Coaster Book and Hinge Tutorial

AS promised here is a simple tutorial for making a book out of coasters  as well as a hinge technique some of you may already know.

The supplies you will need are: sharp pencil, 5 coasters, sharp scissors, a punch of some kind, card stock pack and hinge paper. I used CD stickers for this one because I liked the sparkle , although very little shows. You can use paper, card stock, ribbon...what ever. I used a square punch but in the past I have used round and even a butterfly (it was handy).

 trace and cut out your card stock. Lay out the way you book pages will
look. IN this case the cover is black, then a coaster, then another piece of card stock you can't see, then the next set is red card stock, a coaster and another color card stock (hidden under the red page)


Right now you are saying "you're as clear as mud Kathie"...it will all make sense as you go along.
Here is the back of the cover (the green) and page one (the red) with a coaster and page 2 under it. I like to lay them out this way so I  can move along in order.



Punch out your squares, or rounds or what ever. The CD labels I used had a sticky side which made everything easier, other wise you will glue them in place.

You will take, in the case the green and red and put them together facing each other (what you see in the above picture, is the back side of the red which, once the hinge is in place, will be glued unto a coaster.)

Fold your hinge in half, put glue on one side and slide it over both pieces of card stock, so half the hinge is on the red and half on the green. Make sure the hinge is on the wrong side of the card stock. Or the side of the card stock that will be glued to the coaster.

Then take you next set, right sides held together. IN this case the yellow page and the one that will be opposite it in your book (What you see here is the wrong side of the yellow page) I lay  the two new pages on the two I just finished so the hinges will all be in alignment when the book is done.

Here is each set of pages, minus the coasters..The hinges are all facing up, the valleys are not attached, it just looks that way.You can see the black covers one on the left and one on the far right. The cover will be glued to a coaster, the other side of the coaster will be glued to the card stock that is hinged to the blue you see on the left. A coaster will get glued to the blue side, then the next set will get glued to the blank side of that coaster and so on.

This picture shows the cover, coaster, back of cover page glued to another coaster. The green check will be glued to the back of the aforementioned coaster and then another coaster will be glued to the hinged page.

Remember if you are going to use brads to decorate anything, in this case a pocket, do so before gluing it to the coaster.

I use LINECO PH glue because it is used in book making and doesn't make pages bubble. I also use my 24K gold pen to edge all the pages, so it looks nice and neat and pretty.

You can hardly see the hinges once the book is all together...don't forget to add pockets and fun things for your partner to fill up with memories.

AS you can see the book lays nice and flat, before adding pockets and embellishments. I'm only going this far because I want you to come up with your own embellishing idea's. I have found that once I set a theme, everyone seems to follow. This is something you will be making for a partner so make it unique. Make it capable of holding small photo's, tickets, small maps or trinkets from a trip. Add things she can write on as well as add to. Hope you understood the process. If not write to me. Once you lay it all out, I think it will all make sense. Good Luck!