Tuesday-7:30am

I had one more small watercolor journal that I had planned to make and had pre-cut the paper for. This one was going to be a regular, closed-spine book. A bit more complicated, so I saved it for last. (The other two were the coptic stitch--the green one and the red leather one--you've seen.)

I used my new cradle board and an awl for poking the holes. Worked like a charm! Sewed the signatures together--incorporating the three pieces of book tape.

I picked out paper for the cover, spine, and inside cover. Cut out the cover and spine pieces from some thin cardboard I had. (The Dahle cutter is amazing!)

Cut the spine strip and glued it in place--with my wonderful, non-gummy, new YES glue. The ends didn't quite meet, like I had planned, but they get covered up, anyways. I am not sure if they are supposed to cover the whole spine or not? I wasn't using a video or a book--just looked at the little book I had made years ago in that short class at Concordia and tried to remember. (You can see it standing up by the lamp.)

I had to let the spine dry...

...and yet bend it back and forth so it would be able to move properly.

Used the new Dahle cutter--(love it!)--to also cut the pieces for the cover and inside cover.

Glued the cover pieces on the front sides.

Let them dry a bit and turned them over.

Trimmed the corners.

Glued all the flaps down. They didn't meet and corner perfectly--oh well.

Starting to get an idea of what the book will look like.

I clamped down all the edges and let them dry.

Then I glued down the tapes and let them dry.

Finally glued on the inside covers. They are one piece that goes along the inside cover and up the first page--and they cover the tapes. I had to do some trimming first, because they were a little long.

I did another clamping job--hehe! Let it dry well.

And here is the finished watercolor journal!! TaDa!!!

Took all day--lots of drying time. I am pretty happy with it.

Meanwhile--been catching up with letters still and finally got some Netflix DVDs again yesterday. Hadn't had any for almost a week--some glitch in the system--supposed to reduce our bills by 15%. ?? I'll let you know if they do. I am finally able to continue on with the last season of The Wire and the second season of The X Files. :)

Now tomorrow my folks are coming for a visit before they head back to Florida for the winter here pretty soon. Grandson, Dagan, and lovely wife, Leah, will come over after work. Supposed to be 90 degrees today and almost 90 and windy tomorrow. Not expected to rain, anyways. I should rest up today. :)