I was chatting with my mate Angela about folios and manila folders and a few other things. In the process I mentioned that I had used UK hanging folders as a substitute for proper manila folders before. It got me thinking and I decided to carry thru on something I have been thinking on for a long time.
Darling Daughter is doing more cooking (with assistance mostly) and is fascinated by recipes. Every week when she goes to Waitrose to shop, she comes home with piles or their free recipe cards. Sadly, many of them are loaded with carbs and sugar and for a Type 2 diabetic they are not ideal. We sort thru them, and pick the ones that can be adapted and the rest have been collecting in my craft room for ages.
My plan was to use them as the pages in an art journal. They are a good weight, they are a good size (about 1/2 A4 – A5 maybe? I forget) and they would fit nicely in a cover mad from one of the hanging folders.
So rather than a journal that is bound, my plan is to make the pages, loose, and work on them then use a slip knot binding (do you recall the little collage book I made with that binding?) so I can basically bind them as I finish them and also keep adding pages till I decide I am done. As you can see the cards fit perfectly into the covers.
I need to unearth something before I can move on, and it may take me a moment to find it, but I will share more forward progress tomorrow! But Thursday I expect to have MORE cards, as Weds night is shopping LOL!
Yeah so the ribbon binding worked, but not as well as I had hoped.
The problem MIGHT have been the extra space I added as “ease” using the paper clips.
It looks great.
The central blue thin ribbon is very long, creating a wraparound tie. I love the rows of ribbon, rather than the original version where the ribbon wove and carried on till the ribbon ran out, when a new one began. The problem is that while, yes, I can open the pamphlets to see the covers, it is just not as stable as it could be.
Open, it looks ok-ish
But when you open the pamphlets it all goes a bit wonky. and it slips into disarray easily.
I can see how, had I stuck the pamphlets to each other as in the original, it would have been an all together more stable structure! That was easy to model with paper clips
and it opens perfectly well and lays flat with those in place.
So I am left with a dilemma!
Use the book as is? For something…but what?
Do I stick all the pretty pamphlets together to make a more stable structure?
Do I cut the ribbons and un-weave them, leaving me with two pamphlets that have ribbon on them and four that do not? Use them as small books for … something else?
Honestly it is such a lovely colourful thing. I learned a whole lot making it, and know I could easily make another one if I wanted to just make two pretty decorated pamphlets for 2025 and bind them at the end of the year. But it is not going to work to bind my 2024 Daily Journals after the fact. Which is fine, I already have the book I have gutted to make the holder for Jan to June, using the same method I used for the July to Dec. ones from last year. It was pretty easy, I like how it works, and I can make two the same. OR I could find another bigger book or maybe expand the spine on this one to bind all the year in one. While I think that may be too fat to deal with, it is a possibility. I think I will see how I feel about it in May!
You may still see my version of a Pamphlet Palooza book in the future, who knows?
I have them loosely laid out in the order I will use them but it will undoubtedly change as I add them. The method, from what I can glean, is to weave the ribbons thru the threads of the pamphlet stitches in each of the pamphlets. Easy enough. Not here is the alteration: in the original the pamphlets are stuck together. Obviously I do not want to do that, as MY pamphlets are decorated on the covers with the month and year. So I am not sticking them together but trying to bind them using the ribbons. I’ve wedged a jumbo paper clip between the pamphlets to give them some room. I am flying by the seat of my pants here, cause I really can’t sort out without doing it how the spine will operate in the end!
I found that clamping the whole book together made the weaving of the ribbons a lot easier. It did pop the binding edge a bit so the paper clips might not have been needed but I wanted to be sure
My thoght was that I could stick the ribbons to the covers to hold the structure together and the little bit of extra give would allow me to open them where the covers were.
I am doing the sides then letting them really dry (using Art Glitter Glue to stick the ribbons) then once it is all dry I will test it. I am worried I am going to be disappointed, based on what “testing” I could do with a structure that was not held together in any way…I’ll know by tomorrow!
I really love the little corner tool from the WRMK bookbinding kit for cutting the corners with ease. I always make little placement errors when I just wing it, so it it super handy to have this.
I think they came out really nice – I love the papers I picked for each book and feel they all work nicely together. It was each to create an A3 canvas in Affinity with two different papers in it so I didn’t need to either cut the paper in half and print two times or use a single paper for two booklets unless I wanted to – like for the first and last ones that create the covers.
I tested out a few options for lining the covers – the grid paper I liked a lot but it was too thin and you could see the cover paper at the edges thru it. The white paper was just the right size already, but too stark. Some of the page-paper that I had cut and not used fit but was to much the same. But I had a bit of nicer weight packing paper that Amazon seemed to use for a while then stopped. That worked best as there was a little contrast to the pages.
Tomorrow I get to move on to the really fun part – the binding. Time to test out if it will work!
OK so the book project is one I have seen called Pamphlet Palooza. Not many samples to be found but it looks pretty straightforward. I am planning to test out an alteration that might allow me to bind my monthly pamphlet journals at the end of the year, rather than making a book to hold them. We shall see. The first step i to make all the pamphlets. I am using Amazon packaging for all of it – except printed sheets from my painted paper collection. More about that later.
The covers will all be from the outer packaging and the pages from packing paper, which I like to use for my Daily Journals, but a bit smaller.
I made 12 of the covers, but in the end I think I am going to limit myself to six, as this is just a tester project and the six will be chunky enough. To be fair, the covers are a lot thicker than the sample book covers but with my changes, that may be needed. Time will tell.
Cutting the pages for the signatures took far longer than I expected.Glad is decided to use just six!
I clamped them while I work on the covers. I am using scanned papers and printed them on something called Sulphite Paper – I got a pack of Tru-ray paper while I was in the USA and it has a really nice feel to it, rougher on one side than the other, and takes printer ink beautifully. My new printer prints edge to edge so A3 edge to edge gets me two covers no problem.
Covering all the pamphlets is going to take some time…
So if you look back you will see the dual pamphlet booklet I shared.
I had the thought that I could double the double-pamphlet and sew in FOUR folios. And I did.
Here’s the problem. It is really really hard to show in photos. I will try to give you some guidance on it, and happy to answer any questions, but I gotta admit the photos (while the best I could manage) are not great. With that being said…
The key, I think, is the spine. Where the original had a single pleat in the centre, with two folios sen, one either side, for the double dual you need two pleats.
Now, I added the tiny little extra pleat because I thought it would be easier to sew in the two pairs of folios and while it was easy enough, I don’t know if the extra pleat helped any more than just two would have. I did have a bit of a disaster in that my cover paper (which was not super thick) ripped. Oh blast. I ended up sticking it to another bit of paper.
As with the original, I clamped two pairs of folios (each of five signatures), one pair to each pleat
You can see the tiny pleat in between
The tricky part is that you need to work on one pair at a time, and the extra bits need to fold back and hang out of the way (left) or you need to work on only one pair at a time (right)
I used a three hole pamphlet this time and that seemed to be secure enough. Then I decided to glue the tiny pleat closed.
So did that mean I didn’t need it? I don’t think I will know till I make another! but I do really love how it looks, with all the threads and stitching INSIDE the booklet and not on the spine. It looks more finished somehow.
I will be putting aside the book-ply so pop back tomorrow for a little freebie that I hope you will find useful.
OK so I realized that the photos from Friday were not great and the whole process might be a little confusing. I wanted to make another so I did and tried to take some better photos. In the process I had a few ideas that I may try, which I think will make the book even more interesting.
You will need two folios of six sheets each, folded in half and nested. I made mine 4 x 6 inches then trimmed so the inner pages did not extend past 4 inches. Ideally you will have a long sheet of cardstock weight paper that is just a bit over the height (maybe 6 1/2 inches) and 4 1/2 x the width of your book. Three or four times the width is workable. We don’t all have huge sheets of paper or card hanging about. My sheet was just about 16 inches wide, and I made it work!
Folding the cover.
Fold the cover in half, then fold one side back, leaving 3/4 inch of the cover from the original fold. Fold the other cover side to match.
Open the cover and lay it out with the little pleat upward and the front of the cover face down on the desk. Add your two folios on either side like so:
Mine were cut from paper on a roll so they are still a bit round-y looking!
Grab the topmost halves and pull them up so they touch and are either side of the pleat and clamp them together like so. The covers are face-to-face, hanging down, and the inner halves of both folios sandwich the pleat.
Lay the structure down, with the outer halves of the folios and the face-to-face covers at the bottom, and just the inner halves of the folios sandwiching the pleat to the top. On something that will protect your desk (like a cork tile or self healing mat) punch your five holes for a 5-hole pamphlet stitch. Two holes, about 1/2 inch from the top and from the bottom, one in the middle, and one either side, evenly spaced like below. Does not have to be perfect!
Sew the 5-hole pamphlet stitch with waxed linen thread. Now fold the folios together with the covers around them. The pleat will be dead centre of the book.
As you can see, the sewing is all inside the book, no threads show on the outside!
Now, if you had paper that was a good 4 1/2 to 5 times the width of your book, you would perhaps have to trim. Mine was just about 4 times the width. I folded the extra in and stuck it to the inside of the cover.
Done. I think if the pleat in the middle were wider it might make a pocket. It may solve the problem of needing a very very wide strip for the cover if you used two strips, not joined in the middle, then stuck the top and bottom edges to make a pocket that way!
Likewise, you could use heavier cardstock and create pockets from the edge I folded over and stuck. I was using decent, but not heavy weight pained paper for my cover.
I think this is a really lovely way to easily bind a book with more folios/pages inside and more stability that a traditional pamphlet stitch. I just think it has a lot of potential and hope you give it a go!
Well that was fun! I waxed the piece and while you can’t see much difference in the photos, you can certainly feel it. The right photo is the waxed version – there is a slight muted look, but otherwise no real difference.
I didn’t make a super large piece, so where some got a handful of small books, I knew I would get one or two really good ones, and maybe a couple of small ones. In the end I opted for one with a bit of a different result, a dual pamphlet, that used a bit more for the cover piece.
I regret not doing a bunch more papers while I was simmering the cover. Oh well. I did manage two sets of five papers each.
and the best slice of the cover.
The only difference between a regular single pamphlet and the dual one is you need a little pleat i the middle of the cover, like an M, valley, mountain, valley, mountain.
You place the signatures either side and clamp them with the inner halves standing up then fold the outer halves back. As I type it I realize that makes no sense LOL! I doubt this will help…but maybe?
When you poke the holes for the 5-hole pamphlet stitch it will be going in the valley of each signature and thru the little pleat. The end result is that the stitching is enclosed inside, rather than being on the spine.
Book done!
I know that wasn’t very clear, so I will try to find a video for this and/or do a better photo shoot with plain paper so it is less chaotic. But I think this may be my new favourite pamphlet stitch version for sure. Hopefully over the weekend I’ll have some time.
I will make more of these sheets, now I knew the process and learned some tips and tricks.
I am coming to the end of my year of daily journaling and I need to make a second journal keeper. I wanted to streamline the process and not use the elastic I used for the first one (see that here) and all the eyelets. I had an old book from the charity shop that was perfect for my journals. I’ll bet you can find one too, but if not, heavy chipboard is going to work.
For mine I needed the book, gutted, with all the original pages cut out, a piece of heavy chipboard to fit the spine and both lining and decorative paper. Also a spreader/credit card, string, tape (washi or other) and glue.
Stick the heavy chipboard to the inside of the spine of the book. If you went back to look at the original one you may have noticed the tension on the elastic bowed the spine. This extra thickness will help with that, I think.
2. I lined the inside of the book with the same packing paper I used for signatures for all (but one) of my 2023 journals. Partly because I wanted to use the same paper I had used on the Jan to June keeper on this one and the bit I had left was not a lot bigger than the cover of the book dimensions.
That little blue piece is another bit from the WRMK bookbinding set. Very helpful.
3. I wrapped the spine with brown paper tape and a strip of black washi tape for a bit of extra decoration. Stick the cover papers to the front and back of the book. Here you can see the papers, some of my original gel prints, that I used for the Jan to June keeper and what I have left for this one.
4. Rather than all the eyelets and elastic, I just used a thick twine to tie in the journals.
I love the look of the tied strands on the outside spine, and it holds the journals perfectly well inside.
They are very easy to slip in and out as well. Although I am not intending to be going in to pull them out often, I can see that I may want to at some point. Likewise it is actually super easy to read them in situ.
Just to point out, I really had not totally standardized my monthly booklets for 2023. Look at the variation!
You can really see the thickness of the November journal, the one that I did in the more junk journal style, compared to the thinner recycled paper versions!
I think the old-book version is a super easy way to do this and I will be on the lookout for other books of the perfect size moving forward. My only regret is not adding the July-December 2023 to the spine before I tied them in. The great thing is I will be able to slip out all of the booklets, and with the string loose, move it aside to add that, then replace the booklets. I would never have been able to do that with the elastic!
I will share that when I do it or drop a photo into the post before it publishes, depending on how busy I am packing!
Monday is jet-lag day but (I hope) a wrap up and some new 2024 calendars for your Christmas gift-giving projects or 2024 planner making. Phew.
Well that sounds confusing! Luckily the process is very easy.
The first thing you need to do is decide on the signature paper. I have done three different versions, The one I used all of last year, and the one I like best cause it uses totally free materials, is the ones made from Amazon packing paper. For this year I am experimenting with lined paper (weirdly, I had in my stash a chunk from one of Darling Daughter’s old school books that was exactly EIGHT sheets. Perfect.) and also plain printer paper. My thoughts on each.
Amazon packing paper – it is thin, free, and while it comes pretty wrinkled you CAN iron it. Just mist it lightly and iron it on a med to med-high setting. The warm brown is really comforting.
2. Lined (or grid or dot)paper – if you struggle to keep your writing straight and (this is crucial) it bothers you that the lines waver, this is a good option.
3. Printer paper – depending on the weight, this is a good choice, especially if you like to sketch or draw in your daily journals. I don’t and for me, the stark white page is less comforting than the recycled paper.
I did experiment with a mixed paper, junk journal style. That may appeal to you but I did not like it. It was much more work to create and made for a much thicker book. You do you.
There are only a handful of steps:
Print, trim, fold the cover. Print your cover. If you are not using a printable (either from my downloads of last week or some other digital file) and are using a piece of say scrapbook paper, or a piece of your own original art (and I would suggest scanning and printing it instead, but that’s just me…) then the dimensions of my covers are 10 x 7 3/4 inches. That gives you a finished booklet of 7 3/4 by 5 inches.
Line it if need be. Depending on the weight of your cover print, paper or card you can line the cover with a nice sheet of cardstock. I have a stash of some linen card that I have used. But you can do other things! Collage the back of the cover. Print two covers and stick them back-to-back. Line with watercolour paper – anything to get to the weight you want. Score it and fold it in half. Round the corners if you like. I tend to.
You can see I used one of my samples from the Mixed-Media group for this. Aee some other samples at the bottom of this post.
3. Prepare your signatures. I tend to create eight sheets, slightly smaller than the covers. 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches is fine. If you have changed the size of the cover, you’ll have to figure out your best signature size to fit! I pick eight as that gives me 32 sides and I only ever need 31 if I am using one side per day. If I am super chatty and use more, I can always find a way to fit two days on one side to make up for it.
4. Punch the holes for your 3-hole or 5-hole pamphlet stitch. I usually do five, but honestly with this small number of signatures you only need a three.
You can make a guide from paper, and you can see my old 5-hole version here, in my DIY bookbinding cradle, or use a tool like the WRMK Bookbinding set.
As a general rule for the easy 3-hole you will punch:
one hole in the middle and two holes either side evenly spaced. It won’t be super exact, but doesn’t need to be. I would eyeball it but at 1 1/2 inches, at 3 3/4 inches and at 6 inches is reasonable and easy to measure!
For 2024 I think the 3-hole is the way to go. Here is a trick for getting the holes poked without a book binding cradle! Get a nice thick book and open it to the middle. Put your signature stack into the folded cover and tamp it down so they are right down in the crease. Use bulldog or binder clips or even big paper clips to secure the signatures in the cover then snug that right into the fold of the book. See how similar the effect is? Left is the cradle, right is just a book!
Poke your holes and sew the pamphlet stitch with waxed or heavy thread. These are light pamphlets so plain thread, embroidery thread, whatever will be fine.
Basically that is it. I add the month and now for 2024, the year, to the cover. Not picked my letter stickers for this one yet as I am not sure what month I will use it for! You can see I have my December one done (using one of the Gel Print covers) and January 2024 (using another of the Mixed Media covers) already done.
This is the most basic sewn bookbinding ever and a good skill to master. I hope you will give it a go on these Daily Journals or maybe junk journals or Glue books or any other small book.
Tomorrow, how I collect my journals into a larger storage book!
scrappystickyinkymess 