Making a Diary From Scratch
Gather paper for the pages. Select the type and size of paper you’d like to use for the pages you’ll write on in your diary. Use simple printer paper, colored paper, scrapbook paper, or any other lined or unlined style of your choosing. For a thinner diary or one with threaded binding, fold larger pieces in half and stack them inside one another so you have a set of several folded pages. Note that this will work best with 10 folded pieces of paper (called folios) or less, though you could attach several of these together. You may want to trim the outer edges of the paper when doing the folio method, as the inside folios will stick out further than the outer ones. For a thicker diary or one with a glued binding, keep a stack of paper flat with the edges lined up evenly.
Make a glued binding. Gather together a stack of paper that you want to use for the pages of your diary and make sure the edges are lined up evenly. Hold them together with binder clips and apply glue to the edge where you want the spine to be. Place scraps of paper under the binder clips to protect your paper from becoming indented or marked by them. Use a paintbrush or foam brush to apply a light layer of PVA or Elmer’s Glue to the edge of the stack you want to bind, where the spine of the diary will be. Let dry and apply more coats if necessary. Glue the bound edge of the paper to a cover made of heavy paper, cardstock, fabric, etc. Or, create a quick and easy spine with some colorful duct tape or similar heavy tape over the glued edge of the paper.
Make a threaded binding. Fold 10 pieces of paper or less in half and place them inside one another. Open up this stack, called a folio, to the inner fold to mark and pierce holes for threading the pages together. Make three marks evenly spaced along the fold for the holes. Use an awl meant for bookbinding to make the holes if you have one, or simply use a needle thick enough to pierce through the pages that you have. Cut linen thread or waxed string to at least four times the height of the paper you’re using. Using a needle, thread it through the middle hole to the inside of the fold, then out through the top hole. Then push it through the bottom hole to the inside of the fold, and out once more through the middle hole. With the excess string, tie a double knot over the thread that spans the two outer holes, then trim the excess. If you’d like to thread several folios together, thread them individually and tie them together with the excess thread in the center. Or secure them more firmly with a few extra “stitches” to hold them together at the top and bottom holes.
Create a cover. Wrap a piece of thicker paper, cardstock, fabric, or leather around your paper to create a durable front and back cover to keep the pages safe. You can also glue several pieces of paper together to create a cover that is thicker. Measure to cut the cover to the same size as your inner pages, or slightly larger (about ¼-½ inch, for example) if you wish. If you use one piece of material to wrap over the front and back sides of your diary, remember to account for the width of both sides, plus the width of the spine after gluing or threading. You may also want to add a couple of centimeters to the total, to account for any length lost when folding the material over the spine. If you bound your pages with thread, adding a cover is optional or may be done before threading. If you bound your pages with glue, you should glue the bound edge into the center of your cover where the spine will be.
Add a lock if you wish. Make a “secret diary” by adding a lock to your homemade notebook to prevent others without the key or combo from opening it. Do this by adding loops to the front and back cover that you can put a small toy lock through. Purchase a small toy lock that has a key or requires a combination to open. Make two small loops out of string, fabric, or even use metal jewelry fasteners to glue to the inside outer edge of both the front and back cover of the diary. Make sure whatever loops you use allow your lock to go through both of them and close securely. You can hide where you glue the loops to the covers by placing a piece of paper, fabric, or colorful tape over the area.
Decorating a Plain Notebook or Homemade Diary
Draw freeform lettering or designs. Decorate your diary with words or drawings in any way you like. Use pencils, pens, or markers to decorate both the cover and inner pages with your own designs. Try writing “My Diary,” your name, or another appropriate title on the front cover of your diary. You can also write “This diary belongs to:” on the first page and put down your name below it. Add page numbers, boarders, or other doodles on the corners and edges of your inner pages, leaving plenty of room in the middle of the pages for the writing entries you will do later. Note that this is an easy step to convert a plain notebook that you already have into a special diary.
Use stickers, paper, or stencils. Draw shapes and letters with stencils, add colorful paper, or stick on your favorite stickers to your diary to make it more unique. Decorate both the cover and the inner pages with whatever elements you like. Try writing a title on the cover of your diary with crisp lettering using a stencil. You can even create your own custom stencil online for any words or font you want. Easily create cover art that you love by cutting a piece of colored or patterned fabric or paper slightly larger than the cover of your diary. Then fold the material over the edges of the cover and glue in place with adhesive meant for paper or fabric, depending on what material you use.
Add photos and artwork. Glue a printed photo or your own artwork to the cover of your diary for a personal touch. You can even add a sheet of sticky laminating paper over the page you decorate in order to protect the art. Add a photo to your diary cover that illustrates the theme of your diary, if you have one. For example, you could attach a photo of your family or friends if you plan to write a lot about them, or a photo of a vacation locale for a diary all about your summer vacation. Create a collage of your own photos and artwork, or find images and art in magazines or other print sources that you or others don’t mind cutting up and gluing.
Writing in a Diary
Write the date. Start any diary entry by writing out the date. This can help you keep track of how often you write in it, and it can be fun to look back at a diary later to see what you wrote during a certain time period. Include the day of the week, the month, the day, and the year. You can even write down the exact time during the day, or the location you’re in while you’re writing if you want to include more detail. You can also give the heading of each entry a title, or a doodle unique to the day or nature of your entry.
Choose a format and content. Decide on how you’d like to write each entry in your diary. You can make the format more formal or casual, depending on your preference. You can choose to start every diary entry with the classic “Dear Diary…” as if you are addressing it to another person in the form of the diary. Or, you can set your own prompts to talk about each day, like “Today I saw…,” “Today I felt…,” or “Today I was grateful for…” Add a visual element to the content of your entries if you like. Tape or glue photos, concert tickets, or anything else that can lie flat on the page and relate to the day or events that you write about. You also are not required to have any special format to stick to for your diary entries. Let whatever you’re feeling or whatever comes to mind inspire the way you write in your diary each day.
Add entries regularly. Commit to filling up your diary with regular entries to make it a consistent practice. This can be a good thing to do if you want to focus on using a diary as a tool to vent, de-stress, analyze, or practice gratitude. Set reminders for yourself wherever you will see or check them the most, be it a physical calendar, a virtual calendar or reminders on your phone or computer, or a simple post-it note around the house. Set a goal of writing an entry every day, even if it’s only a sentence or two. Set aside a time, like first thing in the morning or right before bed, that’s easiest for you to sit down and write.
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