Hand made Journal/Memory Book instructions

I make these little memory books/Journals a lot and I get asked for the instructions for them and I usually just email them, but I thought I would put a copy of them up on here.

The one shown is a Paris themed one I did for a Hen-Do weekend, lots of pockets for bits and pieces and clips to hold photos in place and of course lots of space to write in.

These are only very basic instructions, but then it is only a very basic book.

Gelli Star Book

Decorate 5 A4 sized sheets of lightweight card using your Gelli Plate, my card is 210 gsm.

Cut each so you have 10 pieces measuring 5 x 8 inches. Fold your 5 pieces in half so they are approximately A6 sized. Cut two pieces of stronger card to this folded A6 size (these will be your book covers)( 4 x 5 inches) Amazon packaging is ideal. ( I only used 7, but the extra give you choice of prints to use, or to give your book more pages if you wish)

Cut piece of black card to the depth 5 inches and, approx 8 inches long.  Crease at half inch intervals.

Concertina up and glue or tape the back pieces together  to form pointy bits Clamp with bulldog clips until it is dry.

Unfold your paper pieces and glue one of the short ends of each piece to the back of one of each of the folded pieces along your concertinaed “spine”

Fold each page over and glue in place along the front of the same spine piece, leave the top open to form a pocket so only glue to about an inch up the sheet, but glue all the way up the actual spine to hold the page in place. Fold over and press firmly in place. Repeat along the length of the “spine” until you have the amount of pages you want,

Glue the two card covers to the back and front flaps of the book and clamp it all in place for a few minutes to give it all a chance to dry.

Cut one of the remaining pieces of Gelli paper in half. Use this to line the inside of the front and back cover, sandwiching a length of ribbon between the gelli print and card cover to use as a tie to either hold your book shut or open in it’s star shape.

Have fun, Carol x