Amazing Cork Fabric Pocket Notebook For Eileen Hull

Hello Blogland I hope this post can brighten your day with an amazing cork fabric notebook. This month the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team are playing with Belagio's mind bending cork fabric. How can it be cork & fabric too- what???? I have some tips along the way as the cork does respond differently than fabric but is still easy to work with. *Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.

Here is my finished Pocket Notebook! Going into this I had a few ideas of what I wanted design wise. 

I had to see if that concept would work with the cork! I knew I wanted a Pocket Notebook to put in my Tim Holtz Sample books that I have been making. More about that further on.

It was really hard to just pick out one print as the options are pretty cool.I am a big fan of copper so the cork/copper combo was a good choice. I also really love the wood grain pattern so the spine was a great way to put that in. 

Belagio cork is available by the roll 18"x 15" with 9 different patterns that can be purchased at Hobby Lobby. Nature & natural with gold can be bought by the yard at Walmart with fabric sections. Amazon.com also carries it as well as some craft stores. If you have a local Scrapbook Store ask if they can carry it. We need to support our local stores especially with most of them having been effected by Covid-19!

 Let's Go!!

I made this book with Heat'n Bond Fusible Fleece in the middle as I like the quilt like feel to those books.  ***if you want to make a book with the cork but not sew, simply use Foam adhesive between 2 layers of cork, cut 2 pieces using the die cut, adhere & bam book made.
Start by following the directions to prepare the fleece. I did not pre-wash the cork fabric as it is going on a book this step is not necessary. Cut 2 Pocket Notebook shapes out of the fleece. Adhere to the cork following the directions using an iron on wool steam, holding for 10-15 seconds. *** the iron does wrinkle the copper & the cork somewhat but creates a cool texture. If you don't want that look just adhere the fleece with glue. Cut the cork leaving a 1/4" space all the way around the edge. I learned from making a previous book that the fabric should be a bit bigger then the fleece or foam die cut if sewing around the edge is the goal. Otherwise the foam or fleece shows through. 

Once you have the covers create a spine for added reinforcement. I cut 2 pieces of the spine from foam adhesive using the die cut trimming them, then putting them together with the one center hole lined up. Peel off one side of the adhesive & put on your spine cork piece, cut leaving 1/4" around the edges. This will give me 6 signatures. The beauty of these books is you can make them as wide or skinny as you like.

Time to Sew

Over lap the 2 covers in the middle, pin & sew. I used a zig zag stitch. One of the challenges with the cork vrs. fabric is the cork is less pliable & doesn't fray. Fraying is a great way to hide sewing mistakes LOL. It was tricky to line the cork up, sew without the edge of one side showing here & there. The simple fix is trim the edges after sewing &/or distressing the edges with ink or add lace.

Decide the fabric for the inside of the book. I used 2 different patterns. I cut them 4 3/4 x 7 1/4 ish leaving the inside spine area open. The edges were sewn at the top, outside & bottom edges with a 1/4" seam allowance using a zig zag stitch.

Here is a photo from the inside adding in the spine pieces. Cut another piece of the copper/natural cork fabric. It was cut to match the outside piece. Using a cropodile re-punch the holes in the outside spine piece following the hole placement of the foam adhesive. Adhere the outside piece, then glue the inside piece- I used double sided adhesive for this. Re-punch the holes & add eyelets. 

Adding Ephemera is the best part!  

Now that the book is put together it is time to decorate the cover! I used the newest Tim Holtz Idea-ology products. Fabric tape was used under a distressed quote chip for my title. Love the KB distressed metallic Type Chip letters. Redline tape is a good choice to adhere the ephemera.  

I made an ephemera layer with the butterfly which was just plain fun to do. The butterfly was glued with Glossy Accents to the 2ofclubs but for extra security it was adhered with the brad using a cropodile to punch through the chipboard. The fabric scrap & card sandwich were adhered with Redline Tape. 



To add the books 1mm elastic was strung through the eyelets. I start in a middle eyelet threading to the inside and then down and out creating elastic lines to slide the booklets in. When I have gone through all the holes the elastic is simply knotted on the inside. 

Details such as threads & charms were added. I strung ribbon through the elastic by the eyelets & hung charms & beads using jump rings. Some of the beads were threaded onto the ribbon. I really love that wood grain pattern that I used for the spine. 

 On the inside cover a cork pocket was added with some more ephemera. Here you can see some of the other cork fabrics, the back ground fabrics, the pocket are all different types of cork! The ephemera is more of Tim Holtz's newest release.

Tim has been doing a Facebook Live every week that focuses on tons of awesome techniques. Lucky for me watching them on replay is possible & seriously so fun. Art in troubled times is the best recipe. The cover photo is a screen shot from his promo photos on instagram.

You can catch these shows live almost every Saturday. I haven't been able to so watching on replay enables me to create technique booklets complete with samples and directions. I have slowly been making these books which leaves me covered in nummy ink!

To make the inserts, I simply cut double sided TH scrapbook paper & lined paper, folding the papers & inserting them inside themselves to create booklets. I can always go back & sew the spines of these books if I want. Then just slip the books in the elastics-easy peasy. 

Well thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you have the chance to get make a book or get inky!! Make sure you pop over to Eileen's blog to see what my team mates have come up with. Also be sure to join the Eileen Hull Fan Club, Eileen does 2 Facebook Lives a week with all kinds of techniques & projects, tons of inspiration!

 Supplies:

Eileen Hull Pocket Notebook by Sizzix
Cork Fabric by Belagio Enterprize- Rose Gold,
Eileen Hull Foam Adhesive, Double sided adhesive & Redline Tape by Therm*O*Web
HeatnBond Fusible Fleece 
Tim Holtz Idea-ology- Stitched Scraps, Quote Chips, Thought Tokens, Baseboards Junk Drawer, Fabric tape, Type Chips, Ephemera, Paper Ecetera,

Here are some other papers that would be fun to use- Departed,&  Abandoned.