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Simple Cardstock Slipcase: Part Two
Left: Diagram showing a flat view of the cardstock case. Dashed lines indicate folds. The light gray areas are the spine width portions of your case. The dark gray areas are those portions you must cut away. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Read below for more instructions.
Yesterday’s post took you through some of the pros and cons of making slipcases for your journals and then presented tips on selecting paper and using the few tools involved in the process. It should be a simple matter then to look at the template provided and work through it, with the other tips in mind, to a completed case. Remember that practice will improve your cases. Be patient. Work methodically so that you can alter your process as needed the next time, because you were aware of your process the first time.
Simple Cardstock Slipcase: Part One
Left: Photo of shelves with some of my recent visual journals. If you count down shelves from the top shelf where you see the “Cootie” game to shelves 4 and 5 you’ll see a lot of journals with slipcases. These are made with various cardstocks, corrugated cardboard (archival, found in a scrapbooking store), and painted watercolor papers (140 lb. weight). Click on the image to view an enlargement.
After selections from my journals appeared in Danny Gregory’s An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers several people asked me what type of questions readers of the book asked when they met me or contacted me via email or post.
The number one question people ask is “What do people ask?”
The next most frequent question is a series of questions all relating to media and paper. I tend to be interested in testing art supplies and this came across in the podcast interview Danny did of me as well so people like to ask me about materials and tools.
The surprising question, next in frequency, doesn’t have to do with my journal work at all, but rather relates to the physical journals themselves.
Danny included a photo of a shelf in my studio where the recent journals are kept. Ninety percent of the people who contact me about my work in Danny’s book ask the following question: How do you make slipcases for your journals? (or What are your slipcases made of?)
I thought it would be helpful to write about these cases, especially since a recent post about “unbound journals” raised some questions about cases.