AEDM Day 18 & 19-Japanese Stab Punch Journals

I was out of town yesterday, so didn't get my creative attempt posted. I'm posting it in with today's. Yesterday I decided to study a video on a Japanese stab punch journal binding before leaving for the day. I watched the video, then folded a scrap piece of orange cardstock, punched five holes, and gave the stitching a try. Not as easy as it looked! :o I wound up with a double black stitch on the front and one on the back. Not the way it should have been. So I doodled a disgruntled rabbit and layed it aside.

We stopped at Hobby Lobby for a few minutes, where I carried around a stamp and some papers off the clearance shelf until I got so overwhelmed by all the mixed media elements that I wanted, that I put back what I had, and left the store without buying anything. That's a first! I was inspired by some things, however, that I came home and sketched out to try later, so that was some creative inspiration.

This morning I got up, folded another scrap of orange cardstock, punched five holes, and did the stitching with a scrap of yellow waxed linen thread. I love using up scraps, don't you? This time the stitching went without a hitch, except the thread is a little loose in a place or two.

I proceeded to cut two 6x12" pieces of textured asian scrapbook paper for covers, and I found a pack of variegated pastel papers that I've had for years, which I cut the same size, arranging them in the order that I liked them. I punched five holes in the covers and 23 sheets of paper (text block) and got them ready to stitch in a hurry.

One of the videos showed a small journal stitched with a ribbon, and I loved it. After much looking, I finally located the ribbon you see here, threaded my needle, and put it through the first hole (actually the second hole, but the first to stitch). It went through like a charm, and I was off and running. Not!

RULE #1 in bookbinding: Make sure the holes are large enough for what you are going to stitch with.

When I started back through the hole with the needle and double ribbon through all those pages, it was a struggle. Since the ribbon has to go through every hole about three times, and I had used an awl to punch the holes, instead of a hole punch, it took me hours, instead of minutes to finish the binding, and I have the blisters on my thumb and forefinger to prove it. I was exhausted to boot.

A sane person would have probably backed up at the first hole and re-punched the holes, but I didn't listen to that little inner voice to do so and trudged on ahead. lol  I do love the ribbon binding though, despite some of the stitches being a little loose. It takes practice, and I learned a valuable lesson the hard way.

I liked the 6x12" journal, so I cut two 5x5" covers from a scrap of textured paper, plus about a dozen sheets of pastel pink and green parchment paper and made a small journal stitched in black, which I am happy to say did only take a few minutes, and, as far as I can tell, is stitched without a bobble. I am so proud of myself and what I learned, and that was my adventure for today! :)