POP ART JOURNAL

I wanted to keep a journal to jot down ideas and lists of things and have it sort of pop artish, but the ones that I found in the stores started about about $12 and went up from there, so I decided to make my own.

This worked out even better and everything but the felt and the glue on this is recycled/upcycled cardboard and paper and my cost out of pocket was under 25 cents.

As this was my first attempt at something like this, it is a little rough, but I do plan on making more for these for Christmas presents.

• Fruit By The Foot box
• Diet Coke 12 pack box
• 1 piece red felt
• Lots of scrap 8 1/2 x 11 paper cut or torn into quarters
• Craft Glue
• Hot Glue Gun and glue sticks

I started with th Fruit by the Foot box as it is just a bit bigger than a quarter sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and the right size for this project, but you could start with a cereal or other small box and adjust the size or make the paper a different size.

Cut the top, bottom, and right hand side off from the Fruit by the Foot box.

You could skip adding the outside box for reinforement and decoration if you wanted to, but I wanted my journal to be sturdy and I wanted the Diet Coke for the outside of the journal, so I cut the top, bottom, and right hand side off from the Fruit by the Foot box.

I then cut the pieces from the Diet Coke box that was at least 1/4 of an inch wider on the each side.

Then fold the egdes over then cutting the corners off and glued it to the Fruit By the Foot Box with craft glue on the outside and hot glue on the inside edges.

NOTE: I pieced mine together from several pieces off the Diet Coke box, but it would be easier and you would get a more professional looking results if you just a single piece from the Diet Coke box (after seeing the picture I did attempt to straightern the edge a bit more, but didn't take a pic - another thing to note is if you have any sort of digital camera, take a picture of your projects and then check them for anything you might need to adjust - your eye tends to forgive the project you put love and time into; the camera doesn't and will give you a strangers eye view of the project).

For inside front and back, I cut 2 pieces from the felt that were approximately 1/8th of an inch shorter on the top, bottoms and sides with the piece closest to the spine flush with the bend for the spine and glued it down to the inside cover with a hot glue gun. I would recommend doing this slowly and in stages, starting at the top edge and working down, otherwise the glue dries too fast and it can wrinkle up the fabric.

Next, square up the pages of scrap paper and make sure that if there is printing on one side, that it is facing the back fo the book, then glue in small sections at a time to the spine of the book.