Just Finished an Altered Journal for Family Member

Hi! I just finished a great blank journal for my brother-in-law! He loves the out-of-doors, camping, and taught biology. So adding elements of plants, etc. is what the book includes. I started with an

old receipe book that I covered with papers representing stones in water, burlap, and also torn pieces of wallpaper samples with plants. Before covering the book, I created a peek-through so that I could add a saying in the window on the front endpaper on the right. After covering the book, I used a square of black plastic screen to make the view more interesting through the square I cutout. I also added pockets inside to hold memorabilia. On those pages I used a brown ink to give it a weathered look and added rubber stamping of plants and flowers. I also did hole-punching at the top and bottom of the pockets which were then laced with a white cording. I noticed that the book had sections of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter receipes and so I used the title pages as dividers for the book for journaling, separating the sections with a tag that extents beyond the book page as a tab for each section. I cut out pages in each section about an inch from the binding and then added blank linen paper pages for journaling by glueing each linen page between two cut pages.

In the back of the book, I added another set of pockets in a vertical formation across two pages with eyelets to secure them in place. This adds another area for keeping memorabilia. Because of the option to keep memorabilia in certain pages I decided to use a length of jute threaded through an eyelet on the edge of the front and back covers that allows the user to tie the jute in a bow to secure those pieces in the book that might be placed in the pockets. Above on the right is an open section of the book showing the pockets and the tabs. What do you think?