summer journal idea:

I wanted to post last week, but forgot all about it! At the beginning of the year in Alaina's 1st grade class, her teacher handed out journals to each of the students. I believe that they had an allotted time each day to quietly write on their journals. It was so cute skimming through Alaina's journal at the end of her school year. She wrote about how much she loves her little brother, that she wants to be an artist when she grows up because "I'm really good at it," and about how much she and her dad love bacon..... the inner workings of a 6 year are quite humorous.

When Alaina asked me to make her a summer journal that she could take along with her on our trip, I starting thinking of an idea for what could be used to create the front and back cover of the journal. (It would have been easier to just use a compisition notebook but I really wanted something on a smaller scale. Pocket size or just a little larger.) I scoured my craft room looking for the right size chipboard to use as covers but didn't really find anything terribly useful...... until I saw a box of greeting cards!

A greeting card would make a perfect little journal! They're already folded and cute cards are readily available everywhere, but it's especially sweet if you can reuse a pretty card that was given to you. (Do you keep cards that you received? I always keep the pretty cards I receive for special occasions, I figure eventually I'll use them for something useful.

To start I trimmed down to size a small stack of graph paper and folded the sheets in the middle. Just use a couple of staples to hold the paper inside the card.

and no summer journal would be complete without a sheet of stickers. I used to be a sticker queen when I was little and I've obviously passed on the love to Alaina. (Chase too if you noticed his 4th of July flag below!)

There is my easy-peasy summer journal idea! Other add on ideas could be a sheet of printed titles, maybe add a roll of cute washi tape to hold paper notes, and a sheet or 2 of letter stickers. Hope you are able to make a few with you little ones and record those special summer memories!