FREEBIES JOURNAL SERIES (JOURNAL SET UP AND FRONT PANEL) by Mercy Sauer

Happy New Year Ai Crafters!    This is Mercy, welcome back!   For the month of January, I will be working with the Journal dies and the Freebies.    I will be creating a journal using Copic markers and critters from the Freebies offered with purchase.

The first thing I did was to review and die cut all the dies included in the Journal set, so many of them! This was helpful to get organized and to ensure I use as many dies as possible.   I also die cut and assembled a journal to learn how to put it together, it was a breeze!

Let’s take a look,

The next step was to decide on card stock and style for the Journal.

I noticed that the paper I used tends to “rip” on the folds, so I came up with a solution…

The clear acetate cover protects the cardstock and hides the crack lines on the paper.

The next thing I did was to organize the pages and decide where the critters would reside, I based it on theme and color, I paired them in a way that would make sense.

At this point I felt organized and ready to start by creating the front panel of the Journal.   However, before doing so I had to decide on a cohesive theme for my Journal. Ultimately, I wanted to create a Journal celebrating friendships, friends celebrating different occasions or simply their friendships.      I loved that idea and went with it.    Here’s what I created!

So here we are, my journal is ready to be filled.    I am looking forward to every page and hope you join me through this journey.

It’s great to be back, I will see you soon.