Here's a picture of my travel journal in it's basic state. I've since added things to the cover and stamped on many of the pages but I'll save showing you that until I complete it after my vacation.
I have been asked how to make a journal book like this and now I'm going to try to show you. So, please, bear with me.
:0)
First, you need to choose a book. Here I've shown several different kinds although all are old. There are patterned covers, plain covers, one has a great illustration on the inside and some have titles on the front. You really want the cover in pretty good condition yet the inside old enough to rip easily - or you can cut the book part out.
Open your book and gently start to rip the cover away from the text. If you want you can use a knife to make a cleaner cut. Or, if you want, you can clean up the tear after the text is out of the cover. Do this to both front and back cover.
Next comes the eyelets. I used small eyelets because I didn't have any larger ones but you can certainly use larger ones. Larger eyelets would make it easier to get the ribbon through later on. Measure (you don't have to be exact) and mark where you want the 4 (or however many you want) holes to be at the
top and the bottom of the spine and be sure that they are aligned. Use your crop-a-dile or whatever other hole puncher you have and punch over those marks.
Then add your eyelets and set the cover aside.
Adding the Paper Groups
For this book I chose craft paper card stock. My Vacation Journal has a mixture of papers in with the majority being water color paper. I mixed in some patterned paper (heavier) card stock kind. I don't know if regular thin paper would work but you can always try.
You need 4 or 5 pieces of paper per group. So, if you've got 4 eyelets across then you'll need 4 groups of paper or a total of 16 or 20 pieces of paper depending on how many you put in each paper group. I put 5 pieces in each group (20 pieces).
Next you should measure. Get the innards of your book that you ripped out and measure the height and the width. You'll want to double the width because you'll be folding your paper in half. My book measured 8" high and 5.25" wide. So, I cut paper 8" x 10.5". Then fold them all in half and group them in 5 sheet groups.
Then to sew your paper groups together. I used my sewing machine but I imagine you could hand stitch or even staple the groups together if you have a long reach stapler. For some this may be an easier option. If you stitch be sure you back stitch at the beginning and the end so that it doesn't unravel.
Now you have to mark your page groups where you need to punch the holes to correspond with the holes on the spine of the book. I laid the first page group under the spine of the book and lined up the stitching (or crease) with the eyelet holes and used a fine point marker to mark a dot where I want to punch the hole. I hope this makes sense. Then I punched the holes. Then I used this first page group to mark the rest of the page groups.
Next is to thread your yarn, ribbon, or whatever through the page groups and the book eyelets and knot or knot and then tie a bow on the outside of the spine. It really doesn't matter what is written on the spine because you won't see it after this is finished. How much ribbon? About 2.5 feet or more...it's just a guess. I used scraps. It really depends on if you're going to make a bow - then you'll need more. Do this to all 4 of your page groups and your journal is ready to personalize!
I hope my directions make sense. If you have any questions you can reach me at SIStv - pegasus or leave me a comment here. I'd love to see what you do with this. :0)
