Saturday Showcase - Eileen Hull Designs Notebook featuring Tim Holtz Typography Collage Paper

Hi everyone and welcome to another Saturday Showcase, the Design Team's chance to share tutorials and products available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique with you and kick start your creative weekend. Today I'm sharing a tutorial for the notebook project created for the current challenge 'Spring is in Full Bloom' using Eileen Hull Designs Scoreboards L Die 'Notebook' featuring Tim Holtz Wildflower Stems Thinlits Dies and his Typography Collage Paper.

The Tutorial

Begin by sticking a strip of Tim Holtz Typography Collage Paper width wise to the top of a sheet of Stick-Back Canvas using Distress Collage Medium Matte. Once dry cut along the bottom edge of the collaged piece of canvas. Since the canvas is 8 1/2 x 11 inches and the Collage Paper is 6 inches wide this should give you a piece that measures 8 1/2 x 6 inches.

(click on each photo for a closer look)

Die cut a Notebook using Eileen's Notebook Scoreboards Die from Matboard (or similar). The spine will already be scored for you in the cutting process. Using a sharp blade cut the spine from the covers along the two outer score lines.

Remove the backing to the covered Sticky-Back Canvas piece and place the die cut notebook pieces onto it, right side facing down, as shown below. The outer edges of the two covers should lie along the edges of the canvas first, then you can centre the spine more easily without the need for measuring. This gives you a perfect 1/4 inch gap between the spine and each cover with no measuring involved!

Fold over the 1/2 inch covered canvas at the top and bottom and stick to the inside of the covers and spine. Use a bone folder or similar to ensure the canvas strips between the spine and covers are stuck firmly in place. Cut a piece of plain Sticky-Back Canvas from the un-collaged leftovers wide enough to fit between the two covered strips on the back of the notebook. Your covers and spine should now be completely covered in canvas so they have level surfaces on the inside and out.

Use strips of Design Tape over each end of the covers to finish them neatly. The Remnants Design Tape collection coordinates with the Typography Collage Paper perfectly.

Apply little pieces of Typography Collage Paper with Distress Collage Medium Matte to the top of one of the smaller Lace Baseboard Frames. Once dry it is easier to trim away any excess by sanding it gently with a nail file. Paint the edges of the frame with White Gesso.

Before gluing the frame on the front cover I applied a little White Gesso over both the outside of the cover and the frame using a spatula to give it a more shabby chic look. It's not an essential step if you'd prefer your book to look 'cleaner'.

Die cut the smaller butterfly from thick card using Tim Holtz Tattered Butterfly Bigz Die. Paint it with 'Ancient' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint before sticking in place on the front cover as shown below. I used some foam tape under the wings to give them extra support when the book is used/handled.

For this portion of the tutorial I followed the guide found on this website How to Bind Your Own Hardback Book by instructables.com to create the text block and bind it to the cover.

Cut pages from copier paper measuring 4 7/8 x 7 inches and fold in half as shown below. I tea stained my copier paper in advance to coordinate with the cover. You will need two sheets for each signature (which can be cut from one sheet of copier paper) and I included 20 signatures (20 sheets) in total to my book.

Once folded and assembled stack your 20 two sheet signatures together with the spines facing towards you and draw a pencil line across the centre and an inch from each end. This should give you level marks for punching stitching holes through each signature with a Retractable Craft Pick or similar.

You can now stitch the signatures together using thick thread. I tend to refer to a helpful video tutorial for stitching text blocks which can be found here; DIY Kettle Stitch Bookbinding Tutorial by Sea Lemon.

Having cut a piece of plain calico cotton the same length as the spine and roughly 5 times as wide I glued the spine to the centre of the cloth, applying the glue to the fabric rather than the spine. This helps to stop the glue from seeping down between the pages. When dry you can add extra glue to the outside of the fabric on the spine for even more strength.

Once dry I glued each side of the fabric to the inside covers of the book, taking care only to add glue to the covers, not the spine or indented parts. This needs to dry thoroughly so it's a good idea to support each side of the text block with something heavy like tins.

Two extra pages were cut from another piece of copier paper, this time measuring 4 7/8 x 7 1/4 inches. Fold the paper so you have one side measuring 4 7/8 x 3 1/2 inches and the other side measuring a quarter inch wider at 4 7/8 x 3 3/4. Open the book out flat and apply glue to the first page of the text block, sticking the page that is 3 1/2 inches wide over it (it should match perfectly).

When dry add glue to the cover as shown below (again taking care not to add glue to the spine parts) and stick the 3 3/4  side of the page to it. When dry repeat these two steps at the back of the book. You should now have a completed hardback book which will open fully.

To finish decorating the front cover die cut stems and flowers from thick card using Tim Holtz Wildflower Stems Thinlits Die Sets (it may help to cut a couple of each from thinner card and stick them together to make thick pieces for durability). Paint the first stem with 'Lime' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint to give the card a non-porous surface on with to add a mix of 'Sublime' and 'Alchemy' Alcohol Pearl inks.

Paint the second stem with 'Ruby' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint before applying 'Deception' Alcohol Pearl ink on top.

For the final flower paint the stem with 'Evergreen' Acrylic Paint and the flower head with White Gesso both from Dina Wakley Media. Then apply 'Sublime' Alcohol Pearl ink to the stem and a mix of 'Enchanted' Alcohol Pearl ink with 'Pearl' Alcohol Ink Mixative. Stick the stems and flowers to the front of the book cover over the butterfly ensuring each is firmly glued in place before adding the next.

Linda stocks these beautiful Rose Gold Corner Protectors in The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Add them to each corner of the book covers, pressing them firmly together to fix in place.

Take a couple of the small metal corners from Tim Holtz Vignette Accents set and cover them with White Gesso. When dry sand them slightly to reveal some of the metal underneath. Glue these in place over two of the Lace Baseboards Frame on the cover.

To finish use Glossy Accents to stick Transparent Wings over the top of the flower bundle and wrap a little string and wire around the bottom of the stems. Add a Big Chat sticker to a piece of thick card and glue in place on the frame.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing today's Saturday Showcase tutorial and find the links helpful too. Don't forget there's still time to enter the current Frilly and Funkie challenge 'Spring is in Full Bloom' HERE.

Have a great weekend!
Jenny xxx

Links to the products used from The Funkie Junkie Boutique;

Eileen Hull Designs Sizzix ScoreBoards L Die - Notebook

Tim Holtz Ideaology Typography Collage Paper
Tim Holtz Ideaology Baseboard Frames - Lace
Tim Holtz Ideaology Transparent Wings
Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Thinlits Die Set Wildflower Stems #1
Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Thinlits Die Set Wildflower Stems #2
Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Bigz Die Tattered Butterfly
Tim Holtz Alcohol Pearls

Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - White Gesso, 1oz Bottle	Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - Ruby, 1oz Bottle	Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - Lime, 1oz Bottle	Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - Evergren, 1oz Bottle	Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - Ancient, 1oz Bottle	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Vignette Accents	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Big Chat Stickers TH93192
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Design Tape Remnants	4 Piece Rose Gold Corner Protectors