altered mini book tutorial

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.

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.

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.

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.

completed outside cover

I then adhered grey card stock to the inside cover.

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.

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.