“I never travel without my diary.
One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
– Oscar Wilde
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, I’m sure you caught on to one fact.
I’m a big fan of anything homemade.
Gifts. Food. Crafts. Everything. Love it all. Homemade is so awesome. (And usually less costly than store bought…. saving money … yes, this, too, I am a fan of!)
Last year, we attempted to give {mostly/all} homemade gifts for Christmas. This year, we are doing the same … we’ve already started with the bigger projects but have been working slowly on the little ones.
[So if you are an aunt, mother, niece, nephew (yeah, somehow I don’t think my nephews read my blog), stop reading because this could be your gift!!!!!]
Homemade {padded} Diaries
Lacey came home from her best friend’s birthday party a few weeks ago with a padded journal she had crafted up during the party. She loved it- and so did I! (Thank you, Laura, for thinking up such a great idea!!) What a great gift this will make, I thought! So away we trekked to the fabric store (slowly becoming my favorite location lately) & the dollar store …
All you need is the following:
glue gun
fabric of choice
lined journal (without rings)
a little bit of padding (you can purchase padding or just use fluff from inside an old pillow or whatever you have lying around)
Measure and cut out the fabric around your journal, leaving enough to fold up and over the cover and backside.
Measure and cut the ‘padding’ to fit the cover and back.
Cut a line in the fabric where it needs to fold down over the inside spine of your book.
Hot glue around the front inside cover and fold your fabric over.
Do the same with the back.
Then, take the last lined page and hot glue it down to cover up all the raw edge of the fabric. Do this on the front inside cover and the back inside cover.
And you are done! Add embellishments if you wish – like ribbon or bows or anything pretty. Pair it up with a package of shiny new pencils and you are set with a lovely Christmas gift for a loved one.
I chose burlap and lace because I thought it would be so pretty … but you can use *any* fabric you want … for children, for adults, for your music teacher …
What do you think? If you need a better tutorial, we used this one:
So there you have it. Homemade gift for Christmas – I’m going to share some more, but this one was pretty simple, I think. I am making these for all my nieces and little girls in our lives … after all, what little girl doesn’t like to jot down stories and pictures and drawings, scribbling away and creating their own written world?
by Gigi
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