Craft Path: Leather Journal gift

For my husband's birthday he had asked for a journal to keep with his Bible. After pricing the nice journals, the kids and I decided to make him one.

I wanted to get him a leather bound journal. I went to Goodwill and bought a leather coat for a whopping price of $4.98! I took it home and we ripped the lining out of it.

I laid it out as flat as possible on the cutting mat and went to town. The back was the largest piece.

I eyeballed all the cutting and measuring. I took 8 1/2 X 14 paper and trimmed it a bit to fit the leather part. I wanted to give the journal a "rugged" look.

I took a stack of paper (about 20 or so pieces) so there would be about 40 (or so) papers for journal entries.(80 if using front and back).

I wanted to make sure that the fold of the leather cover was nice and straight with the fold of the paper. So, I folded the leather cover with the paper inside.

I did not have an awl to make holes in the leather, nor did I have an extra strong paper punch. So, I used a Phillip's screw driver and a bit of elbow grease. I made 4 holes. Roughly about 2 inches from the top and bottom were the first two holes and then about 1/2 inch from the two, I made two more.

Once, the screwdriver made the hole and went all the way through the stack of paper, it made a nice white mark on the leather where I needed to make the holes in the cover.

Once the holes were made. I cut 2 long strips of leather about 15 inches long and about a little less than 1/2 inch wide. The strips were used to bind/tie the journal paper to the leather cover.

I threaded each strip from the back of one hole , through all the paper to the middle and into the other hole to the back.

Then threaded both strips through the inside of the leather cover to the outside.

Then I just tied a knot and snipped the ends as long as I wanted.

I wanted to make a strap, so that it could be closed. So, I cut another strip about 15 -17 inches long and stitched it roughly to the back of the journal.

Then I cut another strip about 3 1/2 inches long and about 1 1/2 inch wide and stitched it along both sides to the front of the journal. I wanted to be able to thread the long pieced through, so that the journal would close nicely.