“Recycled Junk Journal Tutorial – Part 4”

Hi Friends,

I am feeling a bit under the weather today as my back has been playing up and work is pretty hard yakka at the moment. I am resting up today and thought I might catch you up on my Tutorial if you are following along 🙂

PART 1 – “HERE”

PART 2 –  “HERE”

PART 3 – “HERE”

STEP 6 – Now we are on to making our signatures (a bundle of 6-8 pages)  You can use whatever you have for this part.  You can find a list I have put together for you “HERE”

 

As my book is larger than the standard say 5 x 7 journal I measured the length of my book and doubled it to get the right size pages. I then had to tape my pages together and they have an overlap which isn’t a problem as some I am using as pockets. I have made four lots of approx 8-10 pages for my Journal. You just make enough that will fit into the spine of your book. If you want to heavily embellish your pages, then less is better.

As you can see above I have used a variety of paper and ‘junk in signatures to create the book. I used a fair bit of scrapbook paper from my stash, coffee dyed paper, envelopes and doilies plus vellum, music sheets, book and ledger pages. You just fold them all in half and collate them to what order pleases you.

Above is a stack of signatures I have made for my new 2019/20 Planner which I have been working on this week also. You can see how the pages are created here ready to go into my Journal.

These are the 5 signatures I have completed for my Botanical Journal. I used a good mix of papers in it and happy with how they have come together.

STEP 7 – Now, it is time to bind your pages into your book, ready to use. There are quite a lot of different ways to do this, but the easiest I find is called the
Easy Twine Method and requires no sewing or special tools. This is the video I used from YouTube and is very easy to follow “HERE” 

First of all, put my signatures in order that I want to bind them.

As this journal is quite large, I am not using Twine as I don’t want it to rip my pages as it will have a bit of weight. Instead, am using a mix of my coffee dyed seam binding, trim and lace. I have decided also to tie each binding separate so the weight is evener. You will also find your journal will open flat to work in.

You can either tie one signature at a time straight into it or as I am doing above, I am tieing my trims on first to get them evenly space along the spine. They will move a little when you are using your book but that is fine as you can just slide them back.

 

I ended up trimming my pages down a smidge as they were getting caught as I put them through the binding. You just go to the centre of each lot of pages and gently coax them into the middle.

This is how each signature will look as you place them through each binding. Once you have them all in, I close the book, then work the biding and the pages to get them back even.

Your lovely new book will stand up nicely on it’s own and open to show all the pretties and ‘junque’ you have added to it to make it your own!!

Your lovely journal is now complete to this stage and now you can embellish it to your heart’s content. I will be adding some pockets and tuck spots plus adding stamping and lots of other items. I will create another post for you with some great video tutorials for you to make ephemera for your journals plus show you what I have created for it!

I hope you have joined in my Step by Step and you have completed a journal for yourself. I would love to hear from you if you do!!!

 

Now to clean up my disaster of a messy table to start again!!!

Happy Junking

Kerri x