bookbinding

Hey, y’all! I’m up on the blog today with a mini sketchbook/journal for you! I created the cover of this mini-book using the papers, notecards, ink, die set, and Tres Jolie Chipboard found in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit. I don’t know why, but as soon as I saw the die in the kit this month I knew it needed to become the spine of a book – plus I thought the size of the notecards were perfect to create a cute little cover!

Overall this isn’t a difficult project, it was really a lot more “fiddly” work – measuring, cutting, and stitching. Make sure you check out the video to see how I put my mini-sketchbook together!

The first thing I needed to do to create my cover is to piece together some of the patterned paper so it would be large enough! Truth be told, the thought process looked a little like this:

Hmmm….six inch paper, six-ish inch notecards…that’ll be good! Oh…wait…I need it to be able to wrap around.

So, after coming to that realization, I cut my main cover papers down, using the wreath print as my guide because I wanted to keep the wreath centered on the front cover. Fortunately, the circle of the wreath is 3 inches, and that made my work a little easier because I had already planned on wrapping the spine paper over 1 inch to the front and back covers.

I cut along one edge of the circle – the edge that would go against the spine papers – and left about 4 inches – 3 inches to show on the cover, and 1 inch to wrap around the front edge. For the top and bottom paper piecing, I cut off as little as I thought was possible that would leave as much foliage intact, but also leave enough to make sure I could securely adhere the 1-1/2” strips I needed to wrap the top and bottom of the cover.

For the spine, because I would still need a little to wrap around the top and bottom, I used two sheets of the wood plank patterned paper and lined the plank print up a little, but didn’t cut down the height until the two pieces were glued together so I could work from the edge of the overlap – because I wanted to keep the seam centered along the spine.

Before I glued the main patterned paper for the cover to the extension pieces, I inked along the top and bottom edges to add some definition between the two layers. After the pieces were glued together, I added a couple of layers of matte varnish to help seal and protect the papers.

When it came time to add the cover papers to the notecards, I marked on the notecards where the edge closest to the spine would need to line up and where the edge of the main cover patterned paper needed to line up to be centered on the cover.

For my spine, after the glue had dried where I had pieced the papers together, I used the decorative die from the set in the kit to cut through the wood plank paper. I backed the wood plank paper with a 1-1/2” wide piece of patterned paper decorated at the top with some of the Dresden Trim and added a little glue to hold everything together before coming back with a matte varnish to help seal the edges of the die cut so it will (hopefully!) not get caught on anything.

I cut my spine paper to a total width of 3-3/4”, 1-1/2” for the spine, 1” to wrap around the front and back cover, and, since I had marked where the cover papers needed to line up with the spine paper 1” from the edge, that left me a 1/8” gap between the spine and notecards to allow the cover to open and close. Then I just made sure everything was glued down and wrapped the edges around creating the cover.

For my endpapers, I needed a total of 8” to cover the inner cover and create the first and last pages of the sketchbook. Since the patterned papers in the kit are 6”x6”, I once again did a little paper piecing. I kept one of the sheets at their full 6” width, then added the extra 2” I needed with cut-off from a second sheet of patterned paper – cut to 2-1/2” so I could glue the two pieces together.

I used the full six stands of some off-white embroidery floss and added a simple straight stitch along the seam for a little extra interest and texture – eyeballing how far from the seam I wanted the stitch line, and pre-poking my holes 1/4” apart so my stitches would be even. After the stitching was complete, I added some of the Dresden Trip to the back side of my stitching since that was the side that was rougher from the awl and needle going through.

Front Endpaper

Back Endpaper

For the blank pages in my mini sketchbook, I used 9”x12” mixed media paper. I was able to cut two 5-11/16”x8” pages from each sheet of mixed media paper, and in the end, I ended up with 16 signatures that had four pages each to get the 1-1/2” text block I needed for the spine. The size of my pages was determined by the size of my cover, so when I was determining the size needed I cut them to allow about 2mm from the top, bottom, and outer edges of the cover.

I created a 5-hole template for all of the hole poking, got all of my signatures ready, then started sewing my text block together using two strands of embroidery floss. I used a traditional method for stitching my signatures together, and if you are familiar with Coptic Stitching, it is a very similar technique. You can find a step-by-step pictorial tutorial from Nik the Booksmith here and a video tutorial from Sea Lemon here. If you don’t have a means to trim your text block together and you want to try and even the edges out a little, you can use a sanding block and some gentle sanding. It may not create “perfect” edges, but it can help some!

With the text block stitched together, I added my endpapers, clamped everything together, and added a thin layer of PVA glue, then my Super (traditional bookbinding cloth), followed by a couple more thin layers of PVA glue. I worked in thin layers of glue and allowed about 5 minutes of dry time in between so I wouldn’t saturate the text block or have glue leak between the signatures and accidentally glue everything together. Before getting it set in the cover, my final addition to the text block was some homemade headbands – mostly because I came across them while I was searching through all my book-making papers and decided that if I made them, I should use them sometime!

The final decorative touches to my cover were to add a piece of Tres Jolie Chipboard to the front spine edge and stamped Journal across the center of the front cover paper (I just used some artist masking tape to hold my alpha stamps together so I could keep them mostly straight!). I sealed the chipboard with some matte varnish, then used Glossy Accents to attach it. I sprayed my stamping with some Workable Fixatif, then added a final coat of matte varnish to the cover.

Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed this mini sketchbook/journal and it gave you some ideas of what you can create using the items found in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!

Stay Crafty, Friends

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In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit, I used:

LineCo PVA Glue, LineCo Super, embroidery floss, Art Glitter Glue, Liquitex Matte Varnish, mixed media paper, Workable Fixatif, Hampton Art Alphabet Stamp Set

Hey, y’all!

Ever have one of those projects that was filled with “technical difficulties” all the way through? That was me with this lapbook! My word of advice, if your sewing machine stops working at the beginning of a project, take it as a sign to stop and do a different project! I didn’t heed the warning sign, and while I waited for a replacement sewing machine I kept trying to work – but nothing went right after that! I went from being ahead of schedule with my July projects, to being barely able to finish on time; so a project that I didn’t think would take too long, took way too long!

It’s here though, I finally finished, and I have completed a Recipe Lapbook using this month’s Scrapbooking Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club for the July 2022 Mood Board.

I tried to explain my process the best I could in my video; it did become rather difficult to work in an orderly fashion when I had to do what I could while waiting for my sewing machine. Hopefully the video makes some sense, or at least enough sense to give you some idea of what I’m attempting! It’s a rather long video – almost an hour, so you might want to watch it in sections! I couldn’t figure out a good place to split it apart and have it appear continuous since I was already fighting confusion!

Video:

The mood board this month has some deep, beautiful, summery colors to it, and the papers in this month’s kit are the perfect compliment. And, of course, lemons = lemonade on a hot summer day, and an entire recipe lapbook to go with! Place your entries in the July 2022 challenge folder on Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends July 31, 2022 at 11:59 pm CST. All entries must be in this folder to be eligible for the prize (to have everyone eligible to win, we are limiting the same winner to once every three months).

You can create any type of project for the challenge.
You MUST say what you were inspired by.
You MUST include the twist in your design – DAYS OF SUMMER
We would love to see you use at least one of Tres Jolie’s products on your projects but it isn’t required to play along.
It MUST be a new project.

You saw the front cover of my lapbook at the beginning of this post, but I also wanted to show the other three sides of it. After more work than I had hoped, I was able to get the honeycomb chipboard from this month’s Mixed Media Kit to give some nice texture along the spine. If you haven’t seen the video yet, this spine is actually the second spine I made – because the first one wasn’t working; I just couldn’t get the honeycomb to show up. I finally got it to show by using some (metal) nuts that fit inside the chipboard and my iron to get the iron-on adhesive to melt together.

I originally planned on making a single flap for the closure, but the yellow stripe ended up being off center, and that would have drove me nuts! However, I actually like the final closure better, because I like the yellow being horizontal against the vertical of the lemon fabric and the “panels” of the closure area. I didn’t actually tack the fabric down, I used lots of glue, clipped the tacks down to where they would just enter the book cover, and added some 3D Matte Gel to help keep them in place.

The main flap on the left side of the lapbook is an accordion folder made from a hanging file folder. I don’t have all of the specific measurements, because I made my folds where the score lines already were on the hanging folder, cut it to the height of my inside cover paper, and just eyeballed how wide I wanted it based on how it would look. However, I do know the sides were cut three inches wide and scored every 1/2-inch for the accordion folds.

On the back of my accordion folder I have a couple of book covers added in as flaps. The larger one is covered in some sari silk, and the smaller one has [what I think] is the last piece of that particular print. I have magnet closures for the smaller book covers, but I didn’t add any closure of the main, accordion folder, flip. Under the accordion folder, I have a double-pocket folder and three mini file folders I created just for this project using sheets of the Simple Stories paper from the kit.

On the front of the larger cover with the sari silk, I added a hinged belly band. I have some 3/4-inch magnetic tape, and I laid a strip down on the cover and on the band. At the top of the band I added a couple of stronger magnets to make sure it would stay shut even with a few recipe cards in place. On the other side of the same cover, I added some homemade glassine (using a tracing paper + semi-gloss spray technique I learned from Nik the Booksmith!) to one of the frames, propped it up on some macramé cord, and turned it into a pocket. The magnetic closure for this flips under to close, and flips out of the way so the pocket is accessible.

In the spine of the book cover I added a [new and unused!] headband so I could put a removable booklet in. It is a soft cover booklet – I layered the paper with some interface backed fabric – then I popped on the chipboard frame from the kit that I had embossed with a few different powders. After my frame was in place, I filled in the open areas with some Glossy Accents and/or Diamond Glaze, alcohol ink, and to really deepen the black on the bees, I used the “Black Hole Black” Lindy’s Magical Powder from this month’s Mixed Media Kit.

I have two folders, filled with more folders/pockets in the booklet – one for main dishes and one for side dishes.

I wanted to add in some charts, so I printed out a couple of different ones on tracing paper using a ledger paper I created as the background, then added my semi-gloss spray to create my “glassine.” I turned the 3-slot chipboard frame into a pocket with some vintage photos to give the “family history” feel.

The right side of the lapbook features a large, fold-out panel with a little box folder on it. The box folder also folds out – it is held in place with some magnets & magnetic tape – to reveal a couple of folder pockets and a little coin pocket I made.

When you flip open the large panel, you will find a little strap holding another book cover in place that has another chart on the front, and a couple of pockets on the back. I added another headband to the hinge of this cover, and created another little removable folder to slide into this space.

This folder is a simple one, with just three pockets inside it and a pocket on the back to hold another piece of “glassine” with some helpful hints on it.

On the back of that big flap I made, I have a couple of pockets for breakfast and lunch recipes, and some ephemera to add some decoration.

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie, I hope you enjoyed this lapbook – even if I did have a few hiccups along the way! Hopefully I didn’t make the video too confusing and was able to explain what was going on clearly – even if it was “out of order” because of my sewing machine fiasco.

Stay Crafty, Friends … and remember, if something breaks at the beginning of a project, take it as a sign!

In addition to this month’s Scrapbooking Kit & the Tres Jolie Chipboard & Lindy’s “Black Hole Black” from the Mixed Media Kit (*from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

**Some [non-Tres Jolie Kit] items contain an affiliate link, allowing me to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you!

Lawn Fawn “Sunflower” Ink Pad , Lindy’s Gang “Desert Moon Turquoise” Embossing Powder , Seth Apter “Rocky Road” Baked Texture , Seth Apter “Vintage Beeswax” Baked Texture , Ranger “Buttercup” Embossing Powder , Ranger “Watering Can” Embossing Powder , Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink “Patina” , Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink “Sunshine Yellow” , Dina Wakley “Lemon” Gloss Spray , Distress Embossing Glaze “Salvaged Patina” , Ranger Perfect Medium Pen/Marker , StazOn “Jet Black” , Hampton Art Block Alphabet Stamp Set , Tim Holtz Index Clips , Tim Holtz Hex Fasteners , Tim Holtz Plaquettes , Stripe Background Lemon Print Outdoor Fabric , Ingvild Bolme Tiny Junkyard Treasures “Vintage Trinkets” , Finnabair 3D Matte Gel , We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile , Crop-A-Dile II , Tab Punch , Hole Reinforcer Punch , Craft Knife , 3-Way Corner Punch , EK Tools Scoreboard , EK Tools “Round Binding Edge” Punch , Recollections 2-1/2” Circle Punch , Fiskars 1” Circle Squeeze Punch , Pellon Fusible Featherweight Interfacing , Heat n Bond Ultra Hold Iron On Adhesive , Heat n Bond Iron On Vinyl , 12”x12” Heavy Chipboard , old book cover , 2” book binding tape , 1” , 1/2” , 1/4” , 1/8” double-sided tape , 3/8” Scor-Pal Scor-Tape , Fabri-Tac , LineCo PVA , LineCo 1.25” Linen Hinging Tape , JudiKins Diamond Glaze , Ranger Glossy Accents , UHU stic , ScotchGard Fabric Protector , Wrights 1/2” “Charcoal” Seam Binding , Mainstays pillow case, blending brushes , Fray No More , black & white bakers twine, Dritz 7/16″ Brushed Nickle Decorative Nails , Basic Grey Large Magnetic Discs , Basic Grey Small Magnetic Discs , unbranded magnetic discs , Xyron 3/4” Magnetic Tape , hanging file folders , “manila” folders , black, white, & grey size 5 variegated thread , black sewing machine thread , Hy-Ko Aluminum Reflective Numbers , brads , eyelets , other fabric (yellow gingham, grey & white plaid, sari silk, aqua & white print), unused headbands , uxcell Silver Tone Metal Label Holders , Bead Landing Macramé 3mm Cotton Cord, Rust-oleum Semi-Gloss Clear

C.J.'s Corner Scraps

For the love of paper crafting…

Tres Jolie Kit Club – Mini Blank Journal – August 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Recipe Lapbook–July 2022 Mood Board + Scrapbooking Kit