DIY: Little book of inspiration

In my February favorites, I listed a standard looking notebook. However, that standard looking notebook is anything but. It started it’s life as such, but I turned it into my own, personal, little book of inspiration. I got the idea after making a moodboard in December. I enjoyed doing that so much, that I was looking for other ways to let my creative juices flow. Enter a big stack of old magazines, a list of quotes that I’ve been gathering since highschool and my non-existent drawing skills and you have me and what tickles my fancy, all together in one neat little spot. This is what it looks like.

Notebook from Hema (cost: 3.50)

It started with this notebook. I picked up not knowing what to do with it. I thought the inside looked fun and on the side of the pages the words: write, create, remember, think, note are written down. My first step was to put in some quotes that I like and to make lists of books I read last years, that I want to read, concerts I went to in the past and the like. Then I started going through magazines and made some pages with shoes, make up looks, fashion, and any other picture that I deemed pretty or inspirational. I spent a couple of Saturdays alternating that process and by now it is almost full. Almost, as I want to keep a few pages empty and fill them up in due time. Let me show you some pages so you get the idea.

Inside cover

I simply colored the inside cover. The drawings and words were already there. Just to liven things up a bit. This was the first thing I did.

Intro page

The first page that has anything on it, is my statement of purpose. I definitely tried my hand at writing in cursive again, which is a lot harder than you may think.

Quotes

Like I said, the first thing I did, is write down quotes. I have been gathering quotes since I was a teenager so I had plenty to choose from. I used different colors and decorations for each one. I then used the opposite page to stick any picture I came across in my magazines. I love the model’s hair color, sunglasses and lipstick in that picture and I love flowers so when I found a page filled with them I knew they’d look nice.

Lists

Another thing I did is write down lists. Some of them very personal, like things I think I am good at or suck at, but also which books I’ve read and bands I saw. The runway pictures just struck me because of the lighting and the one pop of red. And well Rob Pattinson needs no explanation now does he? (He’s the only man in the entire booklet haha)

Lyrics, travel, words and motivation

Music has been a constant in my life and I decided to also write down lyrics to some of my favorite songs in here. Above you see lyrics by Snow Patrol and Carrie Underwood. I also ended up cutting out pictures of the most gorgeous locations around the glove. I love to travel and these pictures help me to remember that. The page with all the little smiley faces was a spur of the moment thing. I found the stickers in a drawer and decided to stick them in here. I don’t know about you, but that one page right there instantly puts a smile on my face.

Pretty pictures, shoes, dance & more quotes

Another thing I did was stick in what I would call ‘pretty pictures’. Any picture of which I simply liked the color, look or feel went into the booklet. And this booklet wouldn’t be Maaike-proof if it didn’t have a few pages devoted to shoes. I have several in here. Not necessarily a wishlist of sorts, but just pretty shoes that I like. Dancing has been my hobby since I was 6 so it’s a major part of me. I don’t do ballet, but I love pictures of strong dancers making beautiful shapes. And more quotes. I had so many that I couldn’t devote an entire page to each one, so I bunched a few together on a page like shown above.

Fashion and make up inspiration

One major thing I stuck on my moodboard were inspirational pictures of fashion and make up looks. So I translated that to my little booklet too. The first picture is simply fashion inspiration: outfits I like. The second features only dresses. I love me a dress! Last but not least, some make up looks, mainly eye make up, but I also make a page with lipsticks, and full blown editorial pictures also made the cut.

And that’s it! My little book of inspiration. I am currently working on decorating it a bit more, as some of the pages are a bit boring. But I like how it came out and I love sitting around and just browsing through it. I am also incorporating some more quotes and song lyrics and if I find a pictures that makes me go: oooh I need to keep that, it will go in here too. The posts its you can see on some of the pages are also from HEMA by the way, just like the notebook.

I hoped you liked this look into my little book of inspiration and I hope it inspires you to create your own.