Transforming Composition Books into Journals and Writing with Bic Atlantis® Pens

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of BIC® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I wanted to create some journals and writing books for my girls and myself for this upcoming year. They can use their new BIC Back-to-School pens to work on any kind of writing project in their new journals. We had so much fun transforming regular old composition books (saw them on sale for 10 cents this week at Staples, but you can always buy them at the dollar store) into adorable journals for their writing. The combination of their personalized, handmade choices in the books and a fabulous set of BIC Atlantis® pens has been super motivational to get the kids working on their letters and words. It even inspired me to start my own writing project.

Let me first introduce you to the pens. BIC Atlantis® would be a great addition to your back to school shopping list. They are really intended for writing projects not for arts & crafts. These pens come in the classic ink colors, but they also come in fashion colors for a full color effect and endless possibilities. Colored pens really motivate kids to organize and color code their notes to aid in learning and personal expression. The writing from these pens were a lot smoother than I’m used to with a ballpoint pen. It has an exclusive Easy-Glide System®, with up to 35% smoother writing compared to tradition BIC® ball pen ink systems. You can feel the difference when you are writing. It’s easier to express yourself when there is a smoothness to the pen, and it doesn’t interrupt your work flow. OK – I’m kind of a pen snob.

I am going to show you how easy it is to transform your composition books into personalized journals, but first I want to show you what we did inside out books with our new pens.

The girls were so excited when they had their transformed composition books and their new pens, that they set to work right away.

Kenzie will be using this book to practice her letters and begin putting words together. It is great to have an outlet, even at a young age, for kids to explore writing and drawing. This is her special book. She has the first few pages full of words, letters and drawings.

Abby is using her new book and pens to practice her writing. She wrote a list of things she would be doing in the day as the first entry. My hope is that we will watch her writing progress throughout her first grade year. It’s her place to not worry about spelling but learn to express herself and become comfortable with writing.

I decided to use my new book to write to Abby throughout the year. I hope I stick with this. I’ve never been much of a journal writer. However, I love quotes, and I thought it would be wonderful to fill the book with some great quotes about what she might be experiencing in life as well as write her little letters as she progresses in school. This might be a place to document highlights and harder parts of the year. What are her successes? How did we feel at her first conferences? Was she struggling with friends and had to persevere through a situation? What were some extra curricular firsts or highlights? This really only takes a few minutes every once in a while as you are reflecting on things throughout the year. Maybe it is just a moment of writing down something funny your child said. It will become very personal to you. BIC® is really promoting their pens as a chance to have effortless expression in your own style. I would love to hear about the ideas you would do in your own writing projects.

Now onto the composition book project. How do you turn an ordinary composition book into a beautiful journal?

First, pick out your paper. I like to have a big bin of paper on hand. this can be stock paper or thinner. A long time ago I bought a couple books of scrapbook paper at Costco for not too much money. They go on sale at craft stores too. I can’t tell you how much use has come from these books. We all chose a paper for the front and the back of our composition books. They can be matching paper or paper that just looks well together.

Turn the paper over and trace around the composition book. It is important to line the edge of the paper up with the binding edge of the composition book. You will not cover the binding.

Cut out your paper. It may not be perfect. Once it is glued down you can trim it a bit with scissors or an Exacto knife.

There are a variety of spray adhesives. Just choose one that works for you. This stuff is amazing. It will adhere immediately and should adhere completely if you spray the entire paper. Read the back for directions. It is simple. Make sure to line things up before you touch it to the book. Once it touches the book it will stick and be able to be used almost immediately. If you have never used spray adhesive, you will be impressed.

We decorated the books with buttons and stickers. I added the word “create” to mine.

Now you can use your fantastically decorated composition book and your own Bic® brand pens to complete your own writing projects.

I did this project with some ladies from my church earlier this summer. I lead a Bible Study this summer where we put our faith in action. We met every week to do a book study (the summer studies are a bit more casual) on the book Radical, by David Platt. It is a super challenging book and we had some amazing, challenging and convicting discussion. It was a service based study. So, as we met each we we not only had discussion of the book, but we also did project each week where we could serve others. The week of the journals was an opportunity to make journals for parents who are staying in a home close to the hospital so they can be close to their child who is suffering from some sort of illness.  We did a variety of projects over the summer, and I hope to tell you about a few more. These journals could be transformed in such fun ways to add a really special touch for some people going through a really challenging time. I hope this might inspire you to be able to reach out in ways to your own community. Here are a few of the journals from that service project:BIC Back-to-School