Celia here with my first book for the 366 Challenge. I love the idea that we have 12 little books to experiment with different styles & different ways of binding the books. For my first book I have chosen my favourite colours and a fairly simple sewn binding.
I first primed the cover and inserts with DecoArt Tinting Medium so the colours would be nice and bright.
I use Golden Teal on the cover and Decoart Cobolt Teal hue on the inserts. The Golden Teal is more opaque than the Deocoart, but you could get the same effect with more coats.
I then used one of my favourite Seth Apter techniques to get some texture on the cover. I used his monoprinting with Canvas paper technique, painting the paper with various different colours and randomly swiping onto the cover. More details here.
Then I did some stencilling...
And finally some embossing powder around the edges. I used a Versamark pen to dibble around the edges randomly. I also used embossing powder on some hearts from the Distressed Hearts sheet to embellish the front.
I stamped some text on the insides of the cover too.
For the pages, I decided to use the concertina paper this time. I chose white, and cut 3 strips the size of the template. Then I used an empty pen to score the folds. You could also use an awl or a pokey tool for this. I have a little bookbinding set which I picked up cheaply from ebay, which has a few useful things for this project.
Then I folded the paper in a zig-zag. It’s important to take your time with this, and try and fold as accurately as possible to get your concertina lined up. I decided to paint the inside part of the papers teal, so that you just catch a glimpse of colour. Then I used the Canvas paper monoprinting to put a few little marks on the paper, and break the dreaded white paper syndrome!
Now its time to sew. I am using some button thread for this, but you can use ordinary sewing thread, maybe doubled up, or bookbinding thread. There are many ways to do the sewing. This is a fairly straightforward method, but you can experiment with different patterns on the spine.
I cut off 8 times the width of the spine plus about 30cm extra. I started in the middle of the first insert inside, out through the spine, up to the top and back inside.
Then back through the middle to the outside and in through the bottom hole. Tie off the beginning end onto the first loop. Then insert the needle into the top loop before going back outside through the middle hole.
There are two options of how to stick your concertina pages. You could have 4 and stick one inside each insert, or have 3 and put them in between the inserts. I did the latter. There are enough pages for each day of the month, plus a couple of extras. They tend to ping apart at first, but if you put a clip on the pages and leave it for a while, the creases settle down and the book stays shut.
To finish, I stuck on the hearts and went round the edges of the cover and the pages with treasure gold.
So here is my finished mini book, ready for day 1 of the challenge!
Happy New Year!
Celia x
