f The Bugbytes: An Altered Journal

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Welcome to The Bug Bytes a site/blog mainly for Papercrafting and some photography and other stuff thrown in here & there. Add in some die cutting machine, scrapbooking tools, cameras, scissors , glue and...... My name is Pam. If you have been redirected from Papillon Digital Design you have come to the right place.Hope you get inspired by the projects, videos and files. Would love it if you could leave comments and become a follower. (Word verification is turned ON to avoid spam. Sorry for that inconvenience.) Would love it if you would also share your project here . If you find a linky under the post do share your project by posting link there or if you do not find a linky post your link in the comments.Thank you for visiting. The website Papillon digital designs has changed to Papillon Digital Design so if the link gives and error or takes you to page with chinese characters then please drop the 's' in the link at the end of papillondigitaldesigns and try . That is change papillondigitaldesigns to papillondigitaldesign and try the link.

May 3, 2010

An Altered Journal

Hello all!  My name is Amanda Perkins and I am honored to be able to post here today as a designer for The Bug Bytes!  I was a little nervous to be the first one to post so here we go!

I have been making a lot of cards lately and wanted to do something different.  I had several composition journals sitting around and my daughter wanted to know if she could have one, so I decided to make her a journal.  The cartridges I used for this project were Home Accents and Home Decor.  Here's what I started with: 
Paper/Cardstock (I used a combination of cardstock from My Mind's Eye, DCWV, and The Paper Studio.
a Composition Book
Scor Tape
Trimmer
Mono Adhesive
ATG Gun
(and of course my Gypsy and Cricut!)

I started by cutting down the paper I was going to use for the cover and binding.  The front and back cover pieces were trimmed to 9.75" x 7" and the piece for the binding was 9.75" x 3".  I put Scor Tape on the pieces.  I then stuck them to the book and trimmed the corners.  And this is the result:
After that it was time for the fun part!  I started in my Gypsy with 12x12 mat and got a rectangle from the Plantin Schoolbook cart.  This was simply so that I could see how everything out fit on my notebook.  My daughter is a huge fan of butterflies so when I saw the butterfly on the Home Accents cart I knew I wanted to use that.  I also liked the corner flourishes.  Since she is a daydreamer, I also picked out the words "dream" and "imagine".  On the Home Decor cart she wanted to use the star and also the words explore.  I then separated the images so I could cut them.  The main images were on one page and the shadows on another. (I was having lighting problems so one of the pictures is a screenshot from DS)
And here is what my mats looked like.

After I had cut them out, i noticed a few cutting problems.  I had to go back and recut the "dream" and "imagine" shadow and image.  I ended up putting in the cartridge in my cricut and cutting them so that I could adjust the speed because the paper kept tearing.  But I finally got it.  Then, when I finally was ready to assemble the book, I decided the butterfly was too big and that the journal was looking to cluttered.  So....I ended up only using the corner flourishes, butterfly, and "dream".  And here is the end result:
I was pretty happy with it and my daughter was ecstatic (which is all that really matters). 

I hope you enjoyed my project!  I will have it up on my blog later today along with the gypsy file.  Have a good day everyone and happy crafting!

~Amanda

16 comments :

Sheila aka SassyLady said...

This is just lovely, no wonder you daughter loved it... your paper choice is wonderful. I will have to try this. Thank you.

papillon digital design said...

Fantastic Job! Never would know that you were nervous sweetie. =D>

TraciVee said...

That is a great idea! All my 7 year old ever wants is fun and funky journals...I'm thinking I need to make her one of these using my Hannah Montana cart :)

Unknown said...

This is adorable!! What a great idea!

Unknown said...

What a cute notebook! Love the papers you used!

Denine said...

Beautiful. I love how this turned out... absolutely beautiful. Your daughter will love it, I know mine would. ; )

Thanks for the inspiration.

The Bug said...

Great Job Today! You have inspired me to make the altered journal my daughter has been asking me for - I love the idea of the composition book - and since a have 1 or 2 (or 20) laying around I think I will make use of them. You have even inspired me to break out my stash of "pretty paper" and use some!

Electra said...

Hey, this is great. I too am going to make one. Thanks for the inspiration!

flowerdisco said...

amanda, what a great journal. love those butterflies. thanks for the great tut too.

Mrs B said...

Great project! You did a great job on the tutorial! Thanks for being first! That is never easy! See you later in the week!
CindyB

Dakota Bear said...

Very nicely done!

MizMaryAnn said...

Any teen would love to have their journal decorated like this. Beautiful.

Linda said...

Beautiful job Amanda! I just might have to give this one a try myself.

My Creative Time said...

This came out perfect!
hugs,
Emma:)

Kim. said...

Beautiful work, love these cuts and the colours are great.
Kim xXx

Karen said...

What a great way to personalize a journal. I have a couple of girls who love to write and this would make a neat surprise gift for them!

"kind encouraging and inspiring words"

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