Spend Time Creating: Some Music Therapy Things and Some Things Just for Me

Spend Time Creating: Watercolor swirls in pastel colors in the background. Text includes the following: “#MusicTherapyMaker,” “Saturdays at musictxandme.blogspot.com,” and the website URL: www.musictherapyworks.com.
I have just had an epiphany about something that has been churning around in the back of my mind for a long time.

I want to make myself a junk journal to use.

Now, if you read this blog regularly, you know that one of the things that I love doing (that is not music therapy) is making books from scratch. I have made a bunch of books and have either sent them out to friends (let me know if you want one!) or listed them on Etsy (where they do not sell). I like making books, but I don't really use them as my planners or things like that. I made one last March when I was at home with my Mom and my Sister, and I am using that one as a trip journal. It has been really fun to add things to that book, so I am thinking about making another one for me to use.

I just came up with the theme for this junk journal about three minutes ago and just before I started to write this post. I decided I would make this journal on the theme of "Things I Love."

So, something else that you probably know about me from all of my posts over the years is that I love things that other people don't. Since I am a middle-aged woman, I am embracing the things that I love and enjoying them greatly. I am spending money on the stuff that piques my fancy (within reason). I have a bunch of cheap, little Disney figurines that I have purchased displayed on one of my walls in my office. I have small boxes with mini brand toys in my hallway. I have Star Wars stuff all over my house. I collect movies and books and instruments and things that make me laugh.

I have decided that this next junk journal is going to be dedicated to the things that I love. I can put in different things as they occur to me. I can add all the tucks and pages and Disney pictures and stuff that I want to without feeling guilty about things. It will be my pleasure, and there is no hurry to fill it up. It can be a mish-mash of things with no particular order or index.

I am working on some file folder/binder pages for some sequencing songs. I am making one for "B-A-Bay" and adapting some for animal songs and other familiar songs to use for sequencing purposes. I am looking forward to getting my five visual aids finished so my five sequencing TMEs will be done and in my database!

I think I will make full page visuals for ease of printing and making folders for my music therapy sessions. I will also make versions where clients can move pieces, make choices, and then see the completed or original songs. I also like to make black and white and color versions of my folders because not everyone has a color printer available to use or make things. I get to sort through my purchased clip-art to find the pictures that I want for my song versions. That is always fun.

Today will be reserved for creating... something or the other. I am still not released from my finger injury, so I will not be able to do all the junk journaling creation that I want to do, but I can get things started.

The best part about making books is finding the best papers and cover combinations. I will be adding some of the expensive paper that I bought for my thesis publications as the pages. When I am making a journal for myself, I get to indulge in all the colors and patterns that I love. This will probably end up being a rainbow colored journal because I love the colors of the rainbow (in rainbow color order, of course). I will have a red signature, an orange signature - well, you get the gist. All I have to do now is figure out how big I want this to be.

The easiest size to make a book (here in the US, using US paper) is 5.5 inches in width and 8:5 inches in height. I can take regular copy paper and fold it in half like a cheeseburger (little kids know that terminology) and pop those folded sheets into my covers. No cutting required. I will take pictures when it is all finished, but here is what my trip junk journal looks like...


**By the way, I am REALLY serious about sending people the journals that I have made but am not using. I currently have six sitting on my shelf just waiting for someone to ask for them! All I ask is that you cover shipping costs (about $5 USD). and I'll send it to you! Here are some of the journals...







If you are interested in something, let me know and I will send you pictures of everything that I have available.

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