaimer: I am also not delicate or sweet! )

But I digress, well there is never likely to be an occasion where I will ever wear pink ruffles (again!), I don’t hate the entire concept and this month’s mood board – and Valentine’s Day – got me thinking about diaries, which led to journals, but I didn’t want to make a journal, so I made a lapbook!

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I will try to cover what is in the lapbook here on the blog, but I think the video will do a better job of showing a bit more of a “before and after” overview! A picture video is worth a thousand words!

I used some 3-inch bookbinding to put my cover together using two book covers from my stash that were the same height, and slightly different widths! This meant all I needed to do was cut some heavy chipboard down to the widths I wanted for my spines. My main spine is about 2-1/4 inches wide – because I found a cut of chipboard that width so all I had to do is cut it down to the correct height, plus, it went well with the two 1-inch chipboard strips I had laying around! Basically, I got rather lucky finding all of my main pieces ready – or almost ready – to go!

I just used the papers from the kit to cover all of my outside book surfaces and spines, as well as the inside spines. I stitched together some random fabrics I had in my stash and a bit of frilly pink ruffle “stuff” to create a tie closure, but I only attached it to the front cover so it could be moved out of the way when the book is laid down – and it is a handy “cushion” for the frame, flower, and butterfly cluster I added to the front of the lapbook!

I grabbed up some envelopes I’d been saving from junk mail, covered them with a wide variety of papers – some ledger paper, some rice paper – and if I needed to, I trimmed them down to fit within the covers. I personally love the look of things looking “pieced together” so I added stitching to the cut edges of the envelopes to seal them back up.

I used part of my old Kindle cover to create one of my flaps (the grey-bordered flap in the right photo above) which also led me to the belief that I needed to add windows everywhere! Well, everywhere on the inside! I used a variety of vellum and transparency pieces from my stash to cover my windows – some backed with patterned paper, some not – stitched them in place and started [trying] to work out how everything was going to fit together.

I also used the cover from a small book to create two inside flaps. I didn’t want to cover the original red cover on it, but I also needed to cover the raw edge where I had cut out the spine, so I used some homemade “vintage” tape!

For the first [main] flap (if you think of the lapbook unfolded all the way, and going left to right), I have an envelope/triple pocket under a smaller decorative flap on the inside of the red book cover. Under the red book cover, I have three manila-type mini-folders stitched together, they flip out and reveal a large envelope with a gold foil acetate window, and finally, a large pocket with a tie closure.

The next panel in the lapbook is where I added my old Kindle cover piece. I layered a piece of flower-shaped transparency, vellum, and a piece of patterned paper to the Kindle frame/window, then a second piece of patterned paper and an envelope/tuck spot combo on the back side. Under that Kindle cover, I have a small flap for decoration and a couple of my re-covered envelopes that fold up and flip out!

The two re-covered envelopes flip over and reveal a receipt folder that flips to the right, revealing a large pocket created from some homemade – very colorful – glassine and a piece of gold foil acetate.

I kept the third panel rather simple and “flat” so the journal would fit easily, and even have a little extra space for more pages to be added. I used an elastic headband to hold the journal in place, which also allows it to be removable. On the panel under the journal, I have a simple pocket covered by a large envelope that flips out.

My journal is created from an old notebook folder that I altered a little, punched a couple of holes in for eyelets, and decorated with some rust-stained cheesecloth and sections from the 3Quarter papers. I didn’t stitch my pages to the cover, instead, I used a length of Prima Wire Thread to hold the pages in place and allow for them to be removed – and tucked away in one of the pockets!

Finally, to the final panel! This panel is made up of three envelopes that fold over each other and a tri-fold element on the underside of the red book cover. I didn’t add anything to the back of this panel, because I really just like the image on this section of the patterned paper!

I hope you enjoyed this project and the video and/or this blog post gave you some ideas of how you can use the items found in this month’s Scrapbooking Kit, the cheesecloth from the Mixed Media Kit, and, I even have a strip of paper from the Cards, Tags, & More Kit in here!

Stay Crafty, Friends

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In addition to the items from this month’s Scrapbooking Kit, Mixed Media Kit, and Cards, Tags, & More Kit, I used (from previous Tres Jolie Kits):

Bazzill White Vellum 12×12, Cardstock Warehouse Translucent Vellum Natural 48lb, Studio Light Rice Paper RICEJMA15, AB Studio Rice Paper, Stamperia “Wonderland Unicorn” Rice Paper, Stamperia Rice Paper DFSA4376, Finnabair Art Daily “Wanderlust” Decorative Tape, Prima Brown Wire Thread, Tim Holtz Jute String, Tim Holtz “Pumice Stone” Distress Ink, Hampton Art White Flower Overlays, Recollections Kraft Envelopes, Recollections 2-1/2” Circle Punch, Fiskars 1” Squeeze Circle Punch, EK Tools Binding Edge Punch, EK Tools Round Binding Edge Punch, We R Memory Keepers Hole Reinforcer Punch, We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile II, Nicapa Cutting Mat, Silhouette Cameo 3, Fabrika Decoru Gold Foil Acetate Sheet, UHU Stic, Art Glitter Glue, Fabri-Tac, LineCo 1-1/4” Linen Hinging Tape, BookGard 3” Book Binding Tape (Black), Double Sided Tape, scraps of fabric and various papers from my stash