Binding your Life Book! (weeeeeee!)api.ning.com/.../LifeBook2012Decwalkthrough.pdf* Binding your Life Book! (weeeeeee!) * Hello beautiful friend! Oh my goodness you guys! It's here!

* Binding your Life Book! (weeeeeee!) *

Hello beautiful friend!

Oh my goodness you guys! It's here! It's time to bind your pages together into your own,

special, personal, beautiful Life Book! This is what we've been working towards this whole

year! Weeee, it's time! :) (Can you see that

I'm excited about this?) I can't wait to see

some of your bound books!

Ok, you'll need the following materials to

bind your book:

• Binding Rings• Hole punch tool(s)• Scrapbooking papers (optional)• 2 pieces of thick cardboard for the covers• Stanley knife• Ruler• Matt medium for glue

I got my binding rings from this site www.bindingbazaar.com - annoyingly, they only sell

their rings in amounts of 50 or 100. So if you don't want to buy from them, you can buy

some from me OR you can try find some on amazon or from local craft stores.

To buy any of my rings click here

(the large ones have sold out at this point)

The single hole punch equipment I bought are

here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toolzone-

Punches-Leather-Gaskets-Plastic/dp...

But you might have another sturdy hole puncher

you may want to use, these were just the best

ones for me I found.

The scrapbooking papers I used were a variety of:

K & Company - Specialty Papers 28 sheets

double sided - "Lofty ...

(Most of my back pages come from this pack,

they were the right size and had a good weight,

plus they were double-sided - they are, however,

also the priciest of them all)

"Summer Blues" - Paper Pad - Tilda

Complete Boy - Jen Wilson (although I didn't use

many of these as they are quite thin, but they ARE

gorgeous!).

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Paper Stash Lost and

Found

Preparing your Pages

There are several ways that you can prepare

your pages. Because I was concerned with

wanting my pages to be as thick as the strip

I was adding, my initial approach was to add

a layer of watercolour paper on top of the

scrapbooking paper I attached. Eventually I

changed my mind about that as I really liked

the look of a patterned strip, so I decided to

simply double up the scrapbooking paper on

the strip. This did mean that the strips were

slightly thinner than the overall pages, but

not so thin that it bothered me. Below I

explain a few ways you can add strips to

your pages through which you will

-eventually- punch your holes.

Adding strips to your pages

The strips will be the place where we are going to punch the holes through.

If you are on a budget and don't want to use up a lot of scrapbooking paper, you can a)

decide to use white card to create your strips, or b) you can use scrapbooking paper and

not cover the entire back of your page, but perhaps only half of your page, or even just a

3rd.

If you want your strips to be the exact same thickness as your pages, add a strip of

watercolour paper of the same weight to the scrapbooking paper.

Step 1. Pick out a piece of scrapbooking

paper for one of your pages.

Step 2.a. Cut your scrapbooking paper so

that you have either 1 inch left on the left

side of your painted page OR 2 inches. If

you want to make your strips the same

thickness as your pages, allow 1 inch only

and glue a 1 inch strip of watercolour paper

on top like so:

----------------------------------------------------- >

Step 2.b. If you want to have your strip

have a nice scrapbooking look, then allow 2

inches, fold over your strip and glue down.

Step 3. Glue down your pages onto your

scrapbooking paper (or card) with matt

medium.

Step 4. With a blunt implement scrape

down over your page to remove any air

bubbles and for even distribution of the

medium.

Step 5. Once you have prepared all your

pages with strips, it's time to punch some

holes!

Step 6. Best way to make sure to get all the

holes in the right place is to start with 1

page first. My guidance for placement is:

half an inch from the top and half an inch

from the bottom and then equal spacing in

between.

Step 7. Punch holes in your first page and use it as a

mould/ gauge for your other pages. I actually drew

the holes on all the strips so that I knew for sure they

were all going to be exactly in the same place.

Step 8. Get a hunky man to do your hole

punching for you! ;) My husband was kind

enough to help me out.

Step 9. Once you have all your pages hole-

punched, choose the order you want them in

(don't worry, the beauty of this is that you can

re-order them later should you want to.

Creating your Covers

You will need two pieces of sturdy cardboard to create your covers. They need to be the

same size as your pages (including the strips). Often you can use the backing of your

watercolour pads, but any other kind of sturdy cardboard will do as well. You can decorate

your cover however way you like. I stuck with a fairly simple collage approach.

Step 1. I covered my piece of cardboard in

brown packing paper as a background. I cut

the packing paper to be about 2 inches

larger on each side of the board, then cut off

the corners and glued down the sides.

Step 2. I then glued some collage papers on

top of the brown packing paper in a

pleasing-to-me lay out.

Step 3. I glued a piece of scrapbooking

paper on the inside of the front cover.

Step 4. I printed out a title for my book, a

dedication to you guys (<3), gratitude to the

teachers and gratitude to my family.

I added my dedication/ title and

gratitude to the front and back

covers. I then considered if I wanted

to add in any other pages. I printed

out one of my favourite poems to be

included in the book.

Once you have all your pages and covers

ready, make sure to line them up in such a

way that all the holes are in perfect alignment.

Finally, 'thread' your rings through the holes. Note that depending on the kind of ring you

have, you may need to jiggle a bit to get them to go through properly.

When you've added all your rings, your book is bound and finished. :0)

Sit down and take a moment to be proud of yourself! You are awesome! :D

Dear Awesome Life Book 2012 Student.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining me on this crazy journey of the very first ever Life Book!

I am deeply grateful for your support, the enthusiasm you have expressed throughout the year, your posted work, your support for each other. Your sharing of your joy,

confusion and sadness too.

I've been awed at the progress I've seen some of you make, heart-warmed by some of the love you've expressed, smiled at

the camaraderie and friendships made.

It's sad to think that Life Book 2012 is nearly over, though endings make way for new beginnings and of course, big new beginnings are ahead of all of us!

My deepest gratitude and love go out to all of you for having joined myself and the guest teachers on this spectacular journey.

Big hugs, love and moonbeams to all of you. Tamxoox

www.willowing.org