From Coast to Coast Creations

Some of you will have already made a star book, to others this may be a completely new venture.  Whichever person you are I am sure that when you start making star books you become hooked.

For the people who don't know what a star book is, it is a card made up of a number of cards (usually 5 or 7). No matter what size you prefer to make the instructions run true to each size.  The first star book I made was with A4 card.  The size book that I will now describe is atc size!!

Step 1:

Cut 10 pieces of card measuring 5 inch x 3.5 inch.

Step 2:

Fold all the card in half so that they measure 2.5 inch x 3.5 inch.  Make sure that you give the crease a nice crisp finish.

Take 5 of the cards and cut an aperature into them.  I have used a rectangular shape but you can use any shape you wish, the only stipulation is that the hole is no wider than half the card. i.e. your card width is 5 inch so you can have a hole 2.5 inch but that needs to be exactly in the middle of the card. An easy way to find how wide to cut is to open out your folded card and take first the right hand side and fold it into the centre fold, then repeat with the left hand side.  Your card will now be in equal quarters.  The cards can look lovely putting a heart in the centre or a star, be brave and try out different shapes!!

Step 3:

Now take your cards and either cover with papers or as I have stamp them.  You may wish to use colours, paints, whatever you fancy.  I have also found that a peel-off around the aperature can really finish off the card.

Step 4:

Now you need to start putting your card  together. Glue the left quarter of your aperature card and stick to the left side of your full card.  Do the same on the right hand side, so that it looks the same as the picture alongside.  I have also used two strips of double sided tape for sticking the two cards together, yet again the choice is yours, do what works best for you!!.

Put all 5 (7) sets of cards together as described.

Step 5:

Now aking each "card" place them together so that you make your "star".  Stick the back of each card to the front of the next, but make sure that you don't stick all of them together (because you need to be able to fold the card up)

Step 6:

Now comes the fun part!!  Decorate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  You can decorate it as much or as little as you like.  This is how I've decorated mine.

Step 7:

You finally need to fit ribbons onto the card in order to be able to a) keep it close and b) tie it open.  The following pictures show you how I've done it, but I'm sure that you must have your own ideas about how to do it.

Step 8:

Enjoy Yourself!!!!!

I hope that this guide to making star books has been informative and that you find it easy to understand.

Take A 4 piece of paper

Fold in half                      

      Fold in half again   

       open out paper to see 4 equal creased parts 

       Fold up paper at each end

         Fold corners into first crease line at both sides                                                  Fold over at crease lines

           Turn paper over

         Fold bottom ende up to within aprox half inch of top

        Fold top down to to of folded up paper                             Tuck top into small corners       

      Fold in half along crease line

I fitted these pages into the book using brads, but putting 2 sets of folded paper in I can hold 8 atc's in the book.

Stamp an image with StazOn in onto a clear cold laminate sheet.  Next remove the paper backing and lay the stamped image onto your work surface sticky side up.  Trima piece of printed background paper to be transferred just larger than your stamped image.  Place the paper inked side down onto the sticky piece.  Rub with your fingers to release any air bubbles.  Flip the piece over and burnish it with a spoon.  Now trim closely around your image.  Place the stamped piece into a container with enough water to completely cover.  Allow it to sit for just a few minutes in order to soften the paper.  Under running water start rubbing the back of the piece.  You will see that only the ink colour remains because it is stuck to the adhesive of the laminate.  Be careful not to run too hard otherwise you will remove al of the colour. 

Next gently wipe the excess water from the trasfer and then allow to completely dry before using it on your project.

1. Place one sheet of A4 acetate into your work surface.  In the centre of the acetate, place a pool of Glossy Accents, aproximately the size of a 2 pence piece.
2. Take two or three different colours of inks and drop them randomly across the centre of the acetate, near the pool of Glossy Accents.  Try to create small gaps between the different colours so that they don't blend together.....yet!
3. Place the second piece of acetate on to of the one with the inks and press them both together.
4. Use a rubber brayer to spread the inks and Glossy Accents across the surface of the acetate.
5. Remove the top piece of acetate from the bottom and set aside for a second, whilst you work with the bottom piece of acetate.
6. Take two sheets of glossy cardstock and place them back to back so that the glossy sides face outwards.
7. Place these two cards onto the inky acetate then place the other acetate sheet over the top to make a "sandwich".
8. Run the brayer across the acetate, moving in various directions.  Go over the whole surface to achieve a good even coverage.
9. Remove the top sheet of acetate and then separate all the cards and acetate from one another. You will now have two sheets of glossy card with a smooshed background and two sheets of smooshed acetate too!
10. Set all the pieces to one side to air dry naturally.  Once they have dried you will notice that the Glossy Accents have dried into a raised dimensional finish, giving a textural smooshed inked background effect.

Technique steps:

1. Prepare your piece to be embossed. The base cardstock needs to be very thick - mat board or similar, due to the fact that thin card will just buckle and curl.
2. Make sure that the ink on your design is totally dry, then cover the piece with clear embossing ink.  This will give your piece the wetness for the UTEE to stick.
3. Cover the wet piece with UTEE.
4. Heat the powder to melt it using a heat gun.  SLOWLY move the heatgun over the page as the UTEE starts to melt.  If you wave it around madly the poder will be blown everywhere!!
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 a total of three times to give the finished effect.  If you are quick you will be able to put the fresh UTEE onto the image and it will stick to the still hot surface.  If this is not the case re-ink with the clear embossing ink. 

 This is an example of a triple embossed card.  See the why it is highly glazed and the way that the glazing makes the colours more vibrant.

Items needed:

A5 brown envelopes

1. Take the first envelope and place it face down on to a flat surface, with the opening and flap on your right hand side.
2. Place a second envelope next to it, with the opening and flap facing downwards.
3. Slot the flap of the second envelope into the first until it fits inside and adgere using the sticky strip of the envelope.
4. Now fold over the second envelope so that you're ready to add the next one.
5. Add more envelopes until your book has the desired number of pages.
6. When you have finished adding pages (envelopes) wrap the flap from the first envelope over to the back of the last one to make a spine and stick it down.

Cut a piece of cardstock approx 1 cm wide, and thread this strip of paper through the tape hole in the back of your Dymo machine.  You will not be able to close the plastic cover when using your own card in your label maker

Punch your title or greetings as you would when using the standard tape.  Punch the letters slowly and firmly to make sure that you create a good, strong impression.

Once you have created your title you can either ink over the impression using a piece of foan etc, or if you have used cardstock with a white core, you can gently sand over the letters to reveal the white.

This is an idiot’s guide to making your own journal.  If you make books professionally please accept my abject apologies if I do not do anything correctly.  This is just how I have found to be the easiest way for me.  You may find that certain stages are better adapted to your own way of doing things.  Sizes are able to be altered to suit the size of book that you wish to make.  In fact everything can be altered so suit your own needs!!

1.  Cut two pieces of thick card the size of your chosen journal (in this example I’m using 5” x 5”).  Then cut one piece the height of your chosen page (in this case 5”) and your chosen width (I am using 1”).  You need to make sure that the spine is wide enough to enable you to be able to punch in the holes for attaching your pages, so you don’t want to weaken it by it being too narrow.

2.  Glue the pieces laid out as shown, having the spine laid in the centre, with a small gap between each piece on order that the book will fold up.  Mitre the corners and fold over and glue.  I glue all over the large pieces of card and the spine part in order that the paper is well stuck.  I find that it helps to “gently” run an embossing tool or your finger nail along the gap in order to indent the paper so that it will fold nicely. 

3.  You now need to cut your inside paper to “line” the inside of the covers.  I cut mine 10 1/2” x 4 ¾” ( you are now covering the spine as well!).  Glue in place and run your embossing tool along the join between the spine and covers.  Gently bend the spine up so that you know the pages will fold open.

4.  Choose the papers for inside the book, cutting them 10” x 4”.  Fold the pages in half and punch two holes along the fold line on each page.  I have cut 5 sheets which when folded will make 10 pages.

5. Making sure that the holes line up, mark the spine of the outside cover, make two larger holes because you will need to put more pieces of thread through these holes.

6. Taking one inner page at a time thread the ribbon/thread through the page, attaching it to the book cover.  Continue threading through the cover into the pages until they are all attached.  Knot the thread holding the pages in and finish how you wish.
7.  This is a very basic book.  You can decorate the front as much or as little as you wish.  Try using wires to tie the book together, or maybe ribbon, string, raffia or anything else you can think of!!  If you decide to punch the corner of your inside pages I suggest that you do them prior to putting the book together, that way if the punch messes up you don’t have to dismantle the book (as I previously have had to!!)

1. Cut two pieces of thick card the size of your chosen journal (in this example I’m using 6” x 6”).  Then cut two pieces the height of your chosen page (in this case 6”) and your chosen width (I am using 1”).  You need to make sure that the spine is wide enough to enable you to be able to punch in the holes for attaching your pages, so you don’t want to weaken it by it being too narrow.

2. Making sure that you have one piece with a spine on the left and one on the right for your front and back, glue onto your chosen paper, leaving enough paper around the sides so that you can mitre the corners and fold over and glue.  I glue all over the large piece of card and the spine part in order that the paper is well stuck.  Leave a small gap between the spine and the cover in order that the page will “fold”.  I find that it helps to “gently” run an embossing tool or your finger nail along the gap in order to indent the paper so that it will fold nicely.

3. You now need to cut your inside paper to “line” the inside of the covers.  I cut mine 5 ¾” x 6 ¾” ( you are now covering the spine as well!).  Glue in place and run your embossing tool along the join between the spine and cover.  Gently bend the spine up so that you know the pages will fold open.

4. Decide how many holes you want on the book and mark and cut (I used my silent setter).  Make sure that both the back and front line up.  I cut one side, lay it on top the other and mark the holes for cutting through the holes.

5. Choose the papers for inside the book, cut them slightly smaller than the outside covers.  Place onto covers in order to mark the spine holes. Punch out holes. (I put 10 pages in)

6. Tie together your pages in whichever way you choose.  It all depends on the number of holes you’ve punched; the choice as they say is yours.  I then opened the book and ran the embossing tool down each page so that it would fold open nicely.
7. This is a very basic book.  You can decorate the front as much or as little as you wish.  Try using wires to tie the book together, or maybe ribbon, string, raffia or anything else you can think of!!  If you decide to punch the corner of your inside pages I suggest that you do them prior to putting the book together, that way if the punch messes up you don’t have to dismantle the book (as I previously have had to!!)

Supplies:-

•      4 matching envelopes

•      2 pieces matte board or heavy cardstock cut 1/8" larger than envelopes on every side

•      4 sheets decorative paper - 2 pieces cut 1" larger than matte board on every side (these will be your cover papers) & 2 pieces cut 1/8" smaller than matte board on every side (these will be the inside covers).

•      1 sheet cardstock cut same width as envelopes by 9 cm long (this will be your spine)

•      Tags – if you want to use them

•      adhesive

•      paper cutter or scissors

•      bone folder

Directions:-

    First take your pieces of matte board (or heavy card) and score a line one centimetre in from the side (where your spine will be) on each one – use your bone folder to fold back carefully, making sure you don’t split the board

    If you are going to stamp your cover paper, do that first. You can add layers and/or embellishments later if you wish to.  Apply adhesive all over one side of the matte board and adhere to the cover papers, folding carefully at the pre-scored fold, to avoid creasing later on.  Mitre the corners, make sure there’s enough adhesive on them and fold down.  Always glue opposite sides first – so top and bottom and/or sides first and then the other two.

    Measure & score the cardstock for the spine, every 1cm along the width (7 scores) and accordion fold. Glue one end to the inside of each cover – making sure that you have four valley folds for your envelopes - and allow to dry.  You can work on your envelopes while you are waiting.

    Glue your inside covers to the other sides of the matte boards, covering the edge of the  cardstock you’ve already glued to them.

    Decorate your envelopes on the flap side (or both sides), remembering that the one centimetre on the left hand side of the envie won’t be seen as it will be inside the accordion fold, then glue the back bottom edge to the spine on the FRONT side of each fold.

    Apply glue between the folds of the spine on the OUTSIDE and place a heavy weight on top & allow to dry.   Or you can use pegs or paper clips to hold it together until it dries.

    Add layers, stamped images or embellishments to your cover if you wish.

    Decorate tags to go inside the envelopes – or use A6 pieces of card – or use your imagination as these envelopes could hold all kinds of treasures and/or keepsakes

SHOPPING LIST

Glossy card (high gloss)

Water based dye inks - the ones you see here have been made with Adirondack inks

Versamark inkpad

Stazon Jet Black inkpad - optional

Heat tool

Sponges

Stamps ☺

INSTRUCTIONS

Ink up your chosen stamp with Versamark ink and stamp (carefully, as it's easy to slip on glossy cardstock!) on the glossy card.  Stamp one single image OR stamp randomly with the same stamp or several stamps - the  more you play, the more ideas you'll come up with.  You can  wait for it to dry naturally, but if you're impatient as I am, you'll need to zap the stamped image with your heat tool.  You can tell when it's ready, as the image becomes a little more opaque.

Take your sponge and ink it up with the water based dye ink - one colour only - then add to the card in a circular motion, until it looks good.  Don't add it all over - be selective.  You can always go back and add more colour later.  Choose another toning or contrasting colour and add more ink - if needed, choose another colour - if not, stay with the two colours only.  Go back in with more colour if you think you need more depth - the more you add, the more the Versamark stamped image will POP through the ink. 

Wipe off any excess ink with a piece of kitchen towel - the resist image will really POP at this stage.

Now take your main focus image and stamp over the background you've created with that - using the same colours you sponged with.  You can overstamp in the Stazon Jet Black - OR you can simply stamp with that and omit the overstamping in the original colours you used - there are many ways of doing this.  The effect is wonderful - all the colours tone and blend, creating a beautiful card front.  All you have to do now is to layer it onto another card or another layer and you have a very quick, very effective card.

WAX RESIST

To get a wax resist effect, you simply need to use a white wax crayon - or a candle sharpened like a pencil!

Supplies

As above, with the addition of a white crayon or a sharpened candle. 

But you DO need the Stazon Jet black ink!

Instructions

Stamp your main image with Stazon Jet Black ink.

Look at the image carefully and choose areas you'd like to highlight - ie, which would look good if there was no colour on them.  Colour these carefully with the wax crayon or candle - making sure the areas are solidly covered.

Add ink as before - you can stipple if you prefer - be careful not to rub the wax off when adding the ink.

When finished adding colour, buff off the wax with a piece of kitchen towel.  Voilà - a perfect wax resist image.  If it isn't perfect, don't give up - practise a little more and you'll get there!!  This is a great and easy technique

This is a great - AND EASY - technique for cards, ATCs, scrapbooks, etc, etc,  taken from Claudine Helmuth's first book.

I use a CHEAP dictionary - buy one from THE WORKS or some other similar place - and tear out the pages - sacrilege, I know, but the books are outdated, linguistically (I was a French teacher in another life!) and would be thrown away if not used in this way!!!  Cut your card to size (ATC size always must be 3.5" x 2.5") and then glue a page of the small dictionary to it, using TOMBOW adhesive or GOLDEN GEL.  Trim the edges to fit the ATC.  You can just adhere the page to half or a third of the ATC if you don't want to do the whole lot.

Take strips of MASKING TAPE and adhere randomly to the paper you've just glued.  Leave for a while, for the adhesive to get a 'grip', then peel off.  The tape will pull off a layer or two of the dictionary page paper, leaving behind a light covering - great stuff! 

Now add inks - sponge, stipple or just add directly from the inkpad - smoosh the inkpad across the page, gently - more pressure where you want more colour.  I've used Distress inks (PEELED PAINT) in this sample.  You'll notice that the paper takes the ink differently where it's been torn, giving texture and shades of colour.  Heat set - or leave to dry if you're more patient than I am - then apply more masking tape - leave a while (it doesn't stick well if the paper is still wet from the ink!) and peel back.  Add more ink if required.  If you want a  REALLY distressed look (or Shabby Chic) then sand a little, with fine grade sandpaper.

Stamp your main image using a strong ink - I used Versafine Onyx Black here - the stamp is from Katy's Corner People 1 - then add embellishments.  I've used lace from the Katy's Corner Lace packs, attached with Golden Gel, then added a couple of Postage stamps (Miscellaneous pack), overstamp with the Katy's Corner Postmark stamp, then attach a button - I've attached it with ribbon, tying into a knot to secure.

Great little ATC which is quick AND easy to do!

  You will need..
Step-by-step...

1              Take the first envelope and place it face-down on to a flat surface, with the opening and flap on your right-hand side.
2              place a second envelope next to it with the opening and flap facing downwards
3              Slot the flap of the second envelope into the first until it fits inside and adhere using the sticky’ strip of the envelope.
4              Now fold over the second envelope so that you’re ready to add the next one.
5              Add more envelopes until your book has the desired number of pages.
6              when you have finished adding pages (envelopes) wrap the flap from the first envelope over to the back of the last one to make a spine and stick it down.

Now, how to make them!

You need a heavy cardboard (the article suggested Mount Board) - cut from this 2 pieces 10 x 15 cm each
2 pieces of card - 9.5 x 14.5 cm
1 sheet of paper for the cover - 23 x 18 cm
another strip of paper the same as the one used for the cover - 6.5 x 15 cm
1 sheet of paper for the inside of the front cover - 11 x 16 cm
4 pieces of plain or decorative strong paper for the pockets - 13 x 17 cm (as these are double folded I found it better to use a piece of paper 13 x 10 cm and just tape a border over for the top of the pocket)
2 length of ribbon or twill tape aprox 20.5 cm each
Lay out the largest piece of paper 23 x 18 cm and stick the 2 pieces of mount board on to it. Make sure that you leace a gap in the centre of at least 10 mm, so that the book will shut properly. Any less and it will tear as you try to close it.

Cut diagonals across each corner of the paper to mitre them, apply glue to either the card or the overhanging paper and fold each edge in, sticking it securely. Stick the 7.5 x 17 cm strip down the middle over the gap, making sure that all the edges are well stuck down. Make sure that you let this all dry properly before continuing to the next stage.

Turn the book over so that you can see the cover, this is when you can stamp your images, decorate it etc. When it is decorated to your satisfaction set nto one side to allow to dry.

Now for the pockets: Take the four pieces of paperr that measure 13 x 17 cm and fold them all in half across the width to make them all measure 13 x 8.5 cm.

Take one of them and slip the 9.7 x 14.5 cm piece of card into it so that it covers the top part. Glue this down and wrap the edges around the back and glue them into place. Glue the other 3 pieces together so that they are all double thickness.

Take a second folded and glued piece and apply some glue along the raw edge and the sides. Place it on the card, overlapping the first piece but further down (about 20 mm) to make a pocket, with the folded edge at the top. Wrap the side edges around to the back and stick down securely. Repeat the process with the other 2 folded pieces, so that you have 3 pockets. Leave to dry (it helps to put a heavy weight, such as a book, on top.)

Take the finished pocket card and glue it in place inside the back on the right hand side. Again you might find it useful to weight it down whilst drying.

Cover the other piece of card with the piece of paper that measures 10 x 15 cm. Glue it down, and mitre the corners and fold over as previously described.

Take your first piece of ribbon or tape and stick one end on to the back of this piece of covered card, near a corner. Fold the ribbon round the card and stick it on the diagonally opposite corner, keeping the ribbon as tight as you can.

Repeat with the second piece on the other corners. When this is dry, stick the whole thing inside the book on the opposite side to the pockets. Leave to dry.


And that's all there is to it folks!! Go on and have a go.

I found that it was a good idea to either run a ribbon behind the two inner cards and the strip in the middle fold, in order to be able to keep the book tied shut, but I am sure that you will be able to find various methods of keeping the book closed (if you want to!!)