Good Saturday morning! It just dawned on me that we have another long Holiday weekend coming up – WOO HOO! I’ll be hiding in my stamp room trying to be creative! My first Stamp Club meeting of the year is next Saturday, I have new SU stamps not yet mounted and projects need to be planned. The same day the SU pre orders arrived, I also received my new Tim Holtz Anthology stamps. Which by the way, Rubbernecker Stamp Company currently has on sale!

Mallory was home the day the Anthology stamps arrived and needless to say, she went nuts over them. I also have had some Grunge Board around here for the last few weeks, which Mallory had already been into. Being my typical daughter, she wanted to know if I was going to make her a new journal to take back to school. The thought had crossed my mind, but her asking me to make one was just the push I needed. We sat down, discussed what colors she would like, and I went to work last night.

I think today, the first thing I will do is show you the products used to make the journal. This might turn into a mini tutorial of sorts and I would rather you know what is being used as we go along.

The list of what I used: Zutter Bind-it-All, 3/4″ Double OWire Binding, 7.5 x 5″ Chipboard Cover; Tim Holtz Distress Inks; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Tim Holtz Anthology Stamps, Tim Holtz Grunge Board Elements; White Cardstock; 6×9″ ruled writing tablet; and Mod Podge. (Most of these items you can find at My Favorite’s Page, and they also happen to be on sale.)

To start, cut the white cardstock to size so that you have four pieces to cover the front and back of the chipboard covers. Using Dusty Concord, Weathered Wood and Broken China Distress Inks, work the color onto the white cardstock with a sponge dauber, and then sponged the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink. (You can find these specific techniques in my Distressing Tutorial). Once these pages have dried, stamp the main images randomly using Black Soot. To add more texture to the pages, stitching around the edges was done with black thread.

To begin preparing the journal, the edges of the cover were inked with the Black Soot Distress Ink and then sponged toward the middle of the cover. (Since this particular journal is not covered completely with designer paper, I did not want the edges of the covers to show.)

Adhere the paper to the covers using Mod Podge. A thin coat of Mod Podge was painted on the cover, the paper was placed on the cover and using a brayer, roll across the top of the paper to get out any air bubbles and to make sure that all edges of the paper are adhered. This is important when running a cover through the Bind-it-All, so that the paper around the punched holes doesn’t come loose.

If you like lined pages in a journal, you can trim down the pages of writing tablet. These pages were trimmed down to 7-1/4″ x 4-3/4″ so that they would fit in the journal, but not come out to the edges.

We are not ready to assemble the journal. I find it easiest to work in order and assemble in order. Starting with the back cover, and using the Cover setting [C] on the Bind-it-All, line up the cover, press down in the center and then punch the first set of holes. To continue along with the line of punching, set the Bind-it-All to the Continuous setting [B], line up the next to last-punched hole in the notch, and continue punching. It is important to line up the next to last-punched hole, leaving one at the end, so that the punching will be continuous. You’ll find that if you don’t do this, you will have a gap in the holes. (How do I know this, well – I’ve done it!) At this point, I go ahead and punch the front cover and set it aside.

For the inside pages, use the Inner Pages setting [D], butt the edge of the paper up to the end, press down in the center and punch the first set of holes. Continue punching the remaining holes using the Continuous setting [B] as with the covers.

Once all the pages are punched, assemble the journal back to front as it would look when bound. Now here is the important part – flip that back cover over to the front, just as you would if it was attached with the coils. So what you have in order is, inside back cover, outside front cover, lined pages. Now thread the binding through the pages so that the square edge is on your left. To bind the journal, set the Bind-it-All to the width of the bindings. For this journal, 3/4″ since we are using 3/4″ Owires. Hold the journal by the covers and pages, placing the Owires into the binding section. Gently press the down on the handle until you feel the Owires come together.

To finish the front of the journal, I picked the largest Skull and Cross-Bones from the Grunge Board and covered it with Weathered Gray Distress Ink. I worked the ink down into the grooves of the Grunge Board, and then scraped the Dusty Concord pad across the top to highlight the design in the Grunge.

And here’s a picture of the inside of journal.