About a month ago, I made myself a diy fauxdori. For those of you that aren’t familiar with this term, it’s a fake (faux) Midori Traveler’s Notebook. The originals are expensive and made of leather. I didn’t have any leather, nor did I want to invest in any to begin with. I needed a trial run on the notebook style itself. I adore it! But I will continue using my fauxdori until it has fallen apart and then I’ll just make another instead of investing in leather..   Of course, after making one, I desperately needed writing guides that suited me! Ray Blake has a great writing guide, but this notebook isn’t just about writing for me… So I designed my own..

Because I am a fan of the Chronodex system by Patrick Ng, I printed one off using this blank (with a few tweaks for color and the hours I need and use!) onto a grid background to use under each page that I wanted to draw a Chronodex onto and of course I have the grid to use if I want.. One need that never changes is my mandala drawing. So instead of regular journaling, I intended for one of my books inside the fauxdori to be a place to center myself daily. I draw my mandala and beneath I can write about the things I focused on while drawing. Sometimes there are no thoughts, or the thoughts are few and far between… so there isn’t always a lot to say..   Originally, I had another guide that had the page sectioned off into 7 sections to use for a short notes placement and then a bunch of shapes on the back side to use for mind mapping my projects. I’ve sinced just combined the both and use the mind mapping type of organization for weekly planning.This is a photo of the inside of my fauxdori. I adored the bright pink shiny wood grain paper! I did learn after a month or so of use that the hole reinforcement tabs are completely useless lol. But I was afraid some needed strength would be handy there.  One month ago yesterday, I began the mandalas in the second book. Unlike my sketchbook, I keep a pack of Crayola PipSqueaks Skinnies in the back of my kitsdori that just happen to be the perfect size! Sometimes I color a bit here and there just for fun!  Here are some more pages…    The one thing I know, is that I adore this notebook… I’m so thankful I ran across a tutorial on them and even more thankful I followed links to learn what exactly this thing is.. Here is the tutorials that I used in the making of my own…

1. MyLifeAllInOnePlace.Com – Ray Blake has a fantastic tutorial and set of additional pages that help you print your diy fauxdori inserts and all. I put together blank books and printed two guides to lay beneath the page so that I could change my use of the notebook at the drop of a hat!

2. Jennifer from Sea Lemon – This girl! Her video for a diy fauxdori is informative and easy to follow! I used it to make my cover and all of the covers for the ones I made for the girls in my family!