Wedding Bells Album with Graphic 45 Le Romantique

I succeeded yesterday in getting this wedding book finished before the wedding last night, however, my hubbie came in to my studio last night and insisted that I not give the album to the newly weds until after I had finished it with photographs.  So I guess I know what I am doing today after we finish shovelling snow!

This is a simple ribbon bound book and is quite easy to make.  The most enjoyable part of the entire project, for me anyway, was decorating the cover.  Most of the embellishments on the cover are cut from the Graphic 45 paper - I used both "le Romantique" and "Loves Labyrinth" - as well as a wooden embellishment, tulle circles, Martha Stewart Onxy glitter and her new, large butterfly punch, and cream, black and gold paint. I bought all the paper at Scrapbooks-Plus and the rest of the materials from Michaels.

To make this book, you'll need four pieces of chipboard, cut 6 1/4" x 8 1/2"; ten sheets of 12"x12" cardstock (5 - cream, 2 - Salmon Pink, 3 black) all cut to 12"x 8 1/4"; seven sheets of Le Romantique patterned paper (two sheets for the cover and five assorted sheets for the pages inside the book). You'll need the paint (black, cream, and gold), Zip Dry Glue, a paper piercer, thread, ribbon and scrapbooking tape (acid free of course).
To create the cover structure, I glued with a gluestick two of the chipboard sheets togther to create a heavier front cover.  I repeated the process to create the cover for the back of the book. If your edges don't match exactly (mine never do), then use an emory board to sand the edges so that there is no seam.  I painted the edges and about 1/2" in all around the edges on both sides of the back and front cover with black paint.

While you are waiting for the glue and the paint to dry on your covers, you can cut and assemble the pages for the book.  I used five sets of pages (five signatures) for my book.  Each signature consists of three sheets of paper folded in half.  The first sheet and third sheet in each signature is always card stock.  The set sheet is always a patterned paper.  I cut my papers 12" x 8 1/4" (remember measurements are always width times height).  When I fold them in half to created the pages, they will measure 6"x 8 1/4". I used salmon-pink, cream and black card stock and the patterned paper from the Graphic 45 collection.

To sew the pages together, you need to first assemble the five sets of pages and punch holes with a paper piercer in the folds.  I made a template and punched each set at the same time in one inch intervals.  (Always use a template so that you punch the holes consistently in each signature). After punching them, I sewed them together with heavy weight thread that I waxed with quilting bees wax.  The wax makes it easier to manipulate and it holds in place better than thread without it. You will need to cut five pieces of thread about 24" in length.

To sew the first set of three folded pages together, start at the first hole and from the inside out, push the needle and thread through leaving a tail of about 3 ".

Go over the top of the pages and back through the first hole again.

Sew all the way down the signature until you reach the bottom, where you will bring the thread around just like you did on the top and all the way back up to the second hole from the top.

Then you'll double knot the remaining thread with the tail and trim.  You'll repeat this on the next four sets of folded pages.

When you are done, you will stack your pages together.  Notice how I used cream colored card stock on the outside of signature 1, 3 and 5 and used the pink cardstock on the outside (or first sheet) of signatures 2 and 4.  The finished product looks nicer when the colors alternate like this.

After your pages are stacked, you will bind them together with ribbon.  I used American Crafts Premium Ribbon "Greeting"  and selected the velvet salmon ribbon.  I cut eight pieces about 3" long each.  You will start at the top and slide the ribbon under all five threads on the spines of the signatures.  Tape both ends to the outside cardstock.  Here's what it looks like when you've finished.

The final step to make the book is to glue on your covers right to the top and bottom of the pages.  I use Zip Dry because it really holds.  Set something heavy on top of the book to hold the cover in place well while it drys.

From here, it is all fun.  I decorate the inside pages first, before the cover so I won't mess up the outside while I' m gluing and embellishing the inside.  Graphic 45 has some lovely diecut sheets of tags, vintage photos, stamps, borders etc. that make it easy.  I used the leftover 12"x 3 1/2" strips to make pockets and photo mats.  I also bought a number of second sheets to create even more photo mats and journaling spots in the book.

For the cover, I cut two 6"x 8 1/4" pieces of  the Graphic 45 "Key to My Heart" pattered paper and used the scroll side for both the back and the front.  I used Time Holtz Paint Dauber in gold to distress the edges and to add a little flair to the cream-painted wooden photo corner that I added to the top left corner.  I hand cut the bride from the "La Romantique" paper and hand cut extra roses and the photo frame.  I used lots of adhesive foam to get the dimension I wanted.

I hope you enjoy making this book - or something similar.  I have made these books using a number of double sided papers, including Basic Grey and SEI (their Winter Song and Christmas Mint papers look terrific with silver paint on the cover!).

This book is taller than the Wedding Bells album.  The cover is 9 1/4" tall and the signatures were cut to 9" vs. 8". 

As an aside, I had the book together and decorated in about 4 hours (with tons of interruptions from hubbie and small people). It's a lovely project to complete on a snowy afternoon.

Enjoy!