During my ‘parenting’ years, I relished the time when I could read just one book. I generally read it in a weekend, staying up late at night to get it done. In those years, it was basically one author I knew I would enjoy…Mary Higgins Clark. :) This was before the internet and digital books, so word of mouth and money were part of the picking process.

But a few years back, when I was in the midst of having a ‘break down’ from working all the time (downside of being self employed), I decided I needed to take more time for myself.

I started to crochet, which was pretty new to me…and I started reading. I renewed my library card, got the Libby (Overdrive then) and Kindle apps and broadened my reading horizons, What a joy that was! I first found Mariana, written by Susannah Kearsley, and proceeded to read all her books. Shadowy Horses is my favorite. But if you read that, read The Winter Sea and then read Firebird. They all intertwine, which is kind of fun. Also, when I asked the KBS peeps for recommendations, Louise Penny and her Inspector Gamache series was suggested. Love those books too!

Anyway, I digress. haha

My point is, I love reading and have made a few book-themed stamps over the years. This year’s rendition? Book Lover. It has lots of fun designs to help document your reading journey. And Nancy has done just that here today. She did a fabulous job at using the stamps here, especially the book label! And the way she used so many other stamps, like the “No. 004” from This Is A Date at the bottom to number the books she’s read is just marvelous. This is just all sorts of fun and I swoon.

 

 

The minute I saw the new Book Lover stamp set, I thought “this would be perfect for creating a book journal”. I love to read, craft and document – a reading journal is a combination of some of my favorite things.

I wanted to follow a design formula so that creating these pages would be quick and easy. I started with a 3×4 photo of my book cover downloaded from the internet and the index card book stamp as a base.  Then I used a book icon stamp from the Book Nerd stamp set along the opposite side. Then I stamped a stack of titles and sentiments from the Book Lover stamp set making a few minor changes at the bottom of the column.

To add color I stamped the “Book of the Month” title in a coordinating color. I also used the “dot” from an alpha stamp set to fill in the checklists. You can also do this with colored pencils.  At the very bottom of the page I used  the arrows from the Time to Fly stamp set, followed by “page turner” from Book Lover and the “No. and triple digit number” from the This Is A Date stamp set. I love that the pages are numbered and it’s a repeated design for all of the pages.

 

 

At the very top, I used the month “Jan”, strip of numbers and “there’s a story here” from the Time Will Tell stamp set. I used stickers and washi tape that coordinated with the book covers to add a pop of color to the pages. I love that this completely stamped template makes documenting in my reading journal a project that I can easily create and keep up with!

Here’s another example of more pages made with the same template: