Aleisha needed a birthday present pronto for Katie - 13yo birthday party summer pool sleepover and I had not budgetted for this expense .. so I thought, " ... YES, let's make a FUN customised journal .."
So roughly I planned: 6" x 6" size, able to store a few CD's, decorative Vellum sheets, use that new Martha Stewart's CROWN punch, black elastic closure ... Aleisha chose the 2pces 12"x12" dark blue paper (looked like silken cloth) and that set the colours: Blue, Black, Silver with pink accents.
ok so started off by covering the covers - 2pces 6"x"6 chipboard, using double sided tape. See how I fold the corners down first, then using Bone Folder (or your longer fingernail) crease it carefully .. then upon folding the other sides in .. it's neat and sharp ..
Here the inside cover page is assembled ready to adhere down with double side tape however, this is like a sandwich - there is 3 layers here - can you see it? Silver Shimmerz paper stock, decorative Vellum (TLC discontinued range) and the sentiments/quotation printed onto a sheet of OHP (OverHead Projection) transparency
To secure the 3 layers seamlessly - I used a Silver Split Pin - hard to see in this photo - but I think you get the drift... it holds all 3 layers down .. then I stuck that down onto the covered chipboard with double sided adhesive. Front cover ready to rock and roll... * smiles *
Aleisha's current favourite quote - printed on the OHP transparency (I use a Black & White Laser printer) however, there are OHP's that can be printed using bubblejet printers ... be careful when selecting OHP's coz you normally buy them in a box of 100 sheets .. get the right one to match your printer and you're set coz I love them.. you can use them in sooo many ways ...
See on the right .. all the Silver shimmerz paper - that's offcuts from a bulk purchase I was involved in long long ago * waves to Sharon Gray * - punched each page with the CROWN punch .. could have done it more accurately lols ...
I love this series of colour printed thick vellum 12"x12" sheets TLC used to sell (sshh not telling you who has a great stack hoarded away lols) ... I had quartered ONE sheet (carefully rationed out you know * grins * ) and it's scattered through out the journal ...
L: Front R: Back
The CD envelopes needed a HANDLE on the side to safely punch into and hold within the wire binding .. so just folded scraps over and adhered it with double sided tape onto the CD Envelope. Purchased the CD/DVD ENVELOPES - Box of 100 from Officeworks (Perth's biggest stationery retailer) - they are CD/DVD Storage with clear plastic coated window for easy viewing. I love their versatility and always have a box or two around the house.
Originally I had adhered the black sewing elastic under the inside sheet that covered the back cover. However, as it was too tight.. it was lifting .. and it need more ROOM to move.. so ripped that out .. coz it didn't work well ...
Ended up cutting up another length of the sewing elastic and hand sewed it into a loop, using with matching thread - so it appears in the end like a large rubber band/elastic band to hold the ends of the journal together. I prefer the Guttermann's thread which quilters use ... won't rip easy ... you will see on the right of that silver paper - I carefully used the Coluzzle alphabet templates to cut out Katie's name.
Somewhere in my travels - I had picked up this small sheet of stickers PRINCESS theme for A$2.00 ... Bargain! so as Katie's nickname on FaceBook is: PRINCESS_KATIE ... I chose that as the name of the journal ... garnishing it with short lengths from my ribbon collection & couple of diamantes .. here's the finished item !!
Note: Apologies if the instructions aren't as step-by-step .. here I assume you have some basic knowledge of how to fold edges/corners and the such.. if you have any challenges.. drop me an email or a note here and we'll sort it out :)
Next time I will make better journals.. learn a lot with that first practise run using the Bind-It-All ...
hugs.. lizzieS & Aleisha Slothouber xxx
wow so very creative I bet katie loved it!!
Posted by: Greg | 01/20/2010 at 03:43 PM
What a great project Lizzie! I'm sure Katie will love it!
Posted by: Megan Warren | 01/16/2010 at 04:16 PM