Let’s Create An Autumn-Themed DIY Journal

I’ve never been a real arts and craft kind of gal. My mother is and I’ve recently started crafting with her. She has TONS of supplies, even though I recently went shopping at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s nd came back inspired to create a journal full of autumn ephemera.

I just love the colors and coziness and flavors of autumn. So much so that I really don’t want to rush through the season, trip over Halloween, jump over Thanksgiving and fall headlong into Christmas. I’m ignoring all the Christmas stuff in the stores, not looking at the movies. Nothing. I’m taking my sweet molasses time and enjoying the season. I’ll think about Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and not a moment before.

But I digress!

I decided to create a DIY journal, alter a simple student composition book with paint and fabric and puffy stickers with all the autumn things. And I did. It’s not perfect. I am no crafting master. No DIY journal expert but it came out cute and I’m please.

Working with scissors and glue took some getting used to. I’m a writer, not a crafty person so I really felt all thumbs and a bit ridiculous.

But that soon passed, and I enjoyed working with my hands and actually created something.

I’m inspired to try again and do a better job. But for this journal, I’m going to keep my autumn recipes in in – all the apple and sweet potato pies and cakes and soups I’m inspired to make during the fall.

It’s actually pretty easy to do. I started by watching tutorials on Youtube. And once I understand the basics, how you could add paper and doodads however and wherever you wanted. I was good to go.

Here’s the final product! Not perfect, but well done me. lol It’s cute and I can use it for recipes. I’ll do better next time.

This post isn’t a how-to, more like a “look what I did!) lol but I will list a few basic steps. And in the future I may create a detailed post on how to create a DIY journal.

But essentially:

Find a notebook you want to use
Decide on a theme and purpose for your journal
Purchase your supplies: cardstock, fabric and fabric trim, stickers (textured, puffy and 3-D)
Gather your various types of glue: modge podge, fabric glue, crazy clue, etc. scissors
Get to crafting and designing

I also created a cozy staging for my crafting with candles, autumn-themed stuff: basket of apples, hot tea, pretty fall cup and the like. It actually took me four days to finish my journal because I was waiting for pages to glue. But it was very enjoyable and I can’t wait to work on a Christmas/Winter-themed journal next. If you’d like to see a longer video on the creation, take a look at my post on Instagram.