Several months ago, my dear friend from Colorado joined me at the beach house for a week of creative fun and beach combing. One of our creative projects was to create junk journals using covers from some old Reader's Digests.
You should fold the cover back in such a way that you will be punching through the back edge of the spine, not the actual book board. The Zutter can definitely punch through book board, but not book board and spine layered together. Well... it can, but it takes a lot of muscle and I imagine it's not good for the machine.
Gather the papers you want to put into your journal, and punch them with the Zutter.
I introduced my friend to the Zutter Bind-It-All, and we watched some YouTube videos for binding inspiration. Then we raided the 'studi-attic' for supplies.
We each grabbed a Reader's Digest, and some flash cards and bingo cards, and old book pages, and old scrapbook paper and anything else that struck our fancy.
We each grabbed a Reader's Digest, and some flash cards and bingo cards, and old book pages, and old scrapbook paper and anything else that struck our fancy.
The first thing we did was carefully remove the cover from the book. It's very easy to accidentally cut through the spine during this step, so use caution. You can use a craft knife, or you can try snipping it with scissors. I ended up scoring the end paper with the tip of a scissor blade, and then pulling the cover off.
Because the inside of the cover will be visible when you open the journal, you will want to cover the "bald" area with cloth or pretty paper. This will also make the spine sturdier when you bind the book.
I had some cute origami paper from Daiso that worked perfectly. I added a little washi tape, as well.
The trickiest part of creating the binding is to fold the cover back to punch it with the binding machine. In the picture below, I have folded the cover back. The side of the cover that is on top in the picture is the back cover.
You should fold the cover back in such a way that you will be punching through the back edge of the spine, not the actual book board. The Zutter can definitely punch through book board, but not book board and spine layered together. Well... it can, but it takes a lot of muscle and I imagine it's not good for the machine.
Anything you punch must fit into the slot at the top of the machine -- if you find yourself needing to force your material into the slot, your material is too thick.
After the spine is punched, place the cover through an open O-ring.
Gather the papers you want to put into your journal, and punch them with the Zutter.
Next, stack them on top of the folded back book cover.
Following the instructions for your machine, and the size of O-ring you've used, carefully close the rings.
The spine is inconspicuously located to the side of the spine. I spent a moment, at this point, carefully coaxing and curving the spine to wrap nicely around the binding.
I will share my friend's beautiful journal, in another post.
I will share my friend's beautiful journal, in another post.
You might also like this article showing how I create an altered book art journal -- the lazy way!
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Thanks so much for stopping by!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
~Amanda