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Resin Pressed Flower Journals

by JOANN |

Item # 522336209P68
Intermediate Weekend Project
SUPPLIES & TOOLS:
  • 5"x 7" frame with straight edges
  • 8"x 10" sheet of silicone or a flexible plastic folder
  • Hot glue gun & glue gun sticks
  • Scotch tape
  • Dried pressed flowers
  • Pkg or container of copper/gold flakes
  • Plastic straw
  • Drill & small drill bit for ring holes in cover
  • Kit of I Heart Resin
  • Thin cording
  • Embroidery needle
  • 20 sheets of 8 1/2"x 11" white paper (regular or thin cardstock)
  • X-Acto knife
  • Metal ruler
  • Cutting surface
  • Piece of Cricut chip board
  • Fine pointed metal punch
  • Heat gun
  • Scissors

DIRECTIONS:
MOLD:
  1. Take the backing and glass out of the old frame and discard.
  2. Cut the covers off the school folder.
  3. Lay the frame centered on one of the covers on a flat surface.
  4. Using the hot glue gun, place a bead of glue all the way around the outside of the frame where it meets the plastic cover.
  5. Take the other plastic cover and cut 1/2' strips of plastic using the knife and metal ruler. Cut 4 pieces to fit the wall of the inside of the frame. Stand them up on their sides and tape together on the outside of the strips to create a frame.
  6. Set the frame inside of the old wood frame.
  7. Cut the plastic straw into (6) 1/2" pieces. Set aside.

RESIN:
  1. Mix up a small batch of the resin to cover the bottom of the mold about 1/8" thick.
  2. Using the heat glue to remove any air bubbles. After it has set about 3 hours, insert the plastic straws where you want the holes to be for the binder side. Spaced them evenly out 1/8" from the left side but stay away from the top and bottom edge about 1/2" inch. Lightly twist them until you feel them hit the bottom of the cover against the plastic folder piece.
  3. Let it dry overnight.
  4. Place the wildflowers and copper/gold flakes onto the cured resin.
  5. Mix another batch of the resin and pour it on top of the previous cured resin with wildflowers.
  6. Use the heat glue to remove any air bubbles.
  7. Let it dry a full 24 hours.

PAGES:
  1. Take the 8 1/2" pieces of paper and fold in half to make them 8 1/2"x 5 1/2".
  2. Place three folded sheets inside of another to create 1 group. This is called a "signature".
  3. Create at least 6 signatures. Total of 36 pages when folded.
  4. Make sure each signature group is flush with the edges.
  5. Trim each signature group to match the height of the front cover and make it 1/8" shorter on the width so the pages will not stick out past the side of the cover when bound. The binding will pull the pages over by 1/8" when stitched together.
  6. Gently pull the wildflower cover out of the mold. Use the drill to lightly drill out the plastic straws and make clean holes.
  7. Lay the cover on the piece of chipboard and trace around the cover. Cut out the chipboard using the X-Acto knife and metal ruler to create the back cover. Drill or cut holes to match the front cover.
  8. Take one stack of folded signature pages and lay the cover on top of them. Make sure the binding side is flush with the cover and that the right side of the book the pages are about 1/8" short of being flush.
  9. Use a pencil to make a mark where the holes line up in the folded side of the signature pages. Open the set of signature pages and using a scrape piece of chip board underneath, make a small hole for each hole. This is the master to punch all the holes in the other signature groups of pages.
  10. Use this set of pages to punch holes in the remaining signatures.
  11. Stack the signatures like a book and double check on the binding side to make sure the holes line up.
  12. Use a Coptic stitch to bind the covers and pages together. To do so, start with the cover face down on your surface with the first signature on top.
  13. Thread a needle with the thin cording.
  14. Starting at a hole closest to the edge, bring the needle from the inside of the signature to the outside and down through the corresponding hole in the cover. Leave several inches of cording as a tail.
  15. Bring the thread around the edge of the cover and go back through the hole in the cover in the same direction, forming a loop around the cover edge.
  16. Insert the needle back through the first signature hole, from the outside going in.
  17. Repeat across the remain sets of holes to secure the first signature to the cover.
  18. On the last set of holes, do not go back into the signature after looping the cover. Add the second signature and go through the corresponding hole in that signature from outside in.
  19. Move to the next hole and bring the cord out through the hole, wrap the cord around the thread at between the first signature and cover, and insert it back through the second hole, outside going in.
  20. Repeat for remaining holes in the signature.
  21. At the last hole in this signature, do not go back through the hole after wrapping the thread. Instead, wrap around the cord between the first and second signatures in the opposite direction. This will continue forming the chain link pattern created as the cord wraps around itself.
  22. Add another signature and repeat the above steps.
  23. Continue until all signatures have been added.
  24. Stack the outside cover facing up on top of the last signature, matching the holes.
  25. With the cord on the outside of the last signature, thread the needle up through the corresponding hole in the cover twice, looping the edge of the cover.
  26. Insert the needle into the corresponding hole of the last signature.
  27. Bring the needle out through the next hole and repeat.
  28. Continue to secure the back cover in this manner until all holes have been sewn.
  29. Tie both tails off using and overhand knot.

JOANN HACKS:
  • Once you have punched each set of three signatures, stack them like a book and double check on the binding side to make sure the holes line up. When binding the book, don’t pull the cording to the left or right. It will tear the holes for the binding.

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