I love to journal; which is evident by this on-going blog. I love to collect thoughts, impressions, projects and of course photos.
My first journal was pink with a teddy bear on it that my grandma had given me as a gift. I loved that book. Over the years I collected more and more journals which eventually led me to scrapbooking where I spent a lot of time and money. (but of course I could never keep up with the amount of pictures I took!)
When I married Steve, I took a look at his old journal and fell in love with him all over again. The stories and thoughts…they’re priceless. I’m really hoping to instill the love of writing in my children – so years from now they can look back and marvel at how simple life once was when hearing your name on the intercom at school was a really big deal. Childhood is awesome.
When Hallie was baptized, we gave her her first of many journals, personalized just for her. We ask her 2-3 times a week to take some time to write the best part of her day, or any feelings she might have. It’s funny how at such a young age those thoughts and feelings are very private and personal. When I asked her to bring me her journal so I could take a picture of it, she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to read it! Probably won’t be the first time I hear that. 
I printed it through blurb (considered their “trade” size in paperback). I designed it in InDesign and made most the pages lined – but then sprinkled in several of her baptism photo shoot pictures. Hopefully this will be one of many books she fills.
I love the journal you created. I was wondering if you could walk me through step by step on how you created it? I think that would make a wonderful gift. Is InDesign similiar to Mixbook or Shutterfly?
InDesign is a graphic design program I work in – blurb is the printer (much like mixbook or shutterfly). I designed the book – 60 pages – with 8 pictures mixed in with the lined pages. You can probably create the same book using blurb's free software "BookSmart". You can choose a different layout for every page. I would recommend using a full bleed picture for 8 of the pages and then using the "text" layout for your lined pages. That should do it, good luck!
My daughter is being baptized in March and I love this dress! Where did you get it?
I bought it at Nordstrom Last chance for $5 – it's a simple sleeveless A-line dress that we added a sleeved shrug and we replaced the white sash for double sided satin ribbon. Hope that helps!
Hi Kara, I love this idea! I'm actually working on journals for my nieces for their baptism right now. I wondered how you got the cover picture to stretch across the spine and I'm assuming to the back as well? I'm just working in Booksmart, and it won't let me add anything to the spine. Did you design a dust jacket maybe? I have InDesign that I could use, but wondered if you had any suggestions? Thanks!!
I use InDesign to design my books. There's a blurb plug-in that you download that assists in the set-up of the book. It creates a separate file for the cover and the book. The cover is one long image so I just chose an image that was large enough to stretch across the front and back. I've not worked in Booksmart so I'm not sure if it works the same way. Good luck!