Diy Blogging Book | Diary.

I've mentioned it before but I love stationary and organisation! Yes, I know... I'm a total nerd!! I've been try to get into a routine on my blog that I feel comfortable with and can achieve by not letting "real life" take over. I notice sometimes I'll miss a few days and I want to get out of that habit! I have tried creating a spreadsheet to try and organize my blog posts a little better but I find that when it comes to jotting ideas down I can't really do that on a spreadsheet neatly. I made a blog post notebook before and it worked quite well. It was the perfect size to fit in my handbag and jot ideas down on the go. But I still didn't think it worked well at organising myself any better. I still keep that little notebook with me, it's where I write down all my ideas, brainstorm and then after that when I have a finished/final idea for a post, I then put it into this book and tick off what I've done and what needs to be done. So here is how I created my new blogging book/diary. Step one & two – Once I had chosen the paper I wanted to cover my notebook with I cut around the front and back covers leaving about an inch or so around the edges.
Step three & four – I'm not too pleased with the fact that I couldn't cover the binder/spine. I did try to but I think once the notebook is open the paper would rip in that area and get damaged. I folded along the length of the paper and stuck it besides the spine with glue. I then folded the rough edges over on the inside of the cover and glued them down. Almost like you're wrapping up a present. Step five – repeat step three and four. Step six – I wanted to make sure the edges were properly stuck down as they're slightly “bulky” so I popped bulldog clips on those edges whilst the glue dried. Step seven & eight – I wanted to personalise the cover a little, just to make it more fun and appealing to use (is that really sad of me?) I saw this image in a magazine a while ago and cut it out to use in a scrapbook. I thought it would be perfect for the cover of my blogging book and I think it works really well. I had a lot of room left at the top and I wanted something on the cover that would state exactly what this book is. So I cut a speech bubble out of white printing paper. Step nine & ten – Using a black Sharpie pen I outlined the speech bubble to make it look neater and I guess almost cartoon like. Step eleven & twelve – I then glued the speech bubble down and wrote “blogging book” on the front. [as you can so obviously see] Step thirteen & fourteen – I had a few cut outs from magazine of textures and clothes that I was going to put into a scrapbook. I used this one of a model (love the colours of the clothes!) and added yet another speech bubble. I just wanted to make it fun. I then covered the back with the same steps as three, four, five and six. Step fifteen and sixteen – Now was the time to figure out how I wanted to layout my pages. I wanted enough room to write blog titles down and include tick boxes as I know ticking things off lists ect is something that works for me when organising things. There is something very satisfying about drawing a tick. I can tick off when I have taken photos for a blog post, written the post up and scheduled it. Then tick it off once it has been published. I think I'm going to play around a little more with the layout of the pages but overall I'm really happy with my blogging book :) I've got LOADS of paper in this book so I'm thinking of adding in sections where I can brainstorm ideas or write other bits and pieces in. Is it really geeky that I get so excited by these things? Do you have a blogging book or diary you use when keeping ontop of your blog? Do you have any tips for staying on top of it? I'd love to know how other people plan their blogs so please share you tips and tricks :) With Love, Sian xx