Calendar Project Part 1

I don't often make new resolutions...or maybe I should rephrase that.  I don't usually stick to my New Year's Resolutions but nearly every year I resolve to keep a journal.  I never make it past the first week. I admire those people who keep those wonderful artsy journals but I just can't seem to make myself want to sit down and write on a daily basis.  I've even tried online daily journals...I thought typing it in would help.  Nope...gave up on that after about 2 weeks.  The only time I do adequate journaling is when I travel and it's mainly so I can remember what all I've seen and visited.
So what was my New Year's Resolution for 2012....why, "Keep a Journal", of course.  But this year I decided to do something differently.  I decided to make a little journal/calendar book.  It's not quite completed but I want to share with you how it's coming along.
The first thing I did was get 2 sheets of medium weight chipboard and cut them both at 9 3/4 inches by 7 1/2 inches:

I bought this chipboard from JoAnn.com a while back.  It comes in 12x12 sheets and in a pack of about 50 (or maybe it's 25...not sure about that).  It's a nice weight chipboard and perfect for mini book covers.  And that's what my two pieces were for...a front cover and a back cover.
Next I created a calendar page in Photoshop Elements.  My friend, Paula, helped me do this...I tweaked it a little and was happy with the result.  The large rectangle on the left is 4 inches wide by 6 inches long so will be the perfect size for a photo. 

I printed them out on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets...this is how they looked trimmed down.  I wanted the left margin to be a bit wider than the right for the binding.  Some were printed out front and back and some were just printed out on one side only.  I planned how my months would be laid out.
Here they are as I was trimming them:

 I made sure that the fronts and backs were aligned perfectly so that there would be uniformity.
I used DCWV papers to cover the chipboard covers:

And some papers for the inside covers:

 Then I covered slightly smaller sheets of cardstock with paper and put tabs on each.  The tabs were cut out with Spellbinders dies and the months were stamped with Close to My Heart stamps.

Then I stamped little monthly calendars and attached those to the corresponding tab page:

I haven't added much other embellishments yet....I really don't want the pages to get really thick so I'm not sure if I'll add more or not. 
I bound the book using my Cinch...you can see the binding here, too and I also put a little pocket page on the inside cover in case there is something I want to stash in there (!):

 And yes, I have done 2 days of "journaling".  That's better than I usually do! HAHA!

I still need to finish frou frouing up the cover.
That will have to wait...today was the big ol" TAKE DOWN THE DECORATIONS DAY so have spent a good part of my day putting things away.  And that part is almost done!

Happy Crafting!