Coaster Books and Altered Journals

As promised yesterday - here are several altered journals that I have made as well as a couple of coaster books that I made with my Bind It All. I just love being able to make my own books with this fun tool! Check it out here especially the detailed instructions with step by step pictues on how to use it.


I made this coaster book for a color challenge on SCS (River Rock, Choc Chip & Really Rust). The challenge also included a request to make and send a card to Victoria, a young girl suffering from Cancer. They were hoping to have cards from each state in the US coming to her.

I decided to make Victoria a little book using the challenge colors - with clip art of things in Massachusetts on the pages as well as encouraging sentiments. There were 6 pages in my book - here I show the cover and 2 of the pages.

I mailed this off to Victoria and hope that she enjoyed looking through it and learning a little bit about my state.

I made this little spiral book for another SCS challenge - we had to use spirals of some sort on our card. I used my Bind It All again and 2 coasters for the covers. First I put the designer paper on the front and back covers. Then I cut out 8 white card stock pages and punched the corners with the corner rounder. Then I used the Bind It All to punch through all the layers and to attach the spiral coil. I tied coordinating ribbons in knots on the spirals. Easy peasy! And what a quick fun little book!

This is a $1 journal from Michaels that already has pink circles on it and a solid pink bottom with a white circle that says Journal in it. I added a piece of Infuse Basic Grey paper framed in Chocolate Chip, a framed sentiment stamp and Infuse Die Shapes from Basic Grey.

I used a Glitter String clasp from K & Company to close the journal and added a friend charm at the end of the string to secure the end. I taped a length of dotted grosgrain ribbon to the back cover to use as a book mark with a brad at the folded end of it - you can see it sticking out at the bottom. I tied coordinating gingham ribbons around the coils at the top.

The Sentiment says: The place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes - Ian Myrdal.

I made several of these Cowboy theme journals to sell at our church fair last fall. The journal was $1 at Michaels and was already printed with the background and lace that you see. I added the stamped Wild West and Sheriff badge circles ($1 stamps from Michaels) and the stamped Journey square and tied 3 coordinating ribbons on the coil bindings. I made a book mark out of a wider black ribbon and taped it to the inside back cover - I put a star metal brad on it to weigh it down a little - you can see it sticking out at the bottom.

A friend at work commissioned me to decorate an artist sketch book for her teenage daughter's birthday. I found a great bound journal with blank white pages in it so she could use it for drawing. I have since seen other artist sketch books at art supply stores such as Utrecht.

I made several panels of card stock and designer paper. I used the photo corner punch for several corners and attached some great brads I got at Target for $1. I distressed the edges on the sentiments and sponged with Bordering Blue ink. I tied coordinating ribbons on the spirals. I also put a panel of one of the designer papers inside a Pentel pen so that it would match the sketch book.

I made this little altered book during the January 2008 VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) on SCS. This is a little composition book measuring 4 1/2 x 3 1/4 - you know like the big black and white composition books we used to get for school. I bought this little one at CVS.

My friend Jeannine gave me this great stamp by Inkadinkadoo and the paper is from Basic Grey. There is a narrow grosgrain brown ribbon that you attach while putting it together - to use as a bookmark - you can see it on the top left as well as sticking out a tad on the bottom.

I didn't think I was going to like making this book - covering the whole thing with DP and all - but I love how it came out! I'm going to use it to write down the directions for cards I make. I made a matching Pentel pen too by rolling a piece of the DP and slipping it inside the pen.

Here is a tutorial on SCS on how to make this cute book so you can make one too!

Well, these are all the journals and bound books that I have made so far. I already have some other $1 journals purchased from Michaels that I'm itching to alter - and I want to make a bound coaster calendar that Beate did a tutorial for on SCS a few weeks ago. So look for more of these to come here on my blog!

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow!