This month the design team for Eileen Hull Designs is showing you how to make some fun and interactive pages for your journals. Seems like we focus on the covers alot, but the insides are just as important, maybe even more so!
I used the Pocket Notebook die to make my Halloween mini and primarily used Tim Holtz and Authentique halloween collections from previous years. Here's a quick look. The bright orange is a foil paper that I tamed with splotches of brown, yellow and black paints along with a little rust embossing powder. The fabulous
witch silhouette chipboard is from Creative Embellishments.
The First Signature
(Note: all my measurements are width x length)
I created the first signature with two pages cut using the Pocket Notebook die. Just fold your paper in half and run it through your die-cut machine. Place a page on top of another.
The first page looks like a simple layered page right? Oooh, but it is not. It is glued around the edges to the next page forming a pocket. I like to cut a half circle for a thumb hold on the 2nd page and put a scrap of contrasting paper underneath the thumb hold area on the first page so that you can see it. Then glue arount the top, bottom and right side to form a pocket. At this point your signature should have 3 base pages, in my case they are all black.
In the photo below you can see my finished page with a file folder partially slipped into the pocket. Well since I follow the "more is better policy" I decided to add a tuck pocket over top the pocket. This is so easy to do, just glue around the top, bottom and right side of a piece of paper cut to fit and glue. You want to use a glue that allows you to squeeze out a very thin line for this application. So now we have a tags pocket over top a file folder pocket!
On the right side I created a waterfall for lots of photos and journaling. These are easy to make I promise. Cut papers for each of the waterfall pieces. For this journal I cut 5 pieces 3.25" x 4" . Score the top of each paper at .5". Fold under at the score line and use Scor-tape to adhere about a half inch from the top of the middle black base page. Take care to get this nice and straight as it determines the line up of the remaining 4 pieces.
Once you've adhered the first piece, fold under at the score-line of a 2nd piece and adhere adjacent to the first piece and so on with all the cut pieces. You can see how this looks in this photo.
Finish it off by adding a long strip at the bottom that folds over all the pages and secures with a tuck underneath an embellishment. I used a sticker and put paper over the back of the round part so that wouldn't be sticky. The strip tucks easily under the circle part and the two sides serve to hold it in place. Easy peasy!
I forgot to warn you, this is a photo heavy long post. You might want to grab your favorite beverage!
Turn the page and we have another pocket. Same priciple, just adhere to the bottom of the page rather than along the the side.
On the insde of the 3rd page there is a fun fold out page that opens up like this. I made that by cutting a piece of paper 8.75" x 6" and scoring vertically at 3" and 6.5". Now glue the center panel to the inside of the 3rd page base. Then I added additional layers of paper and cut-aparts to dress it up.
The Second Signature
There are also two base pages in the 2nd signature. I used design paper to cut these two pages. For the front of the signature, I layerd some additional papers over the base and used a cut-apart but rather than glue the cut-apart down, I made a flip by scoring vertically on the cut-apart on the left side at 3/8", folded it under and adhered to the page so that the entire card is visible when opened.
Then I added a fussy cut piece underneath the flip out.
On the inside of the first base page I created another pocket but I made this so that it could hold a tiny mini. I cut a piece of design paper 3.5" x 6" and put 1/8" thick foam tape on the top, bottom and right sides and adhered to the base page. The thickness of the foam tape allows a small mini to easily fit inside. I used to Passport Book die to cut the pages for this little mini and used a piece of jute twine to bind it together. You can see it peeking out of it's pocket in the photo below.
For the 2nd base page we need to start from the inside. I took a 6 x 6" paper and scored at 2". Then I cut a spiderweb transparency to 3.5" x 6" and sewed it along the top, bottom, and left sides forming a transparent pocket. Let me give you some ideas how you can use transparencies. If you're making a journal to carry around where you can make notes, etc. think how handy a see through pocket would be for holding business cards or notes that you want to be readily visible. You could stitch across the middle and make two small pockets, perfect for business cards!
Now I wanted the page to be 8" wide so I simply adhered another paper to the 2" flap making my page 8" wide.
(inside of page)
(outside of page)
To finish up the outside of the 2nd page, I simply added a cut apart. See 4th photo up.
I finished up the inside by adding some tags and stickers. The tags were cut with Eileen's Bookplate, Hinge and Label dies. I thought the bookplate resembled a tombstone so I thought it was perfect for this book!
On the next page, I created yet another different pocket. I like this style pocket for holding receipts and that kind of thing. To make this pocket I started with a piece of design paper 3.5 x 5.5". Measure about 2" vertically up from the bottom and about 1" horizontally from the right, then connect those two points and you have a guide for making the diagonal cut.
The right side page is a fold out. I cut a black piece of cardstock 11" x 6" and scored at .5", 4", and 7.5" vertically. Fold the .5" piece under and the other pieces accordion style and adhere the 1/2" tab to the base card. (I like to use Scor-tape for this application.
Accordion folded out:
View with the accordion fold flipped over. To hide the .5" tab I cut a piece of design paper 3.25" x 6", scored at 3/8" and adhered over the black tab.
Now that last piece we adhered over the tab, flips over to reveal another spot for photos etc.
That's it! I hope I've given you some ideas for your pages in your minis and journals. It's really fun to think of ways to add unique spaces to your journals.
Be sure to stop
by Eileen's blog and see what the rest of the design team has to show you!
