Supplies: (1) Composition Book, (20) Manilla Office Folders, Wax Linen Thread, Needle, Exacto Knife, Scissors, Ruler, Sheet of copy paper, and a pen or pencil.
I started by removing all the lined pages from the composition book. To do this, all I did was carefully cut the binding thread and the paper pulled right out all at once.
Then I drew lines down the spine separating it into four sections. After that, I made 6 lines (EVENLY SPACED) horizontally down the spine. Once that was done, I poked holes wherever the two lines met - as you can see in the picture below:
Next, I took my manilla folders and separated them into four signatures with five folders inside each other in all four signatures. Check it out, man:
Now I took a sheet of copy paper and paper clipped it inside my composition book and poked a line of holes down the center to match with the binding. Then I took that sheet of paper with the holes down the center and clipped it into one of my signatures (check out my fancy clips below:
Now it's time to poke more holes. This time just one line down the center (poking through all five folders at once.) Repeat this step for all four signatures. Here's me doing one:
The next steps are a little complicated to do and take pictures of at the same time. What I had to do next was thread the wax lined thread in and out of both the binding and each signature separately. Then when all four signatures were tightly threaded to the binding, I tied a knot on either end.
And that's it! It turned out pretty nice! The coolest thing about this journal is that it's sturdy and easy to make. The pages are those manila folders so they're thick like card stock (will be able to withstand ANY art media you can imagine and take lots of abuse for those rough, emotional, art journal entries. Anyway, hope you like it Dan. I'll start drawing a few pictures of my own in it tonight.
(Dan, you get to design your own cover.)
-Mike LeTendre
