Domino Book With Stitched Binding

These instructions make a domino book with 5 signatures. Each signature has 3 pages. That ends up giving you a book with 58 sides to fill! It's not 60, because the front and back sides are adhered to the domino covers.

Mini books bring several of my favorite things together; tiny detailed work, bookbinding and power tools! Since my friend Terri Sproul loves to work in her art journals and is traveling to Italy and France this fall, I decided to make her a tiny domino book. This way she can capture her thoughts on the trip without carrying a big journal.

What You'll Need

• Two dominoes.
• Anything you would like to decorate the dominoes. You can color them with alcohol ink, paint them, and collage on them. You can use mica, glitter, rhinestones and bits of jewelry. Cover them with ultra thick embossing enamel (UTEE) or a glossy acrylic sealer. Let your creativity take over!
• 2 small brads (to use to form posts to help keep the book closed).
• Paper to use for the signatures. It shouldn't be too thick. Printer paper or lightweight cardstock works well. A single sheet (8.5" x 11") should give you plenty of pages.
• A short piece of 1/4" ribbon (about 2" long) to use in the binding.
• A short piece of string, hemp, ribbon or twine (about 7" long) to use to keep the book closed.
• Beads or charms (optional) to decorate the twine you use to close the book.
• Thread to stitch the binding. Embroidery thread works well.
• Needle to sew the binding.
• Scissors.
• Good quality paper glue, like Alene's Tacky Glue.
• Scrap paper to glue on.
• Toothpick. 
• 1/4" Bulldog clips.
• Scrap of wood about 1/4" thick. I used a scrap of 1/4" square balsa wood.
• Bone folder (optional).
• Small scrap of wood to use under the book when using the rotary tool.
• Proxxon rotary tool, like the Model Building and Engraving Set
• 1/16" Drill Bit (one comes with the Model Building and Engraving Set)
• 3/32" Drill Bit
• Small vise, like the Proxxon Machine Vise MS 4

Steps To Follow 

1) Make a template for your pages. Start by putting your dominoes side by side (tight) and measuring them. Your pages should be slightly smaller than the two dominoes together. I left about 1/16" around the outer edges. Place the 1/4" ribbon in the center of the page. Mark a dot on either side of the ribbon. That gives you two holes. Then mark a dot between the top dot and the top of the page. Do the same with the bottom dot and the bottom of the page. Here's what my template looked like. The yellow box in the center represents the 1/4" ribbon. The black area is the outline of the two dominoes.

 

2) Drill a small hole in the side of each domino that fits your brads. You want some of the brad post to stick out, so it's important to not drill the hole too deep. You also want both brads to stick out the same amount. Here's a tip - wrap a tiny piece of masking tape around your drill bit just at the length you want to drill. That way, you can drill down and stop when you hit the tape! Here's how I measured where to mark my drill bit.

The Proxxon Machine Vise MS 4 was the perfect tool to hold a domino in place while I drilled the hole with the rotary tool that comes with the Model Building and Engraving Set.

3) Decorate your dominoes. I covered these with black alcohol ink. Then I glued a small image on the front (St. Peter's Basilica in Rome) and on the back (Eiffel Tower). I covered the images with Glossy Accents, sprinkled a little Crystal Effectz from USArtQuest to give it some sparkle and let them dry.

4) Glue the brad to each domino. I used Glossy Accents. Let it dry completely. While your dominoes are drying you can work on the pages.

5) Cut out 15 pages the size of the template you made in Step 1. I was able to get all 15 out of a single sheet of letter-size paper.

6) Stack the sheets together with your template on top. Hold the stack in place with bulldog clips. To prepare to drill, I put a small piece of 1/4" balsa wood under the stack. It gives some support to the stack while drilling. The bulldog clips prevent the stack from resting right on surface, so this extra support does the trick.

7) Carefully drill a 1/16" hole in each of your 4 marks. Be careful to not go through the balsa wood and in to your work surface!

8) Fold each page in half, being careful to keep them oriented the same way (so you're sure your holes line up). Stack three pages together per signature and make 5 signatures.

9) Stitch the signatures together to form a book block. Here's how:

Thread your need with the embroidery thread.

Take the first signature with the crease facing you, so it looks like a little mountain (mountain fold up). For the stitching, let's number each hole 1-2-3-4, with 1 being at the top and 4 at the bottom.

Put your needle in to hole #1 and leave about a 1" tail. Do not tie a knot in your thread.

Now come back up through hole #2 (so your thread is in the valley of the fold), come across the short piece of ribbon, go down in to hole #3 and then come back up hole #4.

Take your second signature and place it next to the first signature. In these pictures, I worked right to left. So, my second signature was up against the left side of the first signature.

Working in the second signature, take your thread down in to hole #4, up hole #3, across the ribbon, down in to hole #2 and then up hole #1.

Tie a knot using the tail of the thread (from when you started) and the thread your stitching with. This ties the first and second signatures together. Don't clip the tail yet - we will do that later.

Place the third signature up against the second signature. Again, I placed mine on the left.

Working in the third signature, take your thread down in to hole #1, up hole #2, across the ribbon, down in to hole #3 and then up hole #4. See the pattern? It's just like the stitching you did in the first signature!

Tie the third signature to the second signature using a kettle stitch. It's very easy. Just take your needle and come up under the stitch that goes between the 1st and 2nd signatures. Pull the thread until you have a small loop. Put the needle through the loop and gently pull tight. That's a kettle stitch! And now you're third signature is firmly tied to the rest of the signatures.

Place the fourth signature up against the third signature. Again, I placed mine on the left.

Working in the fourth signature, take your thread down in to hole #4, up hole #3, across the ribbon, down in to hole #2 and then up hole #1. See the pattern? It's just like the stitching you did in the second signature!

Tie the fourth signature to the third signature using a kettle stitch. This time the stitch will be at the top of the page.

Place the fifth signature up against the fourth signature. Again, I placed mine on the left.

Working in the fifth signature, take your thread down in to hole #1, up hole #2, across the ribbon, down in to hole #3 and then up hole #4. By now I'm sure you have the pattern down pat.

Tie the fifth signature to the fourth signature using two kettle stitches. This time the stitch will be at the bottom of the page. Leave the tail.

10) Trim the two tails and ribbon so they aren't quite as wide as the side of the book block. Glue them down to the sides and let it dry completely.

11) With the BACK domino facing down (good side down, dot side facing up), and the brad sticking out to the RIGHT, glue the 7" length of string across the center of the domino, from left to right, with about 6.5" sticking out to the right. Let it dry completely. This length will be used later to wrap around the side, back and front of the book to keep the book closed (by wrapping the end around the brads). I tied a string of charms, including a good luck horseshoe (for safe travels) to the thread.

12). Glue the back page of the book block to the back domino. If you left it "as is" from Step 11, you're all set. Just put adhesive on the book block and center it on the domino (covering up the string you glued in Step 11.) Let it dry completely.

13) Glue the front page of the book block to the front domino. Let it dry completely.

Your little domino book is complete! It's a great size to take on the road and could even be worn on a necklace! There are so many ways to decorate the dominoes - let your creativity go crazy!

I hope Terri enjoys using the tiny book to help capture her thoughts while on her dream trip!

Happy Crafting!
Joe Rotella
www.createNcraft.com

Mini Crate Re-purpose Tutorial With The Proxxon Tools Scroll Saw and Delta Sander

Hey everyone, Tammy here today with a fun project tutorial on how to re-purpose items in your home easily with Proxxon Tools. I created a cute Valentine's mini crate for my daughter to collect valentines in at school and now that the holiday is over, the crate was just sitting around not being used. I have a ton of planner stickers that I needed a place to store, so I thought I would re-purpose the mini crate for my needs. Here is how I did it...

Supplies

Proxxon Scroll Saw

Proxxon Delta Sander

Ann Butler Designs Iridescents

5"x 5" Piece of 1/4 inch plywood 

Mini crate

Chalkboard paint

Mini gems

Adhesive 

Directions:

 I used a cut file from the Silhouette Design Store and created a monogram stencil I could trace and cut out with the scroll saw.

 I used repositionable adhesive to attach the stencil to the wood and trace the pattern.

I used the Proxxon Scroll Saw to cut out my design

For this project I used the letters that I cut out. I will use the outer design for another project later. I painted the letters with pink iridescent paint.

I glued on some plastic gems for added bling.

 Since I was re-purposing the mini crate I decided to distress it to make it look much different. I also like how the distressed chalkboard paint looks with the blinged out letters.

I attached the monogram letters to the crate with adhesive and that's it. It was super easy to make and I love how it turned out!

Now I have plenty of storage for all of my planner stickers. They are also organized and easy to find when I want to decorate my planner. I hope this gives you some ideas on how to re-purpose items around your house with Proxxon Tools!

Let's be friends!

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~Vintage Embellishing~ Proxxon DT Project by Sherri Welser

~Vintage Embellishing~

"Adorn your Special Projects"

Even before it was a "Thing" I was perusing garage and estate sales looking for fun items to reinvent! I would find all kinds of tables and do the faux marble tops, a church pew was placed in the garden for setting plants on,old bicycles with the metal baskets were planted with flowers and they became unique focals in the flower garden. I have always loved finding these treasures and turning them into  Garden Art! Last fall I found an old church window with beautiful lines and even though some of the glass was broken I had a vision! Recently I found both a long wooden table and an old  wooden sewing machine table( both inexpensive finds at my local ReStore) with the beautiful metal work on it and the word "Singer" across the bottom~ these all are on my radar now to make beautiful again and here you will see several of those items come to life! The church window is finished with beautiful embellishments, words of inspiration,  charms, stained glass, glass beads ,jewels and trinkets of special meaning. In this week's part 1 of 2 posts, I will show you how I prepared the wooden table with fun examples of embellishing. Next time I will show you how I go about embellishing the table itself. This table will be put outside my art studio and used as a serving buffet at the fire pit area. Extra care will be taken also to prep it for outside use. For Part one I have included the supplies below.

~Supplies~

Proxxon~ Delta Sander -OZI/E 

Wooden table of any size

Chalk Paint- ( I used Waverly in Agave)

Chalk Paint natural bristle brush

I began by painting the table with the chalk paint and using the round natural bristle chalk paint brush. I provides a nice even coat when brushing on.

Because I want the look to be "distressed" I am not concerned too much about "perfect" application of the paint. I just want to get a nice coat of paint on and let dry.

Once fully dry, using the Proxxon sander with a medium coarse grit sanding pad I start to "distress" the edges of the table to give  it that worn and aged look.

Now that the table is prepared for the creative part I will share with you some embellishing ideas below!

I use a lot of unique beads, jewelry findings, metal charms, inspirational charms, stained glass,and fun odds and ends to create the mosaic type feature that I am going for to adorn these vintage items.

So get your table ready and next time we will have so much fun embellishing the table top with all of these fun and unique items for a beautiful one of a kind piece!! See you next time!