WOYWW #286: Tag Journal

I seems like only yesterday that I wrote my last What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday post, but it was actually an entire week ago. It's amazing how quickly time flies by and I haven't even got much to show for it other than a very messy desk on Tuesday. Those of you with a nervous disposition please look away!

A flustratingly messy desk

I know I have to tidy up when I get flustrated (flustered+frustrated) instead of inspired when I sit down to create something. I quite simply had no other choice but to tidy up and make room for creativity. Here's my desk a few hours later:

Tada!

What you can see carefully staged casually lying on my desk is my brand new tag journal with the very first tag I received as part of a swap organized by a mixed media sharing community on Google+.  My swap partner was Gerda from the Netherlands. She created this beautiful tag especially for me! Here's a closer look:

I didn't quite realize just how much fun swapping tags was going to be! Each month we have a different theme (November was Artist's Choice).  I decided to make a tag journal to hold all the tags I will receive through this swap. 

You may remember seeing the old dictionary cover I showed you last week, which now serves as the cover for my tag journal. I've taken some photos to show you how I made this journal. The first photo shows the cover with my gelli prints. It needs some more decoration.

I used cardboard from cereal packets to make the pages and I covered these with gelli prints as well. These are quite sturdy and I will simply attach the tags to them with paper clips. There are five single-sheet signatures, which I sewed to a separate spine made out of kraft card leaving plenty of room between the signatures to accommodate any dimensional items. They are about 1 cm (0.4 inch) apart.  I marked five holes for each signature and used an awl (a.k.a. pokey tool!) to make the holes.

Five holes for all five signatures

Pages cut from cereal boxes covered with gelli prints

I used the holes on the kraft card spine as a guide to pierce the holes in the signatures in the same places. Here's a useful tip I picked up on YouTube: use a bulky book to make sure that your holes are lined up exactly on the fold of the signatures.

Use a thick book to help you make the holes

After I had sewn the signatures to the kraft card using saddle stitching, I stuck it to the cover with strong tacky glue. It's probably not a professional job, but it works just fine.  The book lies flat and there's plenty of room for expansion. The tags will be held in place with paper clips - one on each page. Here a few photos of the completed journal. I will further decorate the gelli print pages as I go along.

If you would like to see the tag I sent to Gerda in return, please click here. Hope you enjoyed your visit to my desk today. Don't forget to come back next week! Happy WOYWW!