Journal Cards: My New Favorite Thing

Over the past week or two, I've been making something that I am calling "journal cards." 

At their base is regular off-white cardstock.  On top are three layers of different papers--musical scores, foreign language text pages, dictionary entries, and/or decorative papers. 

These four layers are then stitched on my sewing machine, usually using either a zigzag or honeycomb stitch in a thread color that highlights the papers in some way.

You can "flip" through the pages, and find areas to write and draw in to personalize a message for your recipient.

These little babies are my new favorite thing!

They have everything I love--interesting papers, the effect of a collage, stitching.  Delicious!

I call them journal cards because in my vision, a person would not only write a message, but attach a photo or include a quotation or add some interesting hand lettering or an excerpt of text they want to share.  The multiple pages allow it to be so much more than just a card.

I am curious as to how broad their appeal might be.  Maybe it's a little too quirky for some, or people might wonder how they are supposed to fill up all the space.  For anyone who likes to keep a journal--especially an art journal--I think it would be pretty simple to dream up ways to personalize them.

So, now here is confession time:  The idea for these cards came from a listing I saw on Etsy not long ago. 

I was browsing the "paper goods" section, just enjoying the sights.  Later that same day, I made my first journal cards.  After I made them, I wondered how close they came out to the Etsy listing that had inspired them in my mind.

I spent three days, going through thousands of Etsy listings, and could never track down the original source of my inspiration. 

If you run across something similar to these, please let me know.  I have no idea in retrospect what the seller called her version of these, or whether mine look just like hers or completely different.  I just know that after browsing through various projects, the thing that stuck in my head led to my new favorite thing!

Why did I make so many of these journal cards?  Well, that announcement will need to wait for another post...