Book Log Tutorial

The kids both have this book to keep track of what they are reading this year, so I decided to make one for myself, too. I have several old blank books lying around, so I decided to alter one instead of buying a pre-made log. I also wanted to have a book organized by subject, since I primarily read nonfiction. Lastly, I have lots of supplies I'd like to use up to make room for baby stuff.

I started with this blank book. I sanded the cover since it had a glossy finish. (Sorry, I had to take the pictures at night)

I crumpled up an old map, then applied Distress Ink (brick and burlap) stamp pads directly to the paper.

Spray the paper with water, then crumple again.

You can let the paper air dry, or if you are impatient like me, you can use a heat gun. When it is dry, rub a Distress Ink pad over the paper to highlight the texture. I used Marigold for contrast.

I wrapped the book with the paper, using matte medium as an adhesive. I ran a gray stamp pad over the edges for contrast. The title block is made from scrapbook paper, brad, and a cut out from my sketchbook.

I covered the inside end papers with scrapbook paper, and used extra supplies for the date.

I punched category tabs from scrapbook paper to divide the log by topic. Now let's see who reads more this year, me or the kids...

For the New Year

This may explain why it has been pretty quiet around here over the last few months. The little bean is doing well and expected on July 7. I'm also starting to feel like a regular human again, so hopefully things will pick up around here.


As for the New Year, have you picked your word yet? Mine is "mindfulness" this year. Ali Edwards is holding a new one little word class at Big Picture Classes, but I signed up last year and never actually did the monthly projects, so I saved them all and have ambitions to do them this time around. After having the kids pour through scrapbooks recently and then ask why there weren't any recent pages about them, I have vowed to try to keep a simple monthly schedule of three layouts this year. Mind you, these will be simple, but that's okay with me. I have plenty of other outlets for design, but I am mostly concerned about recording their stories. I so cherish the pages that I have, and wouldn't have remembered half of those moments if I hadn't recorded them.

The plan? I had a bunch of bags of leftover scrap kit pieces, which I sorted into 12 bags and divided by season. The plan is to use whatever is in there, along with white, black, or kraft cardstock, to create three layouts a month. One will be about Max, one about Madeline, and one will be a family page. Once the baby comes, it will either be one per kid or just an additional page. I'm thinking of printing a page of layout sketches and just choosing from them each month, or keeping the basic layout the same every month and just changing embellishments and patterened paper. We'll see which one is easiest - I'm all about easy right now!

Well, there, I've put it in print. I suppose now I'll have to actually follow through;)

December Bits

'Tis the season to be crazy busy, and this year has to be the craziest by far. Still, we've had some quiet winter moments:

Decorating the tree (the kids did it all this year!) and wrapping the advent Christmas books for an extra special surprise

Catching up with Santa at the Girl Scout Toy Drive

A dinner picnic by the Christmas tree watching Christmas videos

and painting sparkle snow pictures with friends. Just combine 2/3 cup Epsom Salts with 1/3 cup water, and paint on colored paper. It dries to a snowy sparkle! Wishing you a little holiday peace this week.

Candy Science

We don't eat much Halloween candy around here. First of all, Max can't eat any of it, and since I don't usually buy candy, the kids usually forget about eating it after Halloween. Instead, we do science projects with it. Last year, we made models of molecules, and this year we had two days of experiment mania. Most of our ideas came from the Candy Experiments website. We messed around with density (a huge hit), looking for the floating "s" from Skittles, tested for acid, and melted lots of different candies in the toaster oven.

Before we broke out the beakers I had the kids sort their candies and record the data, then decide on broader categories to put them in and graph the results. Who knew you could get so many lessons from Halloween treats?

Museum Scavenger Hunt Book

We have several museum trips coming up, thanks to free and reduced homeschool days, and I love using scavenger hunts to help focus the kids' energy when we are there. However, I do not love carrying a clipboard around, or trying to write against a wall or knee, or searching through the backpack for a pen. My solution? A book! I printed pre-made scavenger hunts from the Monterey Bay Aquarium website (many museums have them listed under the teacher resources, or you could make them yourself from pictures from the website) and bound them in a sturdy chipboard book, sort of following Angry Chicken's directions here. Instead of stapling the pages together, I folded each page in half and glued them back to back. Then I glued the first and last pages to the covers which made end pages and at the same time, secures all of the pages to the book.

This allowed the whole page to fold down for viewing, and the floating spine enables you to fold the whole book backwards. The hard chipboard covers (I took mine from the back of a sketchpad) provide a perfect surface for writing.

To keep track of the elusive pen, I added an elastic loop between the back page and the cover. To add extra hold insurance, I glued it down and then covered the edge with gaffer's tape.

That's all there is to it! Now I have a pint sized book of fun to focus our attention and our energy, and maybe discover something we hadn't noticed before. Now if I could only make our lunch bags and water bottles pint sized...

Thank You

jonathan mak

Zero!

Another addition to the egg carton Nightmare Before Christmas collection. I can't forget man's, ahem, I mean skeleton's best friend!