12 Crafts of Christmas {You & Me Books}

When Carter and Lydia were little-little, I wrote monthly letters to them.
(Unfortunately, I haven’t kept that up with that.)

When they got a little older, I had books that I made called:
“The World According to Carter” (or Lydia, as the case may be).
Whenever they would say something amusing or interesting, I’d jot it down in there.

(I’ve done neither for Asa or Anna Alden.
I have scraps of paper shoved in a box with notes.
That has to count for something, right?)

And then somewhere out on the wild, wild web I saw an idea that I loved:
A mom talked about starting a shared journal with her teenage daughter.
Things they couldn’t say a loud somehow managed to find its way into the notebook.
When I saw that I decided to tuck that away into my memory bank for ‘someday’.

That is…until last week.
I was cleaning out a big box of papers that all belonged to my children.
Mixed in with the lists of sight words and hoot owl art work,
I found hundreds upon hundreds of little slips of paper.
Most of them said To: (Insert Family Member’s Name Here)

My children, like most children, love to create masterpieces and do.not. want to throw anything away.
I want to keep some of their art, but oh, my!  That’s a looooot of paper!
So while I was sitting in the middle of the floor and sorting papers,
I decided it would be nice to have one spot for all this.

And I remembered the mother-daughter notebook.
I could make a notebook for each child and they could write or draw in it to me.
And I, too, could write or draw in it to them.

So I picked up some composition notebooks, pulled out my scrapbook paper and mod podge and got to work!

I had a 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper that wouldn’t cover the front and the back, but I wanted to cover the spine, too.
So I cut it so that the top is completely covered and the back is partially covered(seen below).
Then I cut it out, slapped down a layer of mod podge(you could probably use regular glue) and smoothed out the paper.

I wanted to label my book, so I used some scrapbook stickers to spell out “mommy & me”.
But the letters were blending in a little too much with the paper so I outlined them with a fine tipped black sharpie.

And then because my Lydia is the Bling Queen, I decided to add some jewels.
All I did was hot glue them on (and burn my finger tip once).

I can’t wait to see what stories will be told and pictures will be drawn.
I am so excited about this idea!

And I’m actually considering making a few for some friends, too.
You could mail it back and forth…like old-fashioned pen pals!  🙂
(It’s cheesy, but you know you love it, too.)

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12 Crafts of Christmas 2011
1. Personalized Necklaces
2. Button and Lego Wall Art
3. Personalized ClipBoards
4. Fabric Covered Wire(Wall Art) 
5. Stationary
6. You & Me Books
7. Personalized Welcome Mat
8. Personalized Dessert Carrier
9. Kid’s Artwork Cup
10. Ornaments
11. Sewing Tutorials
12. Photo Display Block