Expanding Christmas Journal by Betsy Skagen

It may be obnoxiously early for Christmas items to start appearing in local stores, but when you are a crafter, Christmas preparations usually begin in summer.

This Expanding Christmas Journal is brimming with tags, magnetic enclosures and pockets so that you can store almost unlimited Christmas memories, photos, ideas or recipes.

It is perfect to give as a treasured handmade gift or you can use the Christmas Journal to store your own holiday memories. 

The six inserts in the Christmas Journal offer a place to stash decorative tags or keepsakes.

The Christmas Journal includes pockets and many tags.

  It even has surprise fold-out pages.

Magnetic flaps keep everything tidy and add extra journaling space. 

Hidden magnets also make it easy to store loose ephemera. 

Waterfall inserts inside the book are perfect for small pictures or notes.

Another surprise fold-out page is augmented by another flap.

Just when you think there can't be more surprises, a Trifold Pocket adds more pockets.

What can bring more cheer than a Santa holding a candy cane?

Belly bands offer another way to tuck tags or other material away in this Christmas Journal.

As you can see, a lot goes into making this book. It is not as intricate as The Never Ending Book, but it is still a doozy. 

To break things up a bit, I split the tutorial into two parts. Keep reading below to begin Part One of the tutorial. Afterwards, be sure visit my blog for Part Two of the Expanding Christmas Journal tutorial.

Tutorial Part One--How to Make the Expanding Christmas Journal

Begin by cutting 10 7.5" x 4.75" rectangles of black cardstock.

Take an inside page from the Gypsy Soul Tag Book package and use it to trace the diagonal cuts on one end of each page. Cut off these corners so that you now have 10 pieces of black cardstock that are the same size of the inside pages. Psst--Ignore the 24# in the picture below--I thought I needed 24, but then discovered that 10 of the pages needed to be larger.

Using a strong adhesive, adhere one of these black cardstock pieces to each side of three inside pages to create three sturdy black inside pages. Set aside the remaining two inside pages and their four matching pieces of black cardstock.

Now cut 10  x 7.75" x 5" rectangles of black cardstock. take one of the insert pages from the Tag Book package and trace the diagonal cuts on one end of each page. Cut off these corners so you have 10 pieces of black cardstock that are the same size as the Tag Book insert pages.

Repeat the above process of adhering one of these black cardstock pieces to each side of three of the  insert pages. Again set aside the remaining two insert pages and their four matching pieces of black cardstock.

A quick note--don't throw away your black cardstock scraps. You will be able to use many of them later in this project.

Next cut six 3 3/8" x 5 1/4" black rectangles. I guess I was so immersed in creating this Christmas Journal that I forgot to finish writing the dimensions on the picture below--ha ha! I didn't discover it until I began writing this tutorial.

Take one of the tags from the Tag Book package and use it to trace the corners that you will again cut off. When finished go ahead and adhere your black cardstock pieces to the Tag Book package tags.

Cut six 1.25" x 5" rectangles. Adhere these to both sides of the three Tag Book package belly bands.

Now you are going to make two sets of hinged pages with the pieces that you did not yet cover in black cardstock. Take the remaining two insert pages  and trim these pages and their corresponding black cardstock pieces so that they are 6.25" long.

Cut four 1.5" x 6.25" rectangle of black Tyvek. Make a horizontal score line along the length of each rectangle so you can fold them in half . Apply two pieces of strong double-sided tape with liner to one side of each Tyvek piece. Adhere the tape so it is closer to the outside edges (as opposed to being closer to the score line). By the way, you can see that only one side of my Tyvek is black because at the time I didn't know another option existed. I strongly recommend using Tyvek that is black on both sides as it prevents bits of white appearing in your Christmas Journal.

Pull off one of the tape liners and adhere it to the bottom edge of one of the shortened insert pages. Next remove tape from the other half of the Tyvek and adhere it to the top edge of one of your remaining uncovered inside pages.  Flip this whole unit over and repeat by adding a second piece of Tyvek to the back side.

Repeat the hinge-making steps to the remaining insert and inside page pieces.

Go ahead and adhere the black cardstock to all of these hinged pages so you end up with two sets of hinged pages that fold open at the top.

One last step before you move on to making the actual book is to add strips of double-side tape to the inside bottom of the inserts so that nothing falls out of the pockets.

The next step in creating your Christmas Journal is to cut a 5.5" x 3.25" piece of black foam core to serve as the book's spine..

To make the book's hinges, cut four 5.5" x 1.5" pieces of black Tyvek. Score each in half lengthwise and add two pieces of strong double-sided tape with liner to one side of each Tyvek piece. Like you did with the page hinge, adhere the tape so it is closer to the outside edges.

Line up the black foamcore between the the front and back cover. Pull off one of the tape liners and adhere it to the edge of the front cover. Pull off the second liner and adhere it to the foamcore, making sure the hinge easily opens and closes.

Adhere the back cover of the book to the spine by repeating this process. Next flip the whole unit over and repeat by adhering the spine to the front and back covers with Tyvek.

 The next step is to make the page hinges. Cut five 4 6/8" x 1 1/2" pieces of black cardstock. Make scorelines lengthwise 3/4" inch from each edge and fold.  Just ignore the measurements in the pictures above and below. I ended up correcting them.

Add strong double-sided tape with liner to the outside middle section of each hinge. For placement, begin by adhering one of the hinges in the middle of the spine. In addition to the double-sided adhesive, add some drops of a strong glue--you really want these hinges to hold up!

Next, line up the remaining hinges to determine their placement. You will want a small space between each hinge and a larger space between the outside hinges and the book's covers. I recommend leaving a slightly larger space between the hinges than the picture below depicts.

Using more double-sided tape with liner, adhere your pages and inserts to each of the tabs.

Congratulations! You just completed the base of your Christmas Journal.

 Because this is such a long tutorial, I have divided in into two sections. To see Part Two of the tutorial and learn how to complete your Christmas Journal, please go to my blog Paper Calliope.

Great Stuff

Tag Book--Coming soon to Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts!
Trifold Pocket Mini
Authentique 12 x 12 Jingle Collection Kit
Authentique Jingle 6 x 6 pack
Authentique Classic Eight paper
Black Tyvek
Large pack of black cardstock
Red, green, aqua and light blue cardstock
Black foamcore
Large package of micro magnets
Decorative paper punches
Hole punch
Tim Holtz Tag Press
Tim Holtz Tag Press Rings
Glossy Accents
Whisker Graphics Bakers Twine
Buttons
Christmas embellishments
Double-sided tape with liner
Two-sided Adhesive with liner
Adhesive
Beacon Fabri-Tac