Pocket Notebook for Eileen Hull Designs

Hello friends!  Today I'm sharing a pocket notebook that I made using Eileen Hull Designs XL dies.    It's a great size at  4 1/4" x 6 3/4".

On the front I've used Eileen's Mailable Frame to create a pocket where a photo can be inserted.  A personal photo makes the cover so meaningful.  I used a photo of a Mama Bear looking for her 3 cubs that I took at Katmai National Park in Alaska.  Let me tell you, those cubs were having a blast while Mom was gorging herself on the salmon in the river!!  Later that day Mom got out of the water and took a nap.  Well, while she was napping the cubs were all over a Kubota tractor chewing on the seat and tires.  It was quite funny!

I just know you want to see a photo of those cubs being hooligans so here they are playing on the tractor.  (The tractor was being used as an anchor for a bridge that crossed over the river.  The winds were  so strong that day that they needed to hold the bridge in place.)

There are plenty of tutorials on how to make the pocket notebook so I'm not going to go through that again.  However, let me show you how to make this simple closure.

I didn't want the holes to show up on the front cover so I marked where the picture frame would be and punched a hole just above and just below.  I put eyelets in the holes just because I thought that would give it a finished look.  Note:  I put the front side of the eyelet on the inside of the cover since that is the hole that you will see.  Then just thread elastic through the hole and tie a double or triple knot in the ends. 

This is the inside front cover.  You can see that the elastic wraps over the top and bottom of the cover and is knotted on the inside.

To make the frame, I covered a piece of light weight chipboard with cardstock and ran it through my Vagabond die-cutting machine.  I cut the "V" shaped tab off the bottom and trimmed 1/8" off each side.  Then I just folded it up, glued on the outer edge of each side, and then adhered to the front of the notebook, allowing the right side to "hang" off just a little bit.

Here you can see the frame in place on the cover.  I added design paper over the cardstock.  You can also see that the holes are barely visible and once I added flowers they can't be seen at all.

On the back cover I am using Eileen's Red Liner Tape to hold the two covers together..  I like to use this tape when adhering my covers as it is really strong and holds well.  This is the basic cover design.  Now just need to add embellishments and some design paper.

Be sure to watch this video flip through to see all the details of the signature and a few more hints about putting this all together.

I also like to cover the spine after stringing it so that the strings don't show on the outside. 

Eileen Hull Designs by Sizzix Used

Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Frame, Mailable

Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Pocket Notebook

Eileen Hull Easy Cut Adhesive Sheets 6” x 12” sheets (4 sheets per pack)

Eileen Hull Red Liner Tape 1/4 in x 6 yd

Thanks so much for joining me!  Be sure to visit Eileen's blog to keep up with all the happenings and to see what the rest of the design team has done.

Join us in the Eileen Hull Fan Club on Facebook, there's always lots of great things to see and learn there.