Handmade Smash Journal tutorial.....

Hey all! Welcome back...well it took me a while but I promised that I'd do a tutorial on the smash journal that I showed you all a picture of that I made last month. I made one for myself this time and took the pictures as I was working on it....I'll note what products I used to finish it up at the end of this post. READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS FIRST BEFORE BEGINNING and look for CAPS on really important things. So lets get started...

What you will need for the front and back covers are as follows: (2) 7 3/4" x 10 1/4" chipboard, (1) 14 1/8" x 10 1/4" flexible chipboard (this is extremely flimsy and has to be easily bendable), (1) 3" x 10 1/4" chipboard (this piece will be cut again to use as a reinforcement piece for you latch) ***NOTE the picture above shows the measurements written on each one and you can go by those HOWEVER...the measurement showing what the center measurement is is WRONG....it should of said 5 1/8" rather than 5 1/16". You can see how I cut the triangle section out and all the measurements you'll need.

IMPORTANT** Work from the back inside cover FIRST! Once you have your triangle "reinforcement" piece cut out go ahead and glue that on your larger flexible piece of chipboard and then cut the excess off after the triangle piece is glued on. This way you have a perfect "fit".

After doing the previous step go ahead and grab one of the 7 3/4" x 10 1/4" chipboards and on one side make a tick mark measuring over 2 1/4" on the opposite side of that mark on the BACK side go ahead and apply your glue and glue that to the above piece as shown in the picture. The basics for the back of your journal is now complete the area in the picture that is showing as white will be the area that will bend over and allow for you to Velcro your stick glue and a pen plus it will have plenty of room for your journal to expand. NOTE* 14 1/8" is the longest that I could find for my flexible and bendable chipboard...if you don't want to Velcro a tube of stick glue and a pen on the inside of the journal then you want need to do the offset on that one end.

IMPORTANT** if your planning on using the magnetic closures like I have it is important that you cover the inside of the back cover FIRST so that you can place your closure and then cover it all up when you cover the back side. Just a few notes about covering with pretty cardstock....First off you will need 2 coordinating pieces of cardstock to cover all of it as shown above in the picture and be sure to allow enough room around the edges so you can fold it over to make nice clean edges. (I've shown how to cover cardstock before in previous posts). Secondly, the area where the flexible chipboard is.....I've found that it's best to use a liquid glue for this area such as Quick Dry. But be sure to smear it around nicely before applying your pretty cardstock. The reason I say that is...if you don't use a liquid glue then the "flap" will squeak each time the journal is opened and closed. I learned that lesson after making the first journal. And then Thirdly when your putting your cardstock on...use a bone folder to make crisp edges where the chipboard and flexible chipboard are 2 separate heights. Refer to the above picture and you can see where that was done. It just makes things crisper and cleaner looking as well as will prevent the cardstock from pulling away.

 Now once the inside of the back cover had been glued down and all edges have been cleaned up. BE SURE that you have already added your magnetic latch BEFORE covering the back side of your journal. As you can see...I covered this side in the same manner as I did the front side by using 2 different coordinating cardstocks. The only thing to remember now is that you want had to cut your cardstock wider this time. Now you will cut it to fit or better yet leave a little bit about 1/8" so that the other paper will peek out a little all the way around the journal. I think that gives it even more character....AGAIN use liquid glue of some type on the area that will be bending and don't forget to smear it so that you want have bumps showing through to your cardstock.

 Now that the back cover is all done...your ready for the front cover. Another reason why I start from the back is because if I started from the front then I wouldn't know exactly where I needed my other half of the magnetic clasp should be placed. So go ahead and cover the front, leaving some excess all the way around. Be sure to snip the triagled edges off all for corners but DON"T get too close to the chipboard. Then place your back piece directly under your front cover....fold the flexible "flap over toward the front cover and figure out where you need the front closure to be located. Go ahead and install that and then cover the inside of the front cover like you did the back side of the back cover.

 This is what this inside of both the front and back covers looks like. As you can see I added a couple diagonal pockets to mine.

cardstock is showing in the picture. You could let your imagination run wild here on these. The picture below shows another example of how I decorated my envelopes.

Ok well your pretty much done now. You'll need to cut SEVERAL and I mean SEVERAL pieces of cardstock or whatever kind of paper you plan on using inside your journal. The measurements for that is 7 1/2" x 10". I had probably 35-40 sheets in mine (and that's just a guess!)
*FOR BINDING IT: I used my Bind it all...but you could use a hole punch and book rings as well, or you could even use Ribbon if you didnt' want to use book rings.
*THE CARDSTOCK I USED WAS: DCWV Mariposa stack, K & Company Homemade Specialty Papers stack
*CARDSTOCK FOR THE INSIDE: A WIDE VARIETY (I actually just go through and try to use up the stacks that I don't have many papers left)
*MAGNETIC CLASP: came from Hobby Lobby and comes in a package of 3 and are called My Purse Hardware and were $2.99 when I bought them about a year ago
*ZUTTER ROUND IT ALL CORNER ROUNDER FOR THE EDGE CORNERS OF YOUR INSIDE PAGES 1/2" it's the pink one
*ATG GUN
*QUICK DRY GLUE
*BONE FOLDER
*SCISSORS
*TRIMMER
*VELCRO: for you to add your glue and pen inside. Please see the previous post on the other SMASH journal that I made that shows where they go. I am out of glue sticks right now so mine aren't in there yet.
*EMBELLISHMENT: The butterfly I found at Michael's in the bargain bin for $1 and it simply clips on. (wish that I had more of those..I bought the last one they had at the time)
I've tried my best to be as descriptive as I possibly can and hope and pray that I haven't forgotten anything. I think that if you look at the pictures as you read it will make more sense to you. But if you do have a question just let me know and I'll try to help you the best way that I can. Hope that you enjoy and have as much fun making them as I do! I'm going to make mine an inspiration journal and look forward to getting started on it. Have FUN! and give me some feedback letting me know if you made one or not and if you like yours or if you have even more ideas to add to mine.
Come on back soon....I'm going to start on a mini album tomorrow and will try to post day to day pics of my progress on it...so check back often.
P.S. Just because I'm calling this a Smash journal doesn't mean that it has to be that....you could always make one of these and use it as photo album as well.