Saturday, May 05, 2007

Altered Spiral Notebook Tutorial

(I got this together for my ladies' crafternoon, so thought I'd share it here too. Enjoy! and if you make one, post a link here to share!)

Supplies:

Spiral notebook
Double stick tape
Decorative paper - 2 sheets, approx. 7-1/2” x 9-1/2” (bigger 1” by height and 1-1/2” by width)
Cardstock – 2 sheets, slightly smaller than notebook cover
Ribbon – 2 @ 12” for tie closure, 5” pieces for spiral
Paper trimmer, scissors
Stamps, stickers, paper, embellishments for notebook front

Instructions:

1. Flip the back cover of the notebook to the front to expose the part of the spiral where the ends meet. Separate the ends and remove the covers carefully.

2. Remove the pages from the notebook and set them aside. ETA!!! I repent! When I first made these instructions I didn't realize I was making this waaaaay harder than it was. Leave the spiral on - just remove the covers.

3. Position one cover on a piece of patterned paper. Be sure to set it off center slightly. You want the “holes” side slightly wider than the outside edge, so there is plenty of paper to overlap. Fold the long sides over first, tight against the edge of the cover.

4. Use double-stick tape to secure the “no holes” side. Pull the “holes” side out of the fold of the paper, and put the paper underneath. Using an 1/8” hole punch, punch holes in the paper along the entire edge.

5. Fold the paper back around the “holes” side. Fold each corner in diagonally. Fold all edges over, and secure each with double stick tape.

6. Your cover liners should be just slightly smaller than your cover, measuring just inside from the line of holes. Before you attach them to your notebook, you will want to attach a 12” piece of ribbon to each one. These will serve as a tie closure. Center the ribbon on one side, and secure it well with a large piece of double stick tape. Match up the second liner to position the other piece of ribbon correctly. Remember if you are using a textured cardstock for a liner, put textured side to textured side with the ribbon on the non-textured side, when you are making your measurements.

7. Put double stick tape along all edges, and adhere to the cover. Be sure to not cover up the holes!

8. To make a pocket: Start with a 12”x12” piece of paper. Using a page from your notebook as a guide, fold up one edge to the height that you wish. **If the paper you are using is patterned on one side and white on the other, decide first which color you want where.** Fold in half, so that the edge you folded up is on the outside. Punch holes along the edge, using a page of your notebook as a guide.

9. The next step is to put your notebook back together. Make a stack in the following order, with holes aligned:

Back cover, face (outside) up
Front cover, face down
Pocket
Pages, face down

Begin replacing the spiral, beginning with the pages, from back to front. When you finish, your spiral should be hooked in to your last page, with the spines coming through your back cover. Pinch the ends of the spiral together. Turn the back cover to the back.

10. Decorate the front of your notebook as you so desire. **if you are using brads or other embellishments, attach them to your panels before attaching your panels to the notebook, otherwise the ends will have to go through the cover and will be seen inside.**

11. If you wish to decorate the spiral with ribbon, 5” is a good length.


12. If you want to add divider tabs to your notebook, punched circles work well, or other punched shapes. You can lay them out on a page to determine how far apart you need to space them, and which pages they need to go on. Secure well with double stick tape.


(Stamp by My Heart Stamps for You, watercolored with Derwent pencils)
Please leave a comment if you find this tutorial helpful!

2 comments:

  1. What a great idea for a notebook. Yours is decorated beautifully!

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  2. Thanks for the great tutorial! That is such a gorgeous book! I love that fruit set!
    ~Angie

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