Sather

If you're looking for the perfect gift for a teen or pre-teen girl or female friend, then you might want to consider a handmade journal. Use these tips to get started, then use your own creativity to create a personalized work of art. These journals also make great birthday or graduation gifts.

To get started, pick out some pretty card stock for the cover, maybe a favorite color of the girl the journal is intended for. I used a paper cutter to cut the piece of paper in half. You should end up with two sheets of paper 4 x 5 .

Select the paper you will use for the inside pages of the journal. I chose about 50 sheets of unlined copy/printer paper and cut them in half.

Then you get to be creative and decorate the cover. You can look at my example photos for inspiration. For one I used decals used for scrapbooking and card making. I placed a floral border down the left side and used rubber stamps to stamp the girl's name vertically on a scrap of white card stock that I then glued to the right side of the cover.

On another cover I placed the girl's name horizontally on the top of the cover, also using rubber stamps to spell out her name. Behind the cardstock that the name was stamped on I glued a piece of mulberry paper (craft paper that is thin like tissue paper) that I had torn around the edges. To finish this journal I placed a large floral sticker in the center of the cover.

To bind the journal together, I used a comb binding machine. If you don't know someone who has one of these that you can borrow, you can go to a local office supply store like Office Max or Office Depot, and they will either let you do it yourself in their copy department, or they will do it for you for a small fee.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com

Mother Britney Spears takes her pants off in public with Paris Hilton, while proceeding with a divorce and custody battle for her children. Certainly this was not a very smooth move on Britney's part.

Britney Spears recently dumped and proceeded to divorce her husband. Telling the world that she wants to improve her image and career, Britney's actions certainly don't affirm that.

The newly-liberated pop star enjoyed a wild 'girls night out' in Sin City with Miss Hilton this weekend; dancing, laughing and chain-smoking throughout the night.

The unlikely pair landed at club Tryst in the Wynn hotel, where Britney was spotted getting down and dirty on the dance floor to several Paris Hilton songs. In fact, things got so heated, Britney ditched her pants -- and danced around the club in a pair of fishnet stockings!

Reading some of her fans posted comments on TMZ (which I've written below) is revealing:

"Britney dumps Fed-Ex to hang out with Parisite Crotch???"

"Umm... where's her kids?"

"She needs to shape up, not a good picture for child custody battle. Although, Federjerk is worse than she is."

"She is a poor role mode, she looks gross..."

"She and Paris never got along, she was jealous of Paris. She is a drinking, cigarette smoking, weed head. She and Kevin are one in the same, take away Britney's money, and she and Kevin are EXACTLY the same - white trash, she just has money."

"Ha. I knew her cleaned up image was too good to be true. She should have stayed with K-Fed - their white trash ways suited each other. But please, doesn't she realize that she's a mother to TWO children now. She needs to grow up. Oh, and cigarettes are making her look old and tired before her time."

"If I were Britney, in the middle of a custody battle, I for one would not be clubbing every night in sin city, bad for the 'I'm a good momma' court defense, two would not be hanging out with ...Parisite, that in itself is going to kill her career!"

"She needs to be careful of what she does and who she hangs out with if she really loves her kids, and this is not looking good for her!!!"

"If you wanted to clean up your career, hanging with Parisite was not the way to do it!!! Do you have PR people, staff that can help you and give you a honest opinion?"

"Is the partying right now worth the custody of your kids??? THINK!!!"

"If your working, that's one thing, need a night out, another, but being out almost every night since her separation, drinking, smoking, hanging out with "Parisite" & others, Is she trying to lose her children? Because she is doing a better job at that than she is at Parenting, Marriage and Career."

"Britney has MENTAL problems. Why don't people get that? She is a little immature girl in a woman's body. She is not fit to be a mother, period. Dancing in a club with no pants on? Unbelievable!"

Well, based on these responses three things are for certain. First, Britney and Paris (as well as a good number in show business) were never intended to be "role models." Secondly, immaturity clothed in an adult body is a pity when children are involved. Thirdly, those who closely follow these celebrities and devote their time to angrily discuss and write about them could be spending there time better elsewhere.

Coming of age is one thing, maturing is another. Pray for these beautiful young ladies, because once their beauty fades they will need to secure their identities internally. Most importantly remember everybody needs love. Just because you are famous does not mean you know and have unconditional love apart from your performance and appearance. Therefore pray for and be gracious to these ladies. Malice toward none and charity for all.

Paul Davis is author of several books including Adultery: 101 Reasons; Are You Ready for True Love?; and Breakthrough for a Broken Heart a book telling us "How to overcome disappointments and blossom into your dreams!" He is a minister, life coach (relational & professional), dating expert, popular worldwide keynote speaker, creative consultant, mediator, liberator and dream-maker.

Paul's compassion for people & passion to travel has taken him to over 50 countries of the world where he has had a tremendous impact. Paul has served many in war-torn, impoverished and tsunami stricken regions of the earth. His organization Dream-Maker Ministries is building dreams, breaking limitations, and reviving nations.

Paul's Breakthrough Seminars inspire, revive, awaken, impregnate with purpose, impart the fire of desire, catapult people into a new level of self-awareness, facilitate destiny discovery and dream fulfillment.

Paul can be contacted at: RevivingNations@yahoo.com - 407-967-7553 or 407-282-1745.

For additional info: http://www.CreativeCommunications.TV, http://www.DreamMakerMinistries.com