Cover the Journal with Fabric

• Does your child like patchwork or a quilted look? You can easily make a journal this way by covering the outside of it with cloth. Just take pieces of cloth and start gluing it to the journal. For a quilted look, sew the pieces together with a different colored thread so it will show and use a thick fabric. Glue the finished quilted fabric to the outside of the book.
  
  

Creating a Journal from Scratch

• Cut 10 sheets of 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch paper in half. Collect the paper and use a hole puncher to make two or three holes on one side of the papers. Tie a string in each of the holes to keep the papers together. Decorate the cover with whatever your child would like such as markers, crayons, glitter, paint, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, stickers, etc.
  
  

Scrapbook Paper Cover

• Have your child choose a scrapbook paper that she likes and fold it in half. Take a few pages of colored or white card stock or cut some white 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch paper in half to create pages for the journal. Place the pages into the folded scrapbook page. Cut a piece of card stock the length of the edge of the scrapbook cover with a width of two inches to create a binding. Fold the binding and place the binding on the edge of the scrapbook where it's folded to hold the pages in place. Use a hole puncher to make three holes in the binder, going through the journal. Use brads to hold the journal together. A beautiful journal is ready for your child.
  
  

Collage Themed

• Gather photos, magazines and coloring books and have your child cut and choose whatever she wants to glue to her journal front and back cover. She can use as many or as little as she wants. Suggest that she can also decorate the tops of some of the pages or the inside of the front and back cover of the journal.