Hand-bound Goal Journal for 2013

I follow a lot of craft blogs. I'm not organised in my following- no RSS feeds or anything like that- just a big folder of bookmarks that I middle-click, and then watch as tabs fill my browser, waiting to be, well, browsed. Just before the new year, Sarah over at sah-rah.com shared a great idea of making lots of little resolutions instead of a few big ones. Mini-goals that might not be completed, but could be. I really liked the idea, and wanted to put these goals together somehow. I also wanted to bind a little journal, so I decided to make a notebook for my goals- and then some.

I designed the pages using InDesign (CS2), which I'd never used before. I suppose it was probably like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but I wanted to familiarise myself with the program more than anything. I made the pages A5 sized (5.5" x 8.5"), though I may go even smaller next time for a pocket-sized journal. The journal has a cover page. When I was making this, I initially was making it for myself, but decided I wanted to be able to share it, so I left the name blank!

The main point of this journal is the 100 (or so) mini-goals. I'll have some more serious, hard-to-obtain goals (lose x amount of weight, gain x qualification/skill) but for the most part I'm approaching this like a bucket list. I want to have goals that I want to achieve. Goals like "bake macarons" and "learn to crochet". You'll notice I added boxes... this is to give the satisfaction of checking something off when it's done! (This version printed out the first page with the boxes slightly out of alignment, but it's been corrected for the .pdf file at the bottom of this entry.)

I also wanted to add some more pages in a second section. There's one for each month- to add goals for that month, to-do lists, appointments, or whatever needs to be done. January is already halfway over, of course, so this page may not be very used! A friend joked that my first goal for my journal was "make goal journal". At least that's one down!

Once I had my pages, I used some old graze boxes to cut out a cover for my book. I stab-bound it using a hemp-leaf design and this amazing tutorial by Amphian Photography. I wasn't able to find the type of cord I wanted, so I doubled up some linen thread and used that. It was harder to get it tight enough, but it has the strength that's needed, anyway!

Finally, I wanted to collage '2013' on the front, but I just couldn't find a good '3' anywhere. After receiving some Flower Soft in my Crafty Creatives box for January I decided that I'd try using it here. You can't quite read it if you don't know what it's meant to say, but I think it sort-of fits with the nature-like design of the graze box covers.

Apart from the binding being a bit loose owing to my doubling-up on the thread, I'm really pleased with this little journal. The back cover is an image with just green grass. I have so many graze boxes cut out and ready to use- I'm looking forward to making a few more journals for myself and trying out a few more binding methods as I go!

If you want to make a goal journal for yourself, here's the .pdf file of the pages- you could stab-bind it, or try something new! Pages will simply need to be cut in half (I find folding them first helps define a good line for it if you do not have a guillotine) and then put together however you like! There is a generous left margin that should give ample space for most stab-binding methods.

As I can't quite say Happy New Year anymore, so Happy January 17th!

(Curious about graze boxes? Try a free box with the code 626HYZ5 or follow this link!)