Random Journal Pages

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

It's Maryam here again this week and I thought I'd share with you some random pages from my journal.

Hanifah made me this journal a couple years ago, and I use it as a Qur'an/Dua'a/Hadith journal. I have shared some pages before but I've recently added a few more spreads, or "half" spreads, to my collection so I hope you like them, insha'Allah!

(You can click on the pictures for a closer look)

I hope you liked looking through the pages and that you feel inspired to pick up a pen, or set of colours, and put them to work on a blank piece of paper.

Until next time, insha'Allah.

Love,

Maryam



Our Mum's Journal

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

We hope you are all well and are enjoying your Ramadan, insha'Allah. In today's post we will be showing you some photos from our mum's handmade journal. She made it and started using it some time before Ramadan, and has done quite a bit of journaling in it so far, masha'Allah!

Here is the front cover.

The spine of the journal. As you can see from the binding, there are three journal inserts inside.

Here is the first page.

Here is another colourful page. Our mum added a lot of artwork to make her journal very interesting and fun, masha'Allah.

We really like the black and white pages too, masha'Allah!

There is a section which is incomplete at the moment, but will insha'Allah have all the ninety-nine names of Allah.

A couple more pages.

Here is the back of the journal.

Well, that's all we have to show you. We hope you liked it and have perhaps drawn some inspiration from our mum's journaling too, insha'Allah!

We will be showing you some of our journaling this Ramadan soon, insha'Allah. Are you thinking of making a journal or looking for ways to improve an old one? Click here to see our post on five creative ideas to spice up your journal!

Take care and Wassalam,

DIY Ramadan Journal

Assalamu Alaikum!

We hope you are all having a peaceful and productive Ramadan, insha'Allah! In today's post, we will be showing you how Sumayyah made a Ramadan Journal with our mum's help.

For this craft you will need:-

Card

Patterned Paper

A4 Paper

Glue

Needle and Thread

Pencil

Ruler

Scissors

Binder Clips or Paper Clips

Awl

Step 1. To make your journal cover, fold a large piece of card in half.

Step 2. Then take some patterned paper and cover the front of the journal with it.

Step 3. Next you will need to fold some A4 sheets of paper in half. These will be the pages inside your journal - make sure that your journal cover is big enough to fit them!

Step 4. Place the pages inside your journal cover and secure in place with binder clips.

Step 5. Make eleven evenly-spaced marks down the middle of the book. Sumayyah's were around 2cm apart and she left 1cm off the top and bottom. Hopefully the photo explains better.

Step 6. Now take your awl (or some other sharp object) and poke holes through the pages. Make sure they come out neatly (on the other side) along the spine of the journal.

Step 7. Once you've made your holes, it's time to bind the journal. Thread your needle and begin sewing.

Step 8. Bind your journal however you like. If you don't know how to and find it hard, follow this simple tutorial and ignore Step 5 about making 11 holes.

Step 9. If you use 11 holes then the end result should look like the photo below, insha'Allah. If you only use 3 then it will look like it did in the YouTube video.

Step 10. Then all that is left is for you to decorate the cover of your journal and you are done!

If you liked this DIY then you might also like this other journal making post we did a while ago. Take care and we will see you soon, insha'Allah!

Love and Wassalam,



Handmade Eid Gifts 2019

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

We hope you all had a wonderful Eid, insha'Allah. In today's post we will be showing you some of the handmade gifts that we made and received this year. We did a similar post last Eid-ul-Fitr and the purpose of these posts is to provide you with inspiration for gifts that you too might be able to make, insha'Allah.

Let's start with the gifts Sumayyah made for our parents. She embroidered onto these mini canvases and they turned out very cute, masha'Allah!

Our parents really liked them and it is such a simple craft that anyone can easily recreate. Sumayyah made some other handmade gifts, one of them being this original story which she wrote and illustrated for Zainab.

She doesn't want us to share too much about the story because she is an aspiring writer and doesn't want to get plagiarised! 😉 This is another example of an easy gift you can make, especially if you like writing your own stories and poems.

If story writing isn't your cup of tea, however, then perhaps something else might be - such as baking. Hanifah and Maryam nearly always bake something for our dad. This Eid Hanifah made him ginger biscuits (to have with coffee) and Maryam made him shortbread biscuits (to have with tea).

And there are plenty of them so of course he was pleased, alhamdulillah! We have already shared this ginger biscuits recipe (along with a vegan version) and you can click here to see them both. Insha'Allah, someday Maryam will share her shortbread biscuits recipe on the blog too.

The last handmade gift we have to show you is actually one our mother made for Hanifah. It is a crocheted blanket which she had been working on for a while.

Hanifah had seen the blanket being made and actually chose the colour palette herself. However, she didn't know it had been completed and so it was a nice surprise, masha'Allah.

Handmade presents are unique and personal. Some can be whipped up in a couple of hours and others can take weeks or even months to be completed. We don't remember if we've mentioned it before, but we only exchange gifts on Eid-ul-Fitr. It's a bit of a tradition in our family that, on Eid-ul-Adha, the Adhiyah itself is the gift.

Well, that's all for this post. See you next Friday, insha'Allah.

Love and Wassalam,