How I Create: Designing the Interior

     About five years ago I had this fabulous journal that I toted with me everywhere.  What made it so fabulous was how each page was a little different.  There was a wee little jumping frog on the side, so if you flipped through the pages you'd see him jump up and down a few times--so fun!
     I looked forward to seeing what would be on the next page--and I was quickly hooked on that experience!  I came to the end of that journal and daydreamed of how I could make something kind of like that.  Not the same exact thing, but a journal that would include some of my favorite quotes, as well as keep the variety of blank, gridded, and lined pages.
     When I first started, I was a broke grad student, so no fancy layout programs for me!  I used what was on my computer, which in my case is "Word."  I decided on a size that appealed to me (smallish, so I can put it in my purse), a finished product of 5"x7".  So on my Word document (in landscape layout) I made sure to keep my designs within a 7" x 10".  I like to keep an approximate border of about 1/4" on all four sides (within the 7"x10").

     This is an image where I put guidelines on my pages to I have a good idea where my parameters are.  As you can see, my designs are gray (40%), which allows users to write so their work isn't overshadowed by my text.
      Because I print front and back, I create a new document with side margins that are flipped from the original.  Above, you see the page has a one inch margin on the right, and below the margin is on the left:

     Hey presto!  That's how I go about designing my journal pages!  The rest of it is just being creative in laying out boxes, lines, quotes, and so forth.  Now you can give it a shot.  Let me know how it goes, and if you have questions, feel free to ask!

~Timmery