April 18, 2012

Hi everyone!  Today I thought I would post something a little different and mix things up a bit.  I've been making these altered journals for some time now, but I never posted one until today.

Before I begin I wanted to tell you to be sure and look for these books later in September when the back to school supplies are on clearance.  I stocked up on these when they were only .10 cents at Target last year!  The matching pens were from the dollar store- 4 for $1, you can't beat that!  These would make awesome Mother's day gifts too!  I ended up making this one for my daughter.

You will need 3 sheets of 12" x 12" designer series paper.  It's a big help if you use papers from the same dsp pack- this way you will know that they will match nicely.

2 - 6" x 12" - these will be the front and back of your book- I used tempting turquoise flower paper

1 - 6" x 12" - this will be the piece around the binding- here mine is red

2 - 6" x 9 1/2" - These are my old olive papers- this will be on your inside covers

2 - 2 3/4" x 9 1/2" - mine are red and these will be the smaller strips on your inside covers

Tip- Save any scrap papers you have left over because you can use them to decorate your book.  On the reverse side of the old olive paper is a brown pattern and I used that to layer underneath the letters on the front of my book.

Here is a photo of the supplies I used.  I forgot to put my bone folder in this photo, and you will need it.

Take one of your 6" x 12" papers and glue it onto the front of your composition book.  You can use a SU glue stick for your glue too. Make sure while you are gluing that you get as close to the edge as possible without making a mess of course. 

Take your other 6" x 12" designer series paper and glue that to the back side of your book.  If you are using a pattern that goes in a certain direction make sure that it's going the correct way before you glue it down.  Below is a photo of my book opened with both pieces of my tempting turquoise paper glued onto it.

Next, you will want to fold over your corners.  To do this I simply cut a few slits and then fold over the pieces and glue them down.  Don't worry about how your corners look at this point because they will be covered up.

Here is a photo of both corners cut, folded over, and glued.  You should be left with three straight sides that you will fold over and glue down as well.

I use my bone folder to help fold over the designer paper.  Trust me, use your bone folder, it does such a job and it just makes is easiser.  Fold over your edges and glue them down making sure to get as close to the edges as you can.

This is what you inside should look like now.  Repeat the above steps for the other side.

While you are working on your other side you can do like I did and put a paper in-between. I do this sometimes if my glue isn't quite dry. You don't want your front and back page getting stuck to your designer papers. If something happes and the front and back pages of your composition book gets glue on them, you can always rip them out once your book is complete.

Next, you will work on the paper that covers the binding.  Take your 6" x 12" piece of paper (here mine is red) and it helps when you are covering your book if you can sort of put the bend in it.  I usually take the edge of my table and slightly bend my paper in the middle.  This is what your paper should look like now.  (Note- try not to skip this step because if you don't break up the fibers and round/bend your paper slightly you might get folds rather than the rounded corner that you want).

Go ahead and glue your paper to the binding edge of your book.  Do not glue your paper with your book open flat and face down!  You want to glue it working with your book closed.  Try place your paper around the binding so that you will will end up with the same amout of paper on both the front and back.

Now you will want to work on folding your paper over onto the inside (use your bone folder).  To do this I cut a slit into the paper and cut out a small section that you will not need.  Fold over your paper and glue it down.  You will see what I am trying to describe in my photo below. 

Then just cut off that small peice of designer paper that is left over.

Now you can begin working on your inside papers.  For this step you will use your two 6 1/2" x 9 1/2" papers.  I used my corner rounding punch and punch/round two corners- it just gives your book that nice finishing touch.

Then you can go ahead and glue down your inside piece.  Be sure to get the corners really well.  Repeat this step on both the front and back inside cover.  You will then need to take your two 2 3/4" x 9 1/2" pieces of designer paper (here mine are red) and glue them on the inside of your front and back covers. (see my next photo)

Here I already glued on the 2 3/4" x 9 1/2" strip of designer paper.  You will want to place it towards the inside of your book and try to line it up with the paper from the front of your book.  Here my strip of designer paper is red and if you look in my photo above you can see the red strip I have folded over from the front- that's the paper you will want to try and line it up with.  Once you are making your book you will see what I am talking about.  Now your book is almost finished and all you need to do is to decorate the front if you wanted to.  In this photo I've already added my ribbon.

Here's a photo of my book with my ribbon tied onto it.  I have my ribbon flat on the inside cover (so that the book will close nicely), but then I decided to make my ribbon with some ruffles on the outside.  I placed some sticky strip tape onto my book and then using my paper piercing tool I folded both ends of my ribbon back and forth and I stopped when I reached where I wanted my knot to be.  Then simply tie off the ends and trim.

I almost always make matching pens too!  You will have some paper scraps left over from when you cut your 12" x 12" paper down to the proper sizes.  I save these scraps for decorating the front of my book and for my pens.  From experience I've learned that busier designer paper look nicer inside the pens.  You will probably need to measure your pen and see what size works best for you.  For the pens I buy I cut my paper down to 3/4" x 3 1/4".

Take your pen apart and I have learned to use the small pen insert and to slowly wrap my designer paper around it.  Keep working your paper until it's nice and tight around the pen insert and then you can simple insert the paper into your pen, replace the pen insert and then screw the cap back on.  By the way- I purchase my pens at the Dollar Tree dollar store.  They come in either black or blue and they are sold in a pack of 4.  If you look at the second picture I posted above (the one with all my supplies) you will see what the pack of pens looks like.

And here is a photo of my composition book after I finished it.  I sometimes add a few nice flowers with leaves and such, but this time I decided to make this book for my daughter and so I've added her name to the front of it plus I didn't want to front to be embellished heavily since it will probably be going in her book bag. 

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial today!  I spent a lot of time taking the photos and writing this so I hope I did okay!  If you happen to make a composition book send me an email or post a comment for me here.  I would love to see it!  Enjoy the rest of your day! 

Stamps:  All Around Alphabet
Card Stock:  Playdate DSP (retired), White
Ink:  Chocolate Chip
Supplies: Ribbon, Sticky Take, Composition Notebook, Pen, 1/2" Circle Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch,  Bone Folder, Corner Punch, Scissors, Tombow Multi Glue
Technique: Altered Composition Notebook, Ruffled Ribbon

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My email address- pebbles4@ptd.net