Lesson 11: Pockets

For the next four weeks I'm suspending my Silent Sunday posts and going directly to my altered book lesson or homework. That means the lessons will be posted at a much earlier time than normal. I normally post these in conjunction with

Leah's Creative Every Day link, but have noticed that many people publish their CED posts at an earlier time. And since this only leaves me an hour or so before I post my weekly Summer of Color entry, I feel it's important to keep these two posts a bit farther apart so as not to confuse anyone. So until the Summer of Color is complete, I will be posting my Sunday AB lessons at 2:00 am CDT in the US. This is about the same time I normally publish my Silent Sunday post. Please check my right sidebar to see a few other time zones. I will let you know the week before I plan to resume my Silent Sunday posts and move my AB tutorials back to the later time of around 10:30 pm CDT. Now that the minutia is out of the way, we can get back to the lesson. Can you believe it? We've just passed the halfway point in these lessons. All the hard lessons are behind you. From now on, it is smooth sailing and hopefully smooth dexterity. This lesson is going to be so easy, it is almost remedial. We will be talking about adding pockets in our altered books. There are several types of pockets, but most can be categorized as either visible or hidden. Visible pockets can be broken down further into simple or complex. Since most of you come out of the scrapbook or paper crafting communities, you have more than likely been exposed to pockets. Those of you who make tags, will now have a place to store those tags, too.

Once again I'm not reinventing the wheel, but bringing out some tried and true examples of pockets from altered books I have created in the past.

Speaking of tags, here are a lot of them hanging out in vellum pockets in my Rocking Horses AB. Obviously these are NOT horses, but they all have rockers. Each animal is on its own oval tag.

The easiest way to create a pocket is to find an envelope and attach it to your page. For this spread, I used this charity envelope I found in my junk mail. It was perfect for my Money AB. All I needed was to add faux money to it, along with a genuine Oriental coin. You can glue or even sew your envelope to your AB page.

 

This clear envelope from my Asian AB includes "travel papers" that can be removed and viewed as part of an interactive page.

 

For this page in my Asian AB, I used Chinese New Year coin envelopes. 

Talk about using any pocket you can find. The tag holder pocket is a freebie sample of face cleanser. I merely washed the cleanser out, allowed it to dry, and colored it with Twinkling H20s to match the baby wipe background in my Asian AB. So think outside the box when you are adding pockets to your ABs. As an aside, remember how I warned to NOT use Elmers or other wet glues with magazine images? All these ripples in the Singapore spread are a perfect example of what wet glue does to cheap magazine images. The next easiest pockets are made using three (or the uneven number of your choosing) consecutive pages. You will also need 3 (or the number of pages you intend to turn into pockets) different inks or acrylic paint. Remember the color lesson? Pick accordingly.
Start with the LAST page you sectioned off for this technique. I began with gold and placed a piece of butcher paper behind the page for protection. Alternately, you can use Press and Seal, wax paper, or even an old phone book page or newspaper. The idea is to protect the pages behind the page you are painting. I used a foam brush, but you can use anything you wish, including a faux credit card. Using a ruler, gently tear the next page forward. Depending upon how many pockets you want and how wide your book is, determine the width of each of the pockets. TIP: If you want softer, more feathered edges, gently wet the area you want to tear. It will give a completely different look. Place your protective paper behind the second page after the last page has dried. Using a different color, paint the page nearly to the center. Repeat tearing and painting and this time, paint all the way to the center of the page. When dry, apply your favorite glue (remember which one you preferred?) at the top and bottom edges of each of the page pockets to the page beneath it. Leave the outer length (long edge) open. You can also attach the pages using eyelets, brads, snaps, or sew fibers to the page. Another really easy pocket is made by tearing (or cutting) the page half way down the spine.
Flip the page over and align. Glue the half page to itself.
Once aligned, crease with your hand or a bone folder.
You now have a simple pocket. Repeat for the opposing page. I colored my pockets so you could see what they look like before they are attached. Then I marked where the glue would go on the page using a pink marker. Unless specifically shown or mentioned, the rest of the pockets demoed will be glued in the same way: both sides and the bottom only.

BEFORE you glue the pockets to the opposing pages, color or decorate the full pages that will go behind the pockets. Here is another example of a folded pocket I made, this time for my Buffy AB. I used heavy card stock and flipped the bottom up to create the pocket, decorated it with Buffy images, then glued the entire assembly to the page. Finally, I placed the arch style altered tag in the pocket. Although I didn't have time to make another set of these pockets from scratch, I hope I can walk you through the process with the photos that I have from my Money AB.

You will need a few coin envelopes. I used 10 from a bank (after all, it was a money AB). I cut the tops off the envelopes, then colored them using various color washes, then decorated the pages that would surround the envelopes. You must decorate your pages first, because it would be pretty difficult to do it afterward. Once your coin envelopes are dry, use either a glue roller, glue stick, or Elmers and run a bead of glue down the CENTER ONLY of one side of your coin envelopes. For this project, I used double sided tape. Stack them together, being careful to get the bottoms and edges lined up.

When you have all your envelopes together, glue them to one side of your book. I tried to center mine on the page, but you can place yours anywhere you like. As an optional step, you can put Velcro on one (which I did) or both of the ends. You can see this in the photo above. To adhere Velcro, place both pieces (attached) in the center of the envelope, then close the book and press the Velcro against the book page. The other side will be attached and in the correct spot on the page when you open the book. Now it's time to gather some of those yummy backgrounds you made a couple of weeks ago. I'd like to reiterate how each lesson builds on the next. Of course, you can always substitute fabric in place of paper. Many of my background techniques can be used on fabric as well as paper. Now that you've chosen your decorated paper, measure both the length and width of your book. Cut your paper to the size of the book when open. Fold or cut a triangle from the upper left using the book's center fold as a guide. Repeat for the other side, using the first side as a guide. Position the paper on your book pages, adhere with your favorite glue, starting with the center fold, then the outer edges as before, and embellish any way you choose. It's time to shift gears and make hidden pockets. For this technique, you should have a tag in mind before you begin. Place the tag on the RIGHT page of your book so it doesn't show from the edge. If you like, you can add fibers or ribbons to the tag for easy removal. Mark the bottom of the tag.
Mark around the tag. Use a pencil, rather than a magic marker like I did for demonstration purposes. Before gluing, perform a dry run to check the position and size of the penciled area one more time.
Glue everywhere on the page, EXCEPT inside the marked area.
Flip the previous page over and align with the glued page.
Adhere both pages being careful to smooth both pages as you go. I find working from the spine to the edges works best for me.
When dry, place your tag inside the hidden pocket.
Here you can see the tag inside the pocket. Decorate your front and back pages as you choose. Now we are going to make a hidden slit. For this technique, lay your tag (or whatever you want to hide) somewhere on the LEFT page. Make sure it doesn't go past the BOTTOM of the page. Mark the slit width. Move your tag below the solid mark and mark around the tag. Use a pencil rather than the permanent marker I used for demonstration purposes.
Place a self healing mat under the TOP mark. Cut through the slit. Glue everywhere on the page EXCEPT inside the marks.
Lay the page over the next page. Firmly press the two pages together, removing any air bubbles as you go. When dry, place the tag inside the slit. I've pulled the tag out a bit so you can see where it's been cut. Decorate your page according to your theme.

HOMEWORK (totally optional, as always):

Make visible pockets and decorate the pages any way you want. You may create tags to put in the pockets, or you may choose to wait.

Make a hidden pocket and hidden slit. Decorate the page to your choosing. I suggest you have a tag so you will know what size to make the openings. Or maybe you would like to place a hidden message to a lover or friend in an envelope and seal it in. This is YOUR AB, so feel free to do as you choose.

Feel free to come up with different pocket designs, too. Think blue jean pockets or old shirt pockets. Consider sewing your pockets to background paper, then gluing them to the pages in your book. Don't confine yourself to my designs. Like I said before, think outside the box. I'll be back next Sunday to show you a few more designs using pockets. I didn't want to overload your browser this week. Supplies you will need for Lesson 12: Your book Background papers Glue

COMPLETED HOMEWORK: I am really looking forward to seeing what magazine images you played with and what creative frames you made for this lesson's homework assignment. This should have been a fun assignment. Please remember to show your homework assignment when I ask for it. You have two weeks to post Lesson 10's assignment (your magazine images and frames), but I suspect many of you are ready. And please be sure the link is to the specific post or posts, not to your blog in general. And I want to thank all of you for turning off that annoying word verification. You are the BEST!! I've only seen it on a few blogs lately. And believe me, it's NEVER too late to join in. Feel free to start at any lesson, although, as many of you have seen, each lesson builds on the next.

You may also post ANY previous assignments here. If you are showing any assignment prior to Lesson 10, just add the lesson number after your name, please.