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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Discarded Book Journals: A Tutorial

This week I will be participating in this local outdoor event with a very creative friend of mine.

 
We will be marketing in the Artist and Crafters Market.  I've created unique journals to sell in our booth.  I create journals from discarded books, which I display in one of my consignment corners.  Each journal is unique and has a story of its own. I LOVE, LOVE books, and I'm a sucker for patterns.  I have been lucky to find a batch of Reader's Digest books at a college bookstore at a very minimal price.  I love the Reader's Digest books because the book covers are very decorative, super cute, and have great patterns. 
 
 
A few samples from my most recent book store scavenger hunt.  Look at all the patterns and colors.
 
 
To begin the transformation process, I use an Xacto knife to remove the bound pages from the book.
 
 
 
I am left with the front and back covers of the book.
 
 
 
Sometimes I save the gutted pages for other projects.  However, this time, I will place the pages in the recycling bin.  Still good though, right?
 
 
 
This is what I'm left with. What an assortment!
 
 
 
Using a heavy duty paper cutter, I remove the front and back covers from the spine.
 
 

 
It is easy to do.  No real muscle work required in this step.  The muscle work is coming soon.
 
 
 
I band the front and back covers together.  It's easier to keep up with the pieces this way.
 
 
 
I save the spines that were not damaged in the cutting process.  I will eventually transform them into bookmarks.  That will be another tutorial later.
 
 
 
I take the measurements of the book over.
 
 
 
I always round down to the nearest quarter of an inch.  I don't do well with cutting paper into eighths.
 
 
 
It doesn't take long to whip through the stack of books I have.  I'm loving the covers more and more. How about you?
 
 
 
 
Now it's paper cutting time. I prefer using colored paper, however from time to time I will use plain white.  It is definitely not my first choice.
 
 
 
I cut 80 sheets of paper for each journal at 5" x 7 1/2".  Luckily, I can get two pages from one sheet of paper with little waste.  Again ,I band this step to keep the materials for each journal together.
 
 
 
I add a pocket to the front of each journal for tags and small paper items.  To do this I take a 12"x12" piece of  double sided scrapbook paper and cut it down to 10"x10".  I then score it horizontally at 7 1/2", turn the paper and score vertically at 5".  Fold the 
7 1/2" score line up creating a pocket and fold the 5" score line in half creating a page. EASY~
 
 
 
I, then use my Cinch to begin the book binding process.  Punching the holes into each book is the most time consuming and labor intensive.  I really have to flex my muscles doing this step. 
 


 
After punching all the books, I band them again.  All the banding is not necessary if you are only doing one book, but I have almost a dozen today.
 
 
 
This is a view of the front pocket. 
 
 
 
The finished books on a trial run display on the dining room table.
 
 
I created 11 journals in a few hours.  I will be making a few more to fill the display rack.  I will be adding the journals I don't sell to my etsy shop after the show.
 
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial~
Thanks for stopping by!

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