I have always been fascinated by Egyptology. All those mysterious hieroglyphs, mummies, and GOLD. Since our sponsor this month is the fabulous Eileen Hull I thought I would use her wrap journal die to cut the boards for this book. Really only one board because, of course, it's a wrap die!
One of the best things about using a die to cut your covers is that you can apply the papers first and then cut the whole thing at once, leaving beautiful edges and corners. For this journal I applied the inner papers using my Xyron for even tack and no dry time. The front side was painted and stamped first. Let's look at the steps I took:
To begin, I used Eileen Hull's wrap journal die and 8 1/2 x 14" 35 point brown chipboard. This die is a bit longer than many and needs a bit of extra length.
On one side I gessoed using white and two coats (let dry between coats).
Once the gesso was dry I laid down a coat of acrylic paint (Dina Wakley, Lapis) with a rubber spatula to get an even coat with no brush strokes. While it was wet I stamped into the paint with various Egyptian themed rubber stamps (no ink). Since it was gessoed first, lovely ghostly images were created as the stamps 'lifted' the paint.
Next a ran the board through my 9" Xyron to apply adhesive. In this case, rather than cardstock, I used some old wrapping paper that was gifted to me. Since it was less sturdy than regular paper I put the stickum on the board. If you are using regular Scrapbook paper you could run the paper through the Xyron rather than the board. Either way is good as long as you get a mostly flat adhesion.
Now the fun part! Make your sandwich of cut plate, die, board (front side down), cut plate and run it through your favorite die cut machine. Et voila! Your beautiful cover is born. Gently curve the folds over a table edge to create the rounded spines.
To embellish the outside cover I used Lynne Perrella's new Egypt stamps and gold embossing powder (Emerald Creek, mirror gold). The little bugs are from some long lost set I had and the lines are painted with Lumiere acrylics and gold embossed using a straight edge and an embossing pen (and the mirror gold).
I added strong magnets for closure which I later covered to disguise. The little scarab beetles are from my stash of
This photo illustrates the stringing of the book (and you can see the disguised magnets too). I used gold elastic cord. It's a little heavy but the gold works perfectly for this theme.
I tore paper to size (7"x 4 1/4") and folded to create signatures. You could also use a simple pamphlet stitch to bind the signatures but in this case I left them loose and any of them can be removed or added later. I also cut some heavier paper and used the Xyron and the wrapping paper to create some heavier folders. I stamped the pages randomly throughout with permanent ink.
Slip the signatures under the elastic to complete the book.
Back cover.
Thanks for sticking through this photo heavy post. I hope you are inspired to create your own masterpiece and enter it in our April challenge for a chance to win a $35 giftcard from Eileen herself!
Heather
