simply, katie: An Old Book Transformed into a Scrapbooking Journal

Writing down my thoughts and feelings has always been a very therapeutic experience for me. When I was a Camp Counselor two summers ago, I took every break as an opportunity to journal. Taking time to journal would purge my mind of thoughts, feelings, ideas and would allow me to return refreshed to my campers. At the same time, I was writing down memories and experiences that I would want to cherish forever, especially because it was my first full summer as a counselor.

For my 2010 journal, I journaled LOTS. I also added small little pieces of my summer into that journal -anything small or memorable. Notes from the Prayer Line, tootsie pop wrappers (we'd won cleanest cabin!), movie ticket stubs, mail, pictures of each week, etc. etc. etc. I taped in all of those extra little things, because I was NOT going to carry around a bottle of glue in my backpack. That spells disaster.

Camp Counselor Journal circa Summer of 2010

This summer, I'm camp counseling again! However, I won't have the equivalent break time to journal as extensively as I did before. I still wanted to journal and keep track of my experiences, so I decided to make a scrapbooky type of journal. I can include snippets of daily life, mail, drawings, notes, small crafts, pieces of nature, scripture, etc. etc. etc. So, more scrapbooking and taping but with a smaller word count.

I started with an old book filled with Elizabethan Dramas (Marlowe and Shakespeare). We weren't reading it and it came from a yard sale, plus it was hardcover and had a nice look about it. I took out about half of the sections to make room for all of the things I was going to add. It happened to get pretty thick regardless.

I glued something every 3 or 4 spreads to allow for more scraps and things to be added as the summer progresses.

Here's the first entry.

I'm not there, yet, so not much has been added.

I included envelopes every so often, so that I could just slip things into them. Currently, they're holding a piece of paper so that I can journal a good bit if I have time. Then I can glue it or slip it back into the envelope.