making a writing journal

 I decided I needed to have a writing journal for Billy, since I don't want more loose pieces of paper around.  I remembered making journals for my students way back, so I took that idea and tweaked it.  Here is what I did:  I used Microsoft Word to create a journal cover and printed it on orange cardstock paper I had.

 Then I printed out 20 pages of the story paper I found on Printable Paper.

I then took out our best Freecycle find, the Ibimaster 300 binding machine, and punched the holes in the pages,

 bound them together with one of these Staples binding combs,

 

 and here is the final product!  I'm quite happy with the results as it looks nice,

and lays flat for use of the whole page, without having to fold the paper (as I did when I taught second grade, since I had to staple them to bind the journal).  You could staple these journals too, or email me and come use my binding system :)  Really,  I will share my freebies!