Spellbinders Storage Idea for The Kraft Journal

     It's tutorial time at The Kraft Journal!  I don't know about you, but I defintely get bitten by the spring cleaning bug when things start turning green.  Spring cleaning also means a desire to get organized.  My Spellbinders dies have been a mess for a while.  I had them in plastic sleeves in a big three ring binder.  They were all mixed up and the sleeves were tearing--it was just a HUGE mess.  There are several different videos and blog posts out there on different ways you can store these.  Mine is roughly based on a design by a fellow YouTuber named tewtami. Her video doesn't really go into detail about the construction of her storage solution, but is a walk through of the completed project--and it's very nice.  She included some acetate pockets in between her pages but I saw no need for that in mine.  So let's get started.
     First off let me tell you that this project is super simple.  I've used the Medium Precut Chipboard from Kraft Outlet for the base of my storage book.  There are 25 sheets in the pack and they are already the perfect size so NO cutting necessary.  YAY!  I'm kind of a stickler about stability, so I went ahead and glued two sheets together for an extra sturdy base.
     Here are the supplies you'll need:

     The chipboard sheets, adhesive, and some black cardstock. You could use another color or pattern if you wanted.  You'll see why I used black later.
     I used the Scotch glue to put my chipboard pieces together.  Use your adhesive of choice, but make sure it's strong.  This book will be heavy.  Cut a regular sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" black cardstock in half and adhere one half to each side of the chipboard.  Pretty simple huh!

     Once you have the cardstock adhered you can punch your binding holes.  I'm using a Cinch to bind my book, but you could use rings or another binding machine.  TIP:  If you're decorating your front or back covers with paper other than the black cardstock, put it on before you punch your holes.  I didn't do this and had to repunch through the additional paper which was no problem, but would be one less step for you.

     You can now start to attach your dies to the pages.  I've used a roll of magnetic tape I picked up at Wal-mart.  It's sticky on one side so all you have to do is adhere it to your page.  You might want to lay your dies out ahead of time to see where you want them and where they'll fit.
     I didn't go too crazy with embellishments on the front because of the heaviness of the book already and storage wise I didn't want a lot of bulk to have to deal with.  You can make yours as plain or fancy as you want.
     Here are a few picks of the finished book.

     For the cover I've layered some Brown Kraft Cover Weight Cardstock and Buff Ivory Cover Weight Cardstock with some Bazzill and pretty K and Company designer paper.   I printed Spellbinders out on some Lunch Bag Kraft cardstock for the book title tag.

     On the inside of the book I've used some 1.0 x 1.5 Rectangular Brown Kraft Labels to identify my die sets.  This is why I used the black cardstock.  I wanted to be able to easily read the labels since I always list the numbers in my project supply lists.
     Okay, confession time.  This was my very first time using my Cinch and you know there are always going to be glitches the first time you play with a new toy.  The binding wire I used for the book was a 1' size.  They only go up to 1 1/4" and I'm not sure that little bit extra would really help in this situation.  I only put seven pages in the book, but with the dies in there it makes it about 2 1/2" thick so I'll probably go back and split the book into two separate ones.  The weight of those dies adds up too, so the book won't be as heavy if I split it.  Ahhh the fun of trial and error.  LOL
     Hope you decide to play along with our "Spring Fling" challenge this week.  Break out that kraft paper or some products from Kraft Outlet and play along.  I've added a button on my sidebar for Kraft Outlet.  You can just click on it and it will take you directly to the store with a lot of the crafting goodies I've used for this project and more.
     Have a great week!


Supplies

Papers+:  Kraft Outlet Medium Precut Chipboard, Brown Kraft Cover Weight cardstock, Lunchbag Kraft cardstock, and Buff Ivory Cover Weight cardstock; K and Company , Bazzill, Recollections
Tools:   Nestabilities Fancy Tags (S4-235), Cinch binding machine, Making Memories Instant Setter, EK Success corner rounder
Miscellaneous:  Kraft Outlet Brown Kraft Labels, Recollections flowers, Offray ribbon, Recollections eyelets, magnetic tape