making journals

Congratulations, you have purchased a journal or signed up for a free one! Read on to find out how to use your download. In this post, the examples you will see are from my Winter Joy journal. When you get a journal, you will see your download links at the bottom of your purchase confirmation, like in the image below. Most Memorable Journals have more than one file per journal set. You will see three files with clickable blue links in the Winter Joy journal as pictured in the example below. One file consists of the cover and pattern pages. In the second file, you will find fun journaling pages. The last one is for journal cards for you to cut up.

Now you are ready to download your journal! Once you click on the links, you should see your files wherever your downloads typically show up. The PDFs you downloaded look like what you will see below.

Now for the fun part, printing out your pages! I have written a detailed post about printer settings which you can find here. Your printer will likely be different from mine, but I will go over what settings to use to print out your journal successfully!

The four main things to remember are:

• Be sure to indicate which page(s) in the PDF set you want to print. I often forget to do this and print all of the pages at once when I just wanted to print up one page. Typically, you will want to print your cover page on cardstock, so you will want to print just page 1, not all pages in the set all at once. Then put the printed cover page back in the printer to print the other side with any page of your choosing.
• You want to control what goes on the back of the pages you print, so always make sure the two-sided printing option is NOT checked.
• You may not need this setting for your printer, but for mine, I use the fine print setting to avoid those “lines” running through the paper. I only use this for designs where the lines would be obvious.
• If you have a borderless printer, check that setting only for patterns (repeating designs).

Here’s a video that shows how I use my printer to print both sides of my Winter Joy cover. Printers do differ on whether it prints on the top or bottom (or left or right!) of the paper placed in the printer.

[purchase_link id=”3029″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Winter Joy journal”]

If you would like to know more about printing up your Memorable Journals pages, here’s another post: How to Print Your Scrapbook Pages.

Here’s a post about the stapler I use: This Stapler Changed my Scrapbooking Life!

Once you staple your journal together, you are all set! Now gather your pens and your photos and fill up your journal!

I want everyone who downloads Memorable Journals sets to have a successful experience in putting together memorable journals! 🙂 If you have an Hewlett Packard (HP) Envy printer, the settings you see here should be similar enough for you to follow along. If you have a different kind of printer, hopefully, the following information will be enough for you to figure out what you need to consider to print up your journal pages. (This is the desktop version, as I find it so much easier to print from there. Also, there are more options when using your desktop or laptop computer.)

My paper recommendations are HERE.

If you don’t have THE STAPLER yet, go ahead and print out your journal pages now. When your stapler arrives from Amazon, you will be all ready! I have written a whole blog post about this stapler which you can find here.

Okay, now time to get printing!

First, make sure to click on Show Details (on the left side on the bottom) so that it says Hide Details as shown in the photos below:

I use the fine printing setting under presets. Otherwise, I might get those annoying lines.

Make sure that the Two-Sided option is NOT checked! (I can’t tell you how many times I forget to do this!) If this is on, my printer prints the other side of my PDFs upside down…ugh! Besides, you will have more control over what is on the other side of your pages.

Check the Print Entire Image. Otherwise, the edges may be cut off.

For my printer, I have to remember that the PDFs (all Memorable Journals sets are in PDFs) print in a different direction than other kinds of documents like JPEGs.

Something else you need to remember is to specify which pages you want to print. Often I end up printing more pages than I intended to because I forgot to set the specific page number or page range that I want. Also of note is that the last page prints first, at least in my printer. Like I mentioned, PDFs in my printer prints up differently than other kinds of documents. I’m curious if that is true for all printers? Let me know in the comments below!

Below are instructions if you have the borderless option available and want to use it:

The borderless setting is optional and only to be used for the covers and patterned pages. Above where it says Paper Size is where you can choose between US Letter or US Letter Borderless. For my cover and pattern on the backside, I choose the borderless setting. Not all printers have the borderless option, and that is okay. Your pages will have a white border around the edges if you don’t have the borderless option or choose not to use it.

With all the journals I print out and make, I have made some “mistakes” in printing out my pages. Those pages make for great scrap paper to use for making lists!

The journal pages shown in the above photos are from Sweet Christmas journal available here in my shop.

I would love to know if you have any questions or other printing tips to share. Leave a comment below! Once you get in the habit of easily printing up the pages, creating memorable scrapbooks and journals will be a breeze! Imagine what wonderful keepsakes you will actually create for your family. You can easily print up extras for gifts for the grandparents…they would absolutely love the gift of seeing your family photos and your children’s handwriting!

I’ve never counted how many journals I’ve made so far, but I’m pretty sure there are at least 100! This “right triangle” (if I recall my geometry correctly) pocket style is my absolute favorite to use. From experience, I know that this style is the most secure and holds quite a bit. Sure I have seen tutorials about gluing your pockets to your pages, but sewing them makes more sense to me.

Here’s an example of a hand-sewn pocket that is secure and can hold lots of photos and journaling cards. This particular journal is Crater Lake National Park and is from the National Park series.

The directions apply for journals that are printed on US letter-sized paper and then folded…like all of the Memorable Journals sold in the shop. First, print up a page that you want your pocket design to be. Preferably on cardstock. Usually, I attach the pockets to the back of the outside cover (as shown above). You could certainly add pockets to other pages inside if you have lots of memorabilia to hold! Then cut as pictured below.

Now cut into right triangles. Be sure to cut at the correct angles as pictured below! If you are using a pattern that can be turned upside down, you would be able to use all four triangles rather than just two of them.

Position the two pockets for sewing. I recommend using paper clips.

Now sew along the three edges. While sewing along the edges, sew back and forth at the six places shown below to make the pockets secure!

Here’s a closeup.

Now you’re ready to add the inside pages and staple…have fun with your awesome journal!