Covered composition notebooks make very lovely gifts. For the scrapbooking lover, it is very enjoyable to make and being able to tailor each book to the tastes of the receiver adds so much enjoyment to making them.

You start out with a basic composition journal, the kind that use to only come in the mottled black and white covers. You also want a variety of papers, card stock, lace, pictures, etc. to decorate the front with. Make sure to use decent glue, they may not need acid/lignet free as the receiver may not be keeping them forever like you would a scrapbook, but it wouldn't hurt to use that type of glue.


You want to measure the base paper to fit the cover and glue it on. If you want to attach a bookmark, then in between the back of the book and the paper that you use on the back you will want to place a thin ribbon, long enough so that you can put it halfway down the back of the book and have it hang over the top of the book and all the way down the front. I attached some beads to the end of the bookmark ribbon.



Once you have the main cover paper on, feel free to decorate it any way you want- like I said, its best to think about the person who will receive it and their personality. Also, be creative about what you use to decorate the journals. In the first picture on this page I used wallpaper boarder for the vines and lace on the bottom of the page. The second journal has letters I traced onto cardstock and some special paper punches. The last one has several layers of paper forming a layered frame, some corners cut with decorative scissors and a cutout of a shell.

These are pretty simple and relatively inexpensive. They are also a lot of fun and the receivers tend to really enjoy them.