Hello Blogland, this month the Eileen Hull Inspiration team are playing with Unconventional Materials. I decided to make a beer journal for my husband for Father's Day, incorporating beer cans! Also some other unconventional ways to create the bands for the signatures & the closure which will have to be in a Part 2. If your hubby is not a beer drinker you could make it out of his favorite soda cans... wine also comes in cans now so that is an option for your favorite wine drinker to showcase their labels or winery tour photos.*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. **some of these links are affiliate, I receive a small percentage from the company at no cost to you. This helps me deliver free content!
Step 1: Using a pair of metal cutting scissor or clippers cut the top & bottom off the can carefully. You may want to wear work gloves as the edges of the metal is very sharp. I used a pair of Tim Holtz scissors that I had dinged up by cutting wire that was a bit thick. It does not seem to damage these further. The 1st cut can be a rough cut.
Step 2: Re-cut to remove the top bend of the can that creates the tube shape. This helps to tidy up your rough cut. Cut down along the side of the can, careful not to ruin the image or your fingers.
Step 3: Trim the can into pieces or a bit larger than the size you want to use. For example, I wanted this to be for the pocket notebook. The can was cut 1/4" ish bigger than the cover horizontally.
It was smaller vertically, so it was backed with Easy Cut Adhesive & paper, with another layer of easy cut adhesive. I did find this adhesive was by far better then anything else I tried. Now you have a choice, the can & paper are strong enough to be a cover, however you can also add a piece of mat board to give it that book quality strength. As my can did not fully cover the paper, mat board was added for strength. I feel these pieces are too thick to be cut in one go so can/paper/adhesive were cut as one then a separate mat board piece was cut. Remember to adhere your inside cover paper before you cut the mat board piece. Once that it done simply adhere the 2 pieces together. *Hot Tip: Fold the can portion along the score lines before adhering it to the mat board. It makes for a nicer crease.
Next up the backside piece, which was made a bit
differently. Multiple beer can images were used, so the back side was
made with mat board & paper 1st. I had run out of Easy Cut so the
paper was glued to the mat board using Ultra Bond with a Stencil Pal. I take the whole
lid off and thump glued along the top edge then scrape it down to cover
the paper. Use the other side of the pal to smooth down the paper onto
the mat board and get rid of any air pockets.
The cans were added after the back cover was cut. This really helped with placement as I was using multiple images.
Once the back cover was cut, a piece of the "Fear Movie Lions" can was added to cover some of the
spine. There is a cool story on the can that needed to be incorporated. As I designed the words were covered so I will print out the story adding it somewhere in the book. The side can piece was scored & bent before being adhered to the back
cover. I had run out of Easy Cut & found Glossy Accents was the way
to adhere the can to the spine area. It is my go to glue for metal to
paper. *Hot Tip: Back the can with paper before scoring if it is going to be on the spine edge. Also the glossy accents did not work nearly as well as the Easy Cut Adhesive just FYI.
Time to add the images! Once the Voodoo Ranger can was trimmed Redline Tape was adhered to the backside around the edges with glossy accents in the middle. The can was smoothed down with my fingers. It stuck to the paper really well this way.
At this point I encountered a bit of a challenge. My Voodoo Ranger was adhered very crooked which was bugging me. One of the ways to fix a crooked piece is to add objects to it so there are other things to look at which tricks the eye into thinking it may be straight! Washi tape was added around the edges & a triangle eyelet, copper wire with bead piece added some interest. The bicycle was punched out of the can & added. Now it looks pretty dang straight!
The 2nd beer can image was too large so the elements were simply cut down to fit. Love the saying "cans are infinitely recyclable, very fitting. So many fun elements on beer cans! Some tiny attatcher staples were also added to help keep the Stone Beer can stay in place. That little stapler had no problem working through that metal + mat board!
Time to put the spine together! Add Red Line Tape to the overlap spine piece. Eyelets were also added for extra strength.
Have you ever used Eileen's Twist & Style tool? It is a great way to create a decorative wire string. I am in the process of making a video so you will see how to use it. Eileen has demoed it many times.
Now for some decoration! Using beer cap elements was always part of the vision as they are so artsy especially some of the craft brews. I took a few of my husbands favorite beer companies & using a pair of needle nose pliers gently bent open the edge of the caps.
Once the edges were to my liking, holes were punched with a bottle cap hole punch. They are the same as jewelry hole punch tools & have no problem punching through the cap.
Do you save these can tabs & think "I will use these for something, someday"? I do and the day is here!!! Who knew that some of these tabs have a cool punched image? The Stone Brewery tab has their logo punched. The tabs were colored with alcohol ink so they would stand out against the spine.
Spine decoration time!!! Alright I am just going to talk through this quickly. The Stone Cap that is my focal image on the spine was punched with 3 holes, one on top & 2 on the bottom corners. Braided wire was run through the holes, then through the tabs & back, then twisted closed. Each piece was done this way. They have been adhered with many Zots so I will see how that holds. The thing I like about the Zots is they hold the pieces immediately so there is no sliding around.
I also added 2 more beer caps at the bottom twisting the wire through the holes & back up, then wrapping the wire around so it stays secure. I will also add a drop of glossy accents to each end piece to help it stay secure.
The last part of this tutorial was to add some cool gears to give the cover a little dimension & add some interest. Mat board was covered with Sizzix newest product Aluminum Metal sheets. Then die cut using a few industrial dies by Tim Holtz. Next these pieces were run through a 3D embossing folder to give a cool tech edge. My hubby is a tech guy so that was kinda perfect. Finally the high spots were hit with black acrylic paint using a hard foam piece.
Oh my that was a marathon post!!!!! I am working on a video & will hopefully have that on my YouTube channel soon. You can subscribe here so you don't miss it! Thanks so much for joining me today!!! I hope you check out what my team mates have made & check in weekly as their is a lot of fun projects being made!
Supply List:
