First off - my apologies. I meant to get this posted last Sunday, but then wasn't feeling well and the next day had an allergic reaction to some medication and I'm just now getting this post finished and up on the blog for you all.
So you've completed all of your pages, now it's time to tackle the book base and binding.
For this you'll need:
- One piece of 12" x 6" grunge paper. (Make sure to use grunge paper since it's thinner than grunge board and much more suited for this application.)
- Two of the grunge paper scraps that were left over when you were making the page bases.
- 3 eyelets
- One Tim Holtz hitch fastener.
- One elastic from 7ge.
into this?
It's like a Christmas miracle, right!? :)
This takes a little while to do, so grab your favorite cuppa somethin' and let's get started shall we?
First up, you need the piece of 12" long x 6" tall grunge paper and one of the 2" (ish) wide x 6" tall scraps along with the large ring binding mechanism.
Using a ruler, draw a pencil line 1/2" from the left edge of the large (12" x 6") piece of grunge paper.
Measure 5-7/8" from the left edge and draw another pencil line.
Measure 1/8" in from the left edge on the small (2-7/8" x 6") piece of grunge board and pencil a line. Place the ring binding mechanism on the piece and align the left edge to the pencil line, centering between top and bottom. Once it's centered, trace the holes in the ring binding mechanism (at the top and bottom) where the you'll put the eyelets (instead of the brads it comes with) to attach the binding mechanism.
This leaves you with a little edge of the cover sticking past the pages (see below).
Punch the binding holes using a 1/8" hole punch (I used my crop-a-dile to do this. You can use the handheld or the Big Bite to do it.)
Trim the merchandising strip off the bottom half of "Make a List" (PP-684). Then cut the paper in half so it's 12" wide and 6" tall. Save the top half and set the bottom half aside to use for the outside part of the cover in a bit. (We'll use the back side of the bottom half for the outside cover.)
Next, transfer the line on the grunge paper to the back of your interior pattern paper. Then transfer the the marks for the binding mechanism holes too. (Hint: Lay the pattern paper face up on top of the page then, lift at the bottom and turn it upside down -so what was the bottom edge of the paper becomes the top- and do the same with the grunge paper piece as well.) Once you've marked where the binding mechanism holes are, punch those with the Crop-a-dile too.
Push 1/8" eyelets through holes and place the small piece of grunge paper back on the large piece. (I used oval ones that I happened to have since those would offer more support, but you can use round ones too.) If you didn't get your binding mechanism aligned perfectly centered from top to bottom, it'll be important to make sure you have your top and bottom oriented correctly. Put a little adhesive on the back between the two eyelet holes and put on the small piece on the large piece, aligning to the line drawn 5-7/8" from the left edge.
Then stitch vertically on the left and right edges of the small grunge paper piece, DO NOT stitch the top and bottom.
(If you forget to insert the eyelets in the step before this, you can do it here... assuming you have good manual dexterity. I mean I totally didn't do that... right!)
Move over to the left edge of the large piece of grunge board. Take the second smaller piece of grunge board (2" wide x 6" tall) and align it to the 1/2" line and stitch it to the cover (This will leave a little ridge on the inside of the cover and an uneven front cover.
Align and fit another piece of grunge paper to fill the void on the front. Then glue it in place (but make sure not glue within 1/2 of the top, bottom, and outer edge (you'll be stitching along those edges later).
When you're done, you should have a flat cover like this:
Now we'll work on the outside of the cover. Remember this paper that you cut in half earlier? Grab the bottom half that you saved earlier and flip it over to the side with the lines.
Flip the bottom half paper piece over to the backside so that it's cream with lines. Cut the paper down the middle 4-3/4" from the left edge.
Glue the left piece to the left edge of the outside cover and the right piece to the outside edge of the right edge of the grungeboard. (There will be a gap in the middle and that's okay. See image above.) Keep the glue 1" away from the outside edge of the paper. Once you've glued it sew two lines of stitching about 1/8" apart from one another on the top, left, and bottom edges.
For these next couple of steps, I forgot to take pictures so we'll have to wing it a little bit okay?
- From the 8x8 paper pad tear out the sheet that is red with cream polka dots. Trim to 6" high by 8" wide.
- From a 12x12 piece of the PP676 - Make a Card, cut out the "Here comes Santa" in the lower right corner.
- Draw a line 2.25" from the right edge of the cover. Put a thin line of adhesive on the bottom right side of the red polka do paper, align to the left edge of the line and affix.
- Add adhesive to the middle of the back of the "Merry Christmas" santa that you cut out. You just need enough adhesive to tack it in place while you stitch it. Align the right edge of the yellow piece about 1/4" from the right edge of the cover. It should just cover the black lines on the right, and overlap the edge of red polka dot paper on the right.Then stitch up and down the the edges of the of the yellow piece about 1/16" from the edge -don't try to make it perfect... give it a little character!
This is where things will get a little challenging because you can't just lay everything flat and stitch since the red polka dot paper won't stretch to wrap around making the curved spine.
Add a little glue 1/2" from the left edge of the polka dot paper and affix so the edge is about 3.75" from the left (back) edge. When the grunge paper is laid flat it will have a bubble in the middle. Stitch two rows of stitching along the left edge.
At this point, the front cover should be complete. Yay!
Completing the Inside Cover
Find the top half of the "Make a List" paper that you set aside earlier. "Fayx" stitch around the outside edges of the paper about 1/4" from each edge.
Now you'll still have an exposed piece of grunge on the left side. Grab a scrap of blue and white snowflake paper and trim to 6" tall x 1.5" wide. Run stitching vertically on the left and right about 1/4" from the edge. Glue to grunge paper aligned to the outer (left) edge and under the "Make a List" paper.
Fit the piece over the two eyelets.
Fit the binding mechanism over the eyelets and secure with an eyelet setter. Glue down the "Make a List" paper.
Next, measure to the vertical center of the right edge of the front cover (next to the "here comes santa") and punch a 1/8" hole using the Crop-a-Dile. Attach a Tim Holtz Hitch Fastener.
Measure to the vertical center of the right edge of the back cover and punch another 1/8" hole (Near the candy cane). Put an eyelet through the hole and set with the Crop-a-dile. Push a Seven Gypsies (7ge) elastic fastener though the hole so it makes a loop.
Place the page you made into the ring binding mechanism.
And you're finished. Sit back, admire your work and then pat yourself on the back because you just made an entire album from scratch. Way to go! :)
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