altered mini book tutorial
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mini gratitude journal 2015, measures 2.6 x 3.4 inches (6.5 x 8.5 cm) |
I can't keep myself from altering or making my own journals. I love the whole process of doing it. Finding the right sized book in the second-hand shop, sifting through my stash of papers, taking apart the book and putting it back together again.
I completed this mini journal back in February. Altering the old book required taking out the original pages and removing the outer layer of the cover. Below is a tutorial and a short video so you can see how I did this.
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outside cover, wip |
Once I had removed the book's top layer of the original cover, I was left with the thinest layer of paper plus the skeleton: the spine, front and back.
note: the cover will have two layers as you can see in the photo above. The green is one layer and the white is the other layer. I removed the green layer. adding a bit of water as you work will help to separate the layers.
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inside cover, wip |
I adhered a thick linen paper to the book to make the cover. To make sure the book would close properly, I ran my thumb along each side of the spine.
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outside cover with added linen paper and washi triangle |
To clean up the corners, I added washi paper triangles.
For the outside, top corners, the triangle will fold inside.
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completed outside cover |
I then adhered grey card stock to the inside cover.
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completed inside cover |
On the inside, lower corner, I adhered more triangles. These triangles are not folded but cut to come up to the edges.
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cover, signatures and rubberbands |
Instead of sewing the three signatures to the spine, I'd inserted them with rubber bands. I had these pretty, purple rubber bands I'd saved from some vegetables I'd bought. The signatures were sewn with the simple, 3-hole stitch method. And, viola! A mini, gratitude journal is born. Below is a video demonstrating how the rubber bands work for putting in the signatures.
joining sunday sketches.