Puzzle Journal

I love putting puzzles together, but then when I'm done, I don't want to destroy it and put in back in the box, I want to look at it! So I decided to use it as a journal cover!

Materials and Tools
Puzzle (on hand or a $1 at the dollar tree)
Puzzle Glue and applicator ($3.90 with 40% coupon)
Paper ($1 or on hand)
Craft Glue (on hand)
Clothespins
Xacto Knife

Instructions:
1) Put your puzzle together!
2) Follow the instruction on your bottle of puzzle glue to glue the puzzle pieces together. Let dry. I glued on both sides of the puzzle.

3) Once the puzzle has dried, cut out the size you want your journal to be using an Xacto knife. If you have precut paper, then measure to the size of that. You'll want to cut out three pieces total, the front, back and spine. You might be able to cut out one big piece and then score the lines for the spine, I did not think of that until just now. If you decide to try to score, you would just score on the picture side of the puzzle and bend it closed.

4) Next, glue a piece of paper to the board so that it mostly covers all of it when it's laid flat open with maybe 1/4 inch left around the edges.

5) Now it's time to glue the paper together. I used some left over packaging paper and some old newspaper puzzles that I never got around to doing. Take your stack of paper and line up the edges. Depending on the size of your stack, you can either glue it all at once or separate into different stacks. Take your clothespins and clamp them on the sides and on the edge. Take your craft glue and glue down your spine, spreading with the tip as you go. Let dry.

6) Once all of your stacks are dried, it's time to glue them to the cover! Take your craft glue and squiggle a line of glue down the spine of the cover. Then place your stacks with the edges lined up onto the spine of the journal. Keep the cover opened and place two large objects on either side of the filler paper to keep it upright while it dries. I let mine dry overnight.

And here you have your finished product!