Hi everyone, Nat here – hope you are all doing well.
I would like to make a book cover for a future journal and thought I would take you along with me. Get your sunglasses ready as we will be doing bright and Retro!
My first task is to take apart an old book. I pull out the book block (pages), and use my knife to cut down either side of the book spine to remove both the front and back covers. The spine on this cover is too narrow for my journal and we will be making a new one.
I use my knife with a ruler to measure and cut two pieces of chipboard the same height as my book covers and one and three quarter inches wide. I stick these two pieces together using Helmar 450 Quick Dry glue to make a nice sturdy spine piece.
To hold my three cover pieces in place, I use masking tape. I place my pieces on my craft mat to help me line them up evenly then use the tape to stick both covers to the spine on the front and back sides. I make sure to leave a little gap of a few millimetres between the spine and cover pieces to enable the covers to close.
I wish to use fabric over my cover pieces, however the fabric is a little sheer and the writing and colour of the cover pieces shows through. Additionally, if not careful with the glue I choose it can seep through leaving marks. I decided to try the Helmar Spray Adhesive to back my decorative fabric on to a plainer piece, therefore making it thicker to avoid these issues. As I wanted a permanent adhesion, I sprayed both pieces, waited a few minutes for them to get tacky and carefully lay one atop the other. It worked perfectly for this job!
Helmar fabric glue was then used on the outside of my cover to glue my fabric on. Due to doubling up the fabric, I did not have to worry about anything showing through which made this task much easier.
I cut across the corners of the fabric and either sides of the spine to help me fold the fabric over without too much bulk and stuck it to the inside of my covers with the fabric glue.
Next to help reinforce the inside of the spine and to make it look neater I use a piece of linen that is just under the height of the cover and about one inch wider than the spine (on both sides) and stuck this down.
I had some offcuts of the fabric used for the cover and I adhered these to some scrap paper using the Spray Adhesive again. I cut two rectangle pieces out of these for pockets and sewed them onto some coloured book fly pages. These were then decorated with some cool pictures from a digital kit I am using for this project called 'Groovy' by Joey the Cardmaker. I used the Fabric glue to stick both of these pages with pockets to the inside of the front and back covers.
Now to decorate some more!
I grabbed some ric rac in different colours, flowers from an old dance costume (that definitely fit the retro era!) and some more of Joey's digital pieces to embellish my cover. These were stuck down with Tacky and Fabric glue.
I folded the ric rac over the cover and adhered it to the inside of the book, adding the numbers '1960' to finish it off.
I love the way my journal cover has turned out and I am looking forward to filling it up with all sorts of groovy!
Here is a process video of this project:
I hope this helps you with ideas on how to recycle an old book cover into a wonderful new journal cover and you have as much fun as I did making this one.
Take care, Nat xxx
PRODUCTS USED:
Helmar
Spray Adhesive
Tacky Craft Glue
450 Quick Dry Adhesive
Fabric Glue
Other
Groovy 1960s Digital Kit & Freebies (Joey Cardmaker)
Old Book Cover
Chipboard
Fabrics
Ric Rac
Flower Embellishments
Book Fly Pages
