January 24, 2008

Craft Idea.

For those of you who are stuck in your houses this week due to air so cold it could freeze your boogers, I have a little craft project for you!

This is an idea Chris and I came up with after seeing something like this:

...in a boutique store in San Luis Obispo, California.

It was an old vintage children's book that someone had dismantled and then spiral bound with blank writing paper. They left some of the original pages throughout the journal as well.

Since I am attracted to vintage things (and cool journals) like a fly to poop, I really liked the idea. However, the spiral bound thing seemed kindof cheesy and predictable. So, Chris and I hopped on over to the used book store down the street and picked out some vintage books that we liked the look of in order to convert them into journals for ourselves.

I LOVE big, thick journals, so I picked out some really cool old children's textbooks/reader books. Then, I bought a super cheap lined journal with tear-out pages and just started gluing the blank pages into the vintage reader book. We used spray-on glue because we figured the white glue would make the pages too wrinkly. Also, as I went along, I discovered that the book was getting too thick with all the extra paper in there, so I started tearing out a few pages here and there to compensate for the extra thickness.

This was the end result:

I thought "Vistas" was an appropriate title.





I was writing in this journal when I was pregnant with Ezra, and I found the list of names we liked. (Some of these are completely embarrassing now. Gak!)


I didn't blur out the words because they were filled with things I didn't want you to know. I blurred them out because I was writing A LOT about feeling "bloated" all the time. (That was the first sign that I was pregnant- a symptom I now lovingly refer to as 9 MONTHS OF CONSTANT GAS.)

This is the page where I tried to sum up what it was like becoming a mother for the first time... a daunting feat I must have attempted at 3AM one morning or something, because it came out sounding like this: "Being a mom is, like, so cool and stuff. Ezra is really cool and its cool being his mom. And stuff. HAPPY FACE." How eloquent.







Anywho- I love this journal. You guys should totally make one. Also, I have 3 more vintage school textbooks that I bought around the same time if anyone wants them. I could mail them to you, or (oooh, here's an idea!) I could MAKE a journal FOR you for the low cost of, um, $25.00 if you want (including shipping). Email me at emerybored at aol dot com if you are interested.

(Look at me! I'm being all business-y and entrepreneur-ish and stuff!)

(PS. I added a killer vintage coat to my ebay store. Click the icon over on the right to check it out.)

11 comments:

IndianaJones said...

This is a great idea...I made a journal like this when I was 19... except my purpose wasn't really to make something to look cool as it was to be able to hide it on my book shelf and no one would pick it up thinking it was a journal. I picked a vintage science theory book about the nature of evolution, hoping it would prove of little interest to any roommates who might wanna snoop through my journals. Of course at the time I was all silly and romantic so I had to use old blank sheet music paper and burn all the edges before gluing it in the book...I can still remember the lingering smell of brunt paper in my room:)
I like your idea better...maybe I'll make one for Indy like this to color in at the coffee shop when I write, although that may get confusing as I'm always having to remind her that we don't color in our books!

Court said...

Excellent idea! Love it!

Anonymous said...

Oh I LOVE this idea! I dont know where I would find vintage books like this though...

Anonymous said...

Super fun idea! I love how there are little pictures from the book here and there. Journals overwhelm me with all the open writing space. I think having pictures would make it less daunting. Funny huhh.

Emery Jo said...

Miss- I will mail a vintage book to you for free if you want so you can make one... Just email me!

I've only got three, but whoever wants them can have 'em!

Oooor, I will make a snazzy journal FOR you for 2500 pennies.

Woot!

bandofbrothers said...

cute idea! it's a whopping 55 degrees here, so we are playing indoors too. We're total pansies, I know. So funny about you being all businees-y and entrepreneur-ish! And 2500 pennies? very slick! I couldn't even sell ice water in a desert.

sherrynkb said...

I used to have LOADS of books like those as a wee kid... sadly, most of them have been given away. If only I'd been that innovative - although I love the textbook idea sufferingsummer!

Cristina Mathers said...

i am so jealous you have these books! they instantly took me back to snooping on the book shelves at my grandmas house, and then her leaving us books just like that. it was so cool. total classics.

modish said...

my name was on your name list? Oh my goodness, I'm all verklempt! Of course, that could be one of the names that you're embarrassed of now... If that's the case, let's pretend this comment never happened... :)
<3 jena

dawn224 said...

hee hee! we all think we will be permanently eloquent while pregnant ... if I wrote, it would have been doodles of "Dawn + jalapeno poppers = TLA!"

Rachael said...

I made my own book after reading this post and blogged about it here: http://gloriouslyarranged.blogspot.com/2010/05/crafty-mccrafterson.html
Thanks for the great idea!!!