Because the sun came out this morning!  Hearing from friends in baking-hot Australia and –22C in Sweden makes us feel fortunate indeed, the more so when we looked outside and saw one or two icicles and heard the unmistakeable sound of dripping water.  It’s going to take some time, though, because there was a hard freeze overnight and that lovely soft snow has a distinct crunch to it today.

Anyway, the postman arrived (yes, in shorts ;-) to bring a parcel of pretty things for me and I could begin work on my pocket book/travel journal at last.  I don’t normally buy the whole collection like this, but since it was all half price, it seemed a good idea to go for it.

My first thought was to maximise the double-sided print of these papers.  If I cut and folded the papers as in the prototype, then each pair of pages would be the same – and I preferred them all to be different.  Time for a slight redesign, then, after which the Silhouette was cranked into motion.

What I did was cut the pages in half and make a joining strip with the binding holes from a different print.  There was the challenge of finding the right glue for the job – always key to the success of a project, I find – and having discovered which one worked best (Zip Dry) I made the six pairs of pockets. I chose a particular print for each destination and tried to keep them in order, so that they’ll follow our journey. Hope I got it right!

Sorry, dreadful picture, but I wanted to show how pretty the spine was at this stage.  How could I cover all of that up?  Surely, it’d be good to see that part?

So, after a couple of false starts, I cut a spine piece and a liner from a sheet of clear acetate, using my Japanese screw punch to clean off a couple of the holes that the Silhouette didn’t quite manage to cut right through.  Rather than stitch each pair of pockets in separately, I used a kind of cross stitch binding, which secured it all nicely.

Next bit was to add the card covers.  I’d already covered both sides with some of the pretty paper, sanded the edges and cut them to size.  Attaching them to the acetate spine was going to be the next problem – until I remembered I had a tape runner for vellum.  Perfect!

Except it wasn’t…or rather, I wasn’t!  I had forgotten how vicious that stuff is and as soon as it comes anywhere near a bit of paper, it sticks like..well, glue!  I made a real mess of it and had to pull it apart again, but fortunately managed to hide the damage under that Orla-Kiely-esque border!

I cut the folders to slide into each pocket and gave myself a pat on the back for remembering to fit that ribbon tie in the binding, because this little book is going to be very stuffed!

There we are.  Now comes the fun bit.  With a box full of bits and pieces to titivate it up, I’m looking forward to adding a few embellishments.  I’ve already printed off quite a few journalling cards to pack into the sections and am resisting the urge to fill the whole thing up before we’ve even started!

Update

on 2013-01-25 16:10 by Gill Thomas

In answer to Dorothy's questions below:

Yes, I too like the Kraft paper one, but sadly, every greasy fingerprint is revealed.  I'm not sure the paper is strong enough to withstand the journey, sadly - but this was cheap manilla card and not "proper" paper.

The pockets are large enough to comfortably contain a 3x4inch journalling card.  The book measures about 4x6 overall.

I haven't found an equivalent to ZipDry glue, sadly.  It's new to me too - one of my Philadelphia discoveries - and is unlike anything else, except possibly a thinner version of Bostik?  (It's flammable and a bit stringy)

Hope that helps!