As part of my MFA program, I took a publication design class, where we worked on one publication of our own creation for the entire semester. In scouring the current market, I saw a need for a prayer journal for kids that was actually useful, informative, kid-friendly, and fun. I decided to focus on making one for girls, around ages 8–12.

The color splotches design came from a desire to make a journal that would appeal to the majority of girls—not too specific, but not as boring as a solid color journal. The design lent itself well to being reproduced for a variety of uses throughout the publication. When it came time to physically creating this journal, none of the publishing options suited the needs I came up with (such as the ability to take out and replace journal pages after going through the one-month cycle without having to buy a whole new journal), so I decided to make it myself. This involved wrapping the cover, punching holes in all the pages, and rounding all the corners.