hey there!

this month’s theme of summer reminded me that i have a few summer getaways coming up and every year i try to remember to either make or buy a little notebook to keep with me when i travel. next week we are heading to a wedding in florida, after i’ll be heading to cha, and then later in the summer is our annual trip to cape cod. i use little notebooks to keep track of everything from items i saw that i liked, grocery lists, books i want to read, phone numbers/emails of friends i met, to memory joggers for journaling on my pages later.

this year I decided to make a little vacation jotter using the july kit.

you’ll need:

• your july kit and add-ons
• chipboard (you can use cereal boxes for this)
• 3×5 index cards – you can purchase these blank and lined in either direction
• larger index cards to cut if you plan on making the bingo cover
• a cropodile or standard hole punch
• binder rings (you can get these at an office supply store)
• large eyelets
• gel medium (or other adhesive such as mod podge)
• the corner chomper or a standard corner rounder
• brayer or bone folder

Directions

1. using your cutter or scissors cut two 3×5 inch chipboard pieces.
2. cut a piece of patterned paper to 3×5 inches. apply gel medium to the chipboard and adhere the paper. use a clean brayer or a bone folder to get rid of any wrinkles. do the same to the other piece of chipboard. let dry then cover the back sides of the chipboard as well. let dry overnight.
3. round all four corners of 30 index cards. i used my we r memory keepers corner chomper which allowed me to do a lot at once. you can use a standard corner rounder it will just take a little longer.
4. round all four corners of the two pieces of chipboard. if your standard corner rounder won’t cut through, trace the corners using one of your index cards as a template and use a craft knife or scissors to round the corner.
5. decide which piece of the covered chipboard will be the front and which side will face the back.
6. using your cropadile, punch one or two holes in the top edge of the chipboard pieces. the location of the holes will be determined by the lines on your index cards. (for one hole I’d punch the top left.) be sure to line up the holes on both pieces. i added large eyelets to mine so the ring would slide through easily.
7. using the cover as a template mark a small stack of index cards and punch through using the cropadile – continue until all of the index cards are punched.
8. add rings through the punched holes and add embellishments to the front cover as desired.

you can vary the size of these jotters, use fabric to cover them, use graph paper or other paper for the sheets, and really make them your own. if you make one of these, be sure to link me up!  have fun!

just a picture of part of the sneak peek newsletter that went out a few days ago. newsletter subscribers also received a little hint about our news for april. something about kr exclusive and product.

happy thursday! xo

oh. and the newest newsletter has gone out which includes a little introduction to our next guest designer. if you don’t receive it you can view it here. however, you can also sign-up here so you don’t miss out on any of our announcements, giveaways or kit sneak peeks.

xo