A simple, all occasion gift for only $1.65!

Perfect for Christmas, birthdays, new moms, baptisms, and more!  These are the softest journals you will ever find!  They are made out of baby blanket fabric called minky dot.  It comes in a variety of COLORs, feels as soft as rabbit fur, and doesn't fray. I love the raised polka dots.   I just made 15 of these in under an hour to give to our young women at church.  I wanted them to have something soft and special to record their spiritual impressions in.



You will need the above materials, except you may want to use a hot glue gun in addition to, or instead of the fabric glue.  The composition notebooks cost $1 at the Dollar Tree, and I used a 40% off coupon for the fabric at Hobby Lobby (JoAnns has it too).  I made 15 journals out of just over 1 yard of fabric!  You may already have some fabric at home that you can use.

You can experiment with a variety of fabrics, but make sure that you use something somewhat plush but not too thick so the glue will stick (no thicker than 1/8") and not too thin so that the glue won't bleed through the fabric. Printed fabrics would probably work better than solid colors.

Cut grosgrain fabric (I already had some that I picked up at Walmart long ago~you can find it by the yard at the fabric store also) into 8" strips. (2 for each journal)  Hot glue about 1/2" of the ribbon onto the top of the notebook in the center.



Turn it over, and do the same on the back, matching up the ribbons.  Snip the remaining ends of the ribbon at an angle to keep them from fraying.



Turn the fabric to the wrong side. "Squiggle" fabric glue or hot glue over one side of the notebook,



and place it face down on the fabric with the edge of the notebook against the edge of the fabric.  (you want the book binding to be in the middle of the fabric so that you can fold the notebook over).



Next "squiggle" glue all over this side of the notebook,



And fold it over to adhere it to the fabric.  You can see below that the binding of the book is on the fold of of the fabric at the bottom of the picture.



Let it dry, and then cut the fabric evenly around the notebook.  Add a dab of hot glue to each corner (peel back the fabric a bit) to reinforce.  Then tie the ribbon in a bow!

You can make up a bunch of these to have on hand for when you need one.  You can give them to people who are ill, or children in hospitals. How about making some in bright colors to give as party favors?!  Do you have any more ideas?