Jun 18, 2020

Create a Unique Journal Cover

Take a simple book or journal cover and make it uniquely yours. For best cognitive results when journaling.

You can buy journals and notebooks with appealing covers but thousands- or maybe only a hundred- other people will have the exact same cover. And do you really want the extent of your writing to be bound and defined by a cover that you share with so many others? No, definitely not. Therefore you should make your own cover that is unique to you and your writing.

Materials

Use what you have, glue, tape, newspaper, stickers, or photos from your printer.

Establish your theme

Is your notebook going to be filled with crazy ideas? So do you need and cover that is all over the place? Exploding with colors and images for inspiration when you open your notebook. Or is your writing more serious and personal so do you need a simple cover? Maybe black and white or all one color scheme. Or a mixture of everything about you?

Whatever your goal or focus is for your notebook, it doesn't really matter, just create a cover that you like to look at because, hopefully, you will be seeing it often.

Getting Started

I usually find inspiration from newspaper photographs or something that catches my eye online. I tend to go for the simpler logo like images. I have found that I like a central, relatively small, image in the middle of the covers for my journals then I like filling the back with either random stickers, words that describe and inspire me, or leaving it empty.

Once you have gathered your materials and inspiration it is time to assemble. Here are a couple models to get you started. Feel free to choose any of the constructions or go a completely different direction and just use these images for inspiration.

Making a newspaper sticker

Same sticker method applied to my kindle

You don't have to use newspapers but the New York Times Kids section always has great images and small symbols that I think are perfect for making stickers. You can also print images out to make into your sticker or draw your own.

Cut out the image that you want as the central part of the sticker, leaving no border. Then grab a more sturdy type of paper that should be thicker than the image to give it a stronger base. Cut the thicker paper, like cardstock, to the same shape as the image. Following all the corners and turns in the image or simply in a circle like the example below. Make sure that the thicker paper is slightly wider than the image. Wider in radius so part of the cardstock will stick out from behind the image. I recommend using a piece of paper that is lighter in color than the image to add some contrast. Or a much darker piece of paper if the image has a lighter color scheme. Leave a little less then a 1/4 in border completely around the size of the image.

Once you have cut around leaving a border, glue or tape the image/newspaper clipping to the cardstock and tape to your notebook.

A full book cover

If you are wanting to instead give your whole notebook a face lift then maybe you should cover the original notebook completely. Cover first by folding a large piece of newspaper, or a couple sheets of plain printer paper, depending on the size of your notebook. It will give you a fresh surface to add your own personal touch to without having to buy a completely new notebook. Once you have a clean notebook feel free to add homemade stickers, from above, or any personal touches.