Mixed Media 2015 Diaries

I've been making these 3 mixed media diaries for myself and for the kids.

To make one you'll need 4 sheets of paper; I used A3 cartridge.

First decorate both sides of the paper any way you like. I used collage, acrylics, stencils, ink sprays, and lots of Gelli prints.

You need to cut each piece of paper long-ways into a strip.

Each page on this book folds open giving 3 smaller pages joined together for each month. There's also a spare page at the beginning and end of the diary.

Choose 2 strips that go together and fold each in half and half again.

You can see in the picture above that the 2 strips give you 8 sections altogether. You need to overlap them on 2 sections and this will give you 3 sections for each month and 2 storage pockets. I used double sided tape. See below for where to place the glue or tape.

Once they are joined into 1 long strip with 6 sections it looks like this:

You need to do the same with all 8 of your strips and then fold the ends in like this:

You'll have 4 folded pieces as above. You need to make 3 holes along the centre crease of each one. A hole in the centre and one at each end about 2cm from the edge.

Then stack the pieces on top of each other so the holes line up. IMPORTANT: make sure your pocket openings are at the top, it's easy to forget this again and again grrrrr!

You'll need some thread; length about 4 times the height of the book. Take a needle and thread (I used embroidery cotton) and pull the thread from the outside into the middle hole and through into the centre, leave a long tail of thread hanging on the outside. Take the thread back down through the top holes.

With you thread now on the outside of the book take it all the way down to the bottom and through the bottom holes. From the inside take it back through the middle hole again.

You should now have 2 long threads on the outside of the book. Pull the threads tight and knot them together around the thread running along the spine.

You can either cut the threads off close to the knot or add beads to them.

You will have 8 pockets in the top of your book. Paint up some card tags and insert them into the pockets.

Stick on labels for each month and the diary is ready to be filled with drawings, collage and journalling throughout the year.