calendar journal

i've been wanting to start a personal journal for a very long time. for one reason or another it just never happened.  i think one reason may have been i felt intimidated about where to start.  but recently i was intrigued by a friend's calendar journal.  kate ( aka the kathrynwheel) was doing a calendar challenge.  the more i thought about it, the more i felt this would be a great place to start.  the blocks of the calendar were small and you only needed to add a picture or a word or two if that's all you wanted.  i felt i could do that in a very manageable way.  another friend of mine, deborah (aka thelandofnodstudio) had sent me some old books to alter. i thought one of those would make a great cover for my journal. i gutted the book and used the spine to sew in my signatures that i had painted with watercolors and then added some rubberstamping.  i will doodle on them and alter them with collage images as time goes on.  i didn't want to alter the cover of the book too much because i just wanted to honor the old book.  i put a label over the title area of the book on the front cover and added book binding tape to cover the stitching to secure my calendar pages. i use scrapbook paper to cover the inside of the front and back covers.  i hope you are inspired to try this too!