Recently a few of my Mom's friends from America came to China to lead a woman's retreat and brought some special craft supplies to make journals.  They, generously, gave the left over supplies to my Mom when they were getting ready to return to America.  So, one night Rachel and decided that we'd try it out!  We had already previously received scrap booking paper from another friend that we also used to make these journals.  We bought small spiral notebooks to start out with.  Then we cut two pieced of paper to cover the front and the back covers.  Then we took a thin ribbon and tied it to the top ring of the spiral notebook, as a bookmark.  After that we used different paper, cut into a strip about 2 inches wide, and glued it so that it folded over the spiral part of the note book.   For a finishing touch we glued a ribbon over the line where the two papers overlapped.  This simple process turns a boring spiral notebook into a beautiful journal in just less than 30 minutes and costs a lot less then one you would buy at your local book store.  I had so much fun making them and I was so pleased with the end result!