Day 8: Diary Cover

Today's idea for Day 8 is a diary cover. It seems to me that most diaries are just plain old ugly and are in need of a serious facelift, so that's just what I've done for my 2010 work diary. It was a horrendous maroon colour and was sort-of padded (very odd!), so I decided that it needed a makeover.  I used Jennifer Paganelli's Sally in Fuschia from her Pretty Please collection for the cover and teamed it up with some coordinating ribbon.

Now, there are a couple of ways to make a diary (or any book) cover. You can either make a pocket type like I've done, or you can get yourself some good craft glue and simply stick the fabric onto the outside. Either method is perfectly fine, but with the pocket type option you'll need to do some sewing. The advantage with this though is that your cover is removable, and you can add a few embellishments. For example, I added some ribbon, included a page marker (also from ribbon) and made a pocket on the front cover to slip my business card into (there's nothing like a bit of shameless self-promotion!).

If you go for the cut and stick option then you'll need to make sure that the outside of the diary is an ok surface to stick onto (i.e. this method probably won't work if you're trying to stick fabric to a shiny or plasticy surface), and you may still want to zig zag or somehow tidy the raw edges of your fabric, or else they may fray. Other than that, it's just like covering your school books in Duraseal.

So, if you know someone who loves to be organised, or someone who needs to be, why not give them a covered diary for Christmas and get their 2010 off to a gorgeous start.