Photo Pocket Journal

Materials:

River City Rubber Works 3 blank CD-01 pocket folders
card stock
decorative paper
double-sided adhesive or glue stick
ruler
craft knife
River City Rubber Works rubber stamps: school paper 3060-O, backgammon board 3061-O, journal 3016-D, nameplate rounded ends 3056-H
Ranger archival ink pads: coffee i-07 or sepia i-10, jet black i-01
Ranger’s Rust Antiquities embossing powder
River City Rubber Works antique brass mini brads
Ranger’s Heat-It tool

Steps:

1. You’ll need three blank pocket folders and two "hinges" to hold the pocket folders together. To make the hinges, cut two pieces of card stock the same size as an open pocket folder, minus the spine. For our blank pocket folders, this would be 10-1/4" x 5-1/8".

2. Fold each piece of card stock in half (just like the folders).

4. Attach the other side of the hinge to the front of the second pocket folder. This attaches two folders together like a book and creates two extra blank pages! (figure B)

5. Attach the third pocket folder using the other hinge piece that will attach to the back of the second pocket folder and the front of the third pocket folder. Now your basic three-folder book is assembled and you’ve created an additional four pages.

6. To cover the outside of the pocket folder book, use a piece of decorative paper that measures 1/4 to 1/2 inch wider than each side of the pocket folder. Center the paper over the folder and use double-sided adhesive or a glue stick to fasten the paper to the outside of the folder (figure C).

7. Cut off a small triangular piece of the excess paper at each corner (figure D). Then fold the rest of the excess paper over and stick it to the inside of the folder (figure E). These edges will be covered when you decorate the inside pages (figure F).

8. Add anything decorative to the covers. We layered contrasting card stock with a rubber stamp image of a backgammon board. Then we attached (with mini brads) an embossed rubber stamp image of a nameplate in the center of the board (figure G). Use a craft knife to cut out the center of the nameplate. We stamped the word "Journal" inside the nameplate.

9. If you wish to add a fold-down page, simply cut another piece of card stock the same size as your hinge pages (the same size as an open pocket folder). Fold it in half as in step 2, but instead of attaching it like book pages, use adhesive to attach it so that it folds down. Pick an inside page and attach one half of the fold-down page so that the fold is at the bottom of the book. This page will be able to fold up and inside when your book is closed (figure H). If you’ve attached the page over a diagonal pocket, simply follow the directions in step 12.

10. Another hinge page technique is the Pop-Out. Start with a regular hinge page, but before you attach it to the book, fold the halves together and cut two 1-inch slits into the fold about 1 inch apart. Crease or score the space at the ends of these two cuts (figure I).

11. Open the hinge like a card, but fold the small piece outward in what is called a mountain fold. Now attach the hinge page between two folders without putting any adhesive behind the pop-out piece. It will fold outward and flattened when your book is shut, and pop out with the book is open (figure J). You can add a small shipping tag or other embellishment to stand out prominently when the page is opened (figure K).

12. To cover the inside pages, measure each side and cut decorative paper the exact size to cover the pocket. These will also attach with double-sided adhesive or glue stick. A simple way to cover the diagonal pocket page in one step is to cover the entire side of the folder as if the diagonal pocket wasn’t there. Attach the decorative paper like the others, but then use a craft knife and cut along the edge of the diagonal pocket to open it back up (figure L). You can do this by feeling the edge of the pocket, if the paper is thin enough, or by making a template of a pocket beforehand that you can use as a cutting guide (figure M). Either way will work (figure N).

13. Another technique is tucking an oversized/larger piece of decorative paper behind/just underneath the pockets. Trim away any excess paper or fold the excess edges over to the other side. This technique covers all the white areas of the folder and can add contrast to your pages if you use a contrasting paper to cover the pockets themselves.

14. Repeat step 12 on all inside pages. You will be able to add envelopes, additional pockets, journaling, photos and much more to your covered pages as well as being able to tuck more things inside the pockets (figure O).

15. You can add even more pages by making another hinge page that is slightly smaller than a regular hinge (by 1/8 inch all around). Ours would be 10-1/4" x 5". Fold it like a book and tuck the right side into one of the diagonal pockets. Now you’ll have more pages, but this time, they’re also removable!

Tips:

Use a dry adhesive like double-sided tape or a glue stick. Most wet types of glue tend to warp the folder as well as the paper. (Editor's note: Beacon's Zip Dry Paper Glue is a liquid glue made for paper that will not warp or wrinkle, dries clear and flat, and excess rolls off like old-fashioned rubber cement. It's acid and lignin free and incredibly strong!)

You can also make books without hinges at all. Simply attach the back of one folder directly to the front of another folder. You won’t have as many extra pages, but you’ll still have a very cute little book.

These books can be assembled with any number of folders. We use three for a typical book, but we’ve done as few as two and as many as six. You could do even more.

Try different kinds of assemblages. Many of our techniques were discovered by "accident," so go nuts (and let me know if you come up with some new and cool ideas)!