bow tied art journal/mini scrapbook tutorial

The weekend weather was lovely. we raked the yard and garden a bit, and got a lot of little jobs done in and outside the house. Our microwave oven went kaput! last Wedensday, so we we went shopping for another, Hubby missed making popcorn! He also bought a new kitchen faucet, and a new desk chair. I think he has spring fever! We both do.
Today is very windy.
Tutorial :

This is a small no frills art journal/scrapbook, but you can personalize and make improvements. Since many of the materials used in bookbinding are specialized, I wanted to use materials which are easy to find or that one may already have on hand. Suggestions for improving and personalizing will be added at the end. Please ask if you have questions.

Supplies
Drill with quarter inch bit ( hand or electric)
Needle tool or small awl, or large, sharp sewing needle (all optional)
Pencil
Ruler
White glue
a brush for spreading the glue (optional)
Paper cutter if you have one or
Utility knife
Kraft paper
wax paper to protect sorfaces and the work.
C-clamp (optional)
Large paper clamps
or clothes pins
A heavy book to use as a weight.
Cloth tape, (optional) or masking tape
A 2 x 8.5 inch piece of cotton or linen cloth, cut straight on the grain.
Tapestry needle
Crochet hook size E (4mm) or larger or devise a hook tool from a piece of heavy wire
½ inch wide ribbon--- grosgrain preferably
24 sheets of card stock in your choice of colour, 8.5 x 11 inches

Mat board for front and back covers. (I buy leftover pieces from a framing shop for a minimal price.) or similar weight illustration board.

How to: (Please remember to protect your work surface )

Cut two pieces of mat board 8.5 x 9.5 inches (20.5 x 24.5 cm) also,
cut a separate piece of cover board precisely 8.5 x 1.5 inches (20.5 x 5 cm).
Draw a line down the center of this 1.5 wide piece, mark the center, then mark 1 inch (2.5 cm) in from each end on the center line.
You will be using this as a template for drilling holes, to aid in
making the covers hinges, folding your pages, and for protecting your cover when drilling the holes.


Using the template as a guide to the width, take each card stock piece and fold and crease one of the 8.5 sides 1.5 inches. Fold all of your pages this way.
These folds are the spine and they face up in this way when you put the pages and cover together.

Again, use your template to draw a line down one 8.5 inch side of both the front and back cover pieces on what you chose to be the wrong side.
Align the ruler with the line. Press firmly on the ruler and use the utility knife to cut with even pressure.
This right (or out facing) side of my back cover piece shows the cut more clearly:



On the wrong sides of the boards, align the top and bottom, and add a space of two board thicknesses between the two pieces. Use small weights to prevent them from shifting, then use a piece of the cloth tape or masking tape to secure either side of the two pieces while maintaining the space between the two boards.
Glue four 1.5 inch lenghts of the grosgrain ribbon as hinges:
Repeat for both covers. Let dry.

Glue the 2 x 8.5 inch piece of cloth over the hinges and up to the edge of the board. Use a heavy book with a piece of wax paper between the book and your work for protection and let dry.

Putting the book together:
Place the back cover,(wrong side up) the pages,(folds up) and front cover,(right side facing you) together, make sure they are even at the spine and at top and bottom ( the covers will be slightly longer than the pages at the opening edge). Use paper clamps to hold them secure. Then align the template with the spine and use more paper clamps to secure it. If you have a C-clamp, use it to secure the whole to the counter. Here I have protected the countertop with a wood board and clamped the counter, board and book together.
Drill the holes as marked on the template with the quarter inch bit as straight as possible. Almost finished.

Cut a piece of the grosgrain ribbon or cord of your choice three times the height of the book ( in this case, 3 x 8.5 inches). Fold it in half and
Use the crochet hook to pull the loop through the center hole, about an inch (the wider the ribbon the more difficult it will be to pull through). Using the crochet hook as a barrier to prevent the loop from coming out, pull the ribbon ends through one outer hole each. You can thread each end through a tapestry needle for each side.
Then, pull one end of the ribbon through the center loop, then the other end, crossing it over the first end. Pull the ends in opposite directions until the loop is snug, but not overly tight. Tie a bow, trim the ends. You are finished! Suggestions for improvement are below:

To improve and personalize, you can glue a picture to the front cover or before tying the book together, cover the front and back covers with decorative cloth or paper.

Cloth cover, heavy cotton:

Cut the cover fabrics at least an inch all around larger than each cover.
If using paper as your cover, spread glue on the front of the cover board to paste it down, then do the hem and corners as follows:

Cut the corners of the cloth at a 45 degree angle from the corner of the cover board, leaving about a quarter inch, or at least two cover board thickness of fabric at the corner. Using the following photos as a guide, dry fit the corners and the hems before gluing them down.
turning the corners and hems is one of my favourite bits:
Use needle tool or something similar to “iron” the first fold down and up against the board’s edge. Fold a miter at the adjacent side, iron it down with the tool or your fingers then fold down this hem. Now open up the folds and hems, paste them, re-fold and crease as with the dry fit.

Your corners should look like this, smooth and flat and at 45 degrees.



Use a big book as a weight, with a piece of wax paper between, to hold the cover flat while it dries. Do both covers in the same manner.
End papers : Cut 2 pieces of paper (I used brown Kraft paper) one eighth of an inch smaller than the cover all around. Glue it down, being sure to smooth out air bubbles. Let dry.

Use small sharp scissors to cut through the fabric to open the holes for the ribbon, place a dab of glue on the cut to prevent fraying, let dry, then restring as before.

Finished art journal/scrapbook-

Below, on the cover of the journal I made during our trip to the southwest, I drew a version of the flute player ( a native American symbol) directly onto brown paper, then I did a faux leather finish, and used leather string ties and beads for an antique look. The pages were also made from brown craft paper. You can also make your pages from whatever is most useful to you, watercolour, drawing papers, etc, or a mixture of both. You could also gesso the pages.