I have a small book about 6" square that I carry with me most places. It's for my daily to do list, ideas that pop into my head, reminders of things, etc. I've had some kind of book like this for years. I tried daily journals but always found them too confining. Some days were too short and some too long and never enough free space for what ever else needed to get out of my head.
So when I started to use a blank sketch book it slowly found it's own rhyme, rhythm and organization, although most people seeing it won't think it's has anything to do with organization what so ever. I use the right hand pages for my daily use. I can add the date when I need it and use as much space as that day needs. The left side pages are used for to do list, ideas and anything else that needs to be on paper that I won't loose. Sometimes when I have information that I don't want to clutter up the book I put it in the back and work my way forward with it. I know it doesn't seem too organized but it works and I like it. I usually get the books from my local art store and it's relatively inexpensive.
For a lot of year I used a sketch book that was 5.5" by 8.5". It was great because it had a lot of space for everything I wanted in it but I found myself bring it with me when I went places and need to carry an extra bag for it because my purse just wasn't that big, so last time I need a new book I found one that was 6" by 6" with a fun orange cover. I was surprised to find that this smaller book worked just as good as the larger one and it fit into my larger purse I was using at the time.
Well now my little orange book is almost full and it's time for another book. I was looking forward to doing a little shopping to see what to try this time but then last week as I was trying to do some cleaning in the studio I had the idea to make my own. I have so much scrap paper that I challenged myself to use only paper from my scrap pile. This wasn't much of a challenge since the pile is so big. I also decided to try to make the book a little smaller to see how that works. So I started with covers that are 5" by 5". The inside pages are various sized with most of them being just short of the 5x5" cover to fit in nicely. The Tin man was looking at me funny when he noticed that it had all kinds of sizes of pages but he kept his comments to himself!
Once I had the first one done and the mess was on the table I couldn't stop and made 2 more books. I bound them together with the Bind-it-all and even used small pieces of the wire binding that I had from other projects. You can't tell that it's not one continuous wire once it's all together.
The only down side is it really didn't make much of a dent in my scrap paper pile. I guess I really do have to do some purging!
This was my first book. It's my usual colours and patterns that's all me.
My second and third books I tried to use colours and patterns that I wouldn't usually use, but I tried to keep the pages flowing with a bit of a colour theme.
Once I get going with something like this I think wow, I can sell these and keep going and then I look at the clock and realize how long these take to put together. You just can never get your money out of some thing can you! Oh well I enjoyed doing them and will probably have fun using them too.
Do you keep a daily to do book or organizer to keep you going? If you do let me know about it. What do you use how do you use it?
Happy Creating!
Wendy
