Personalized Journals from the 1906 Etsy Craft Party

School is starting soon which means I've been working a lot more than I'm used to. I'm not going to lie: it's nice to be able to take mid-day naps and play with my son. Trying to readjust to working an eight hour day has been difficult to say the least. These last two weeks, I've been trying to carve out some personal time while Ben is napping or when he goes down for the night. When the grading starts pouring in, I'll be hard pressed to find the time to do anything other cook, clean, eat and sleep.

I was doing my usual web crawl of blogs and paper crafting websites when I happened upon the annual Etsy Craft Party posting on Meetup.com. I really didn't think I had time in my schedule to make it. That sounds pretty ridiculous to say I don't have time to go out on a Friday night. I know. But when I was staring at the pile of work on my desk, sweating bullets about how much I had to do before Monday rolls around, I realized how easy it would be to fall back into the pattern of feeling overwhelmed and to ignore the things that make me happy and help me reduce my stress. And just at that moment, my mom called and asked if she could go with me. I figured it was a sign!

There were two craft parties going on at the same time, and it was almost impossible to choose between them. We went to the one at the 1906 Gallery on South Flores Street. I have been to the gallery before, long before my mommy days, but I have never met the family that owns it. Yvette Benavides and her family generously opened their private residence at the back of the gallery for the craft party. It was such a warm and beautiful space. I didn't get to take pictures of their home, but I should have. It was beautiful and engaging. My mom, a now retired graphic designer, enjoyed walking around and seeing the artwork and creatively designed living space more than anything else. Would you believe they have a koi pond inside their home?

The Personalized Journal craft station

There were three craft stations for making personalized journals, Texas shaped artist calling cards and, one more with miscellaneous supplies that were donated by several sponsors, including Etsy, Michael's, Astrobrights, Duck Tape (the mustache patterned duck tape was my favorite), Fiskars, and Plaid Crafts. To say that we had a full stash of supplies to choose from is an understatement. Amy Johnson at Maker Mama, Stacy at Kids Stuff World, and Lisa Pennington at Pennington Point did an incredible job of rounding up donated craft supplies for 40 people, along with refreshments, handmade decorations, and door prizes. There was a separate room with four more craft stations, stocked with plenty more supplies and upcycled materials, for a craft war. I loved walking around and peeking at everyone's projects. Some of my favorites used the duck tape in different ways, including one with a soft gold border that was layered under other elements and another that lined the inside covers with the mustache tape. 

Personalized Journal: Front Cover

Personalized Journal: Back 

I made a personalized journal with a Strathmore sketchbook, and some paper from the Timeless Type DCWV paper stack. I used Mod Podge to attach a neutral sheet to the cover (it's the kind of handwriting paper I remember from Catholic school-- what a sweet memory), but I'm concerned it might come up if I'm not careful enough. I'm a Mod Podge novice, to be perfectly honest. Then I cut the printer's block patterned paper and layered it on top. The whole page is beautiful, and I wanted to preserve the different edges to give the layer more visual interest, so I trimmed along the outer edge of the blocks along the top, bottom and side. Think of them as a kind of reverse book jacket. 

Close Up of the Front Cover

My mom, cropping and placing photos.

Another page in the stack had a series of Polaroid frames with blank centers. I remembered some photos that had been lurking in my purse, and I found two that were perfect for the frames. My mom trimmed the frames, and then we used the dot roller to mount the frames on top of the pictures, and then the framed pictures on to the cover. We used Mod Podge to seal the whole thing, and let it dry while we walked around peeked at some of the other projects. 

We trimmed one too many frames and photos, and instead of letting them go to waste, we decided to place the last one on the inside first page. Something about it just seems funny to me. 

Unfortunately we weren't able to stay as long as we would have liked. We were able to park ourselves on an aluminum bench next to the craft tables, but it wasn't the best thing from my six-months-pregnant back. After I finished my journal, it was definitely time to head home and put my feet up. I had a great time, and I was thinking this might be something fun to organize for craft students at school. I think all of the budding writers and artists out there would probably enjoy making their own personalized notebooks for school.