I absolutely adore vintage Little Golden Books -- to the point I'm hoarding them! I did not realize how many I had until I pulled them from various bookshelves, boxes and closets, there are over 100!
Just a few of them, including some duplicates!
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How to Make a Little Golden Book Junk Journal (SPIRAL BOUND)
There are actually several methods I've used to make junk journals from Little Golden Books -- I'm going to do a post about each, so you can decide which you like best.
For this journal I pulled two Bambi books, they are from the 50s and the 70s, but the art style is similar so they match! You can make a junk journal out of a single book, but the cover on one of these was damaged and had a giant sticker I couldn't remove, so I gutted it and used the insides.
Here's what I started with:
I'd love to know what glue they used for the giant sticker of doom because it is ON THERE.
Disassemble the Book
For this spiral bound method you don't need to preserve the spine -- the holes would end up right on top of it, making the cover break easily.
I just pulled the book apart -- underneath the spine its just stapled with 2 staples, I removed those and then pulled the pages apart.
I also like to add other papers, so I chose some cardstock I coffee dyed, some lined paper and some pages from an old kids' dictionary.
I cut the extra papers to be the same size as the book pages, then stacked them in the order I wanted to use them.
Set up the Cinch Machine
I love this machine! It punches through multiple layers and makes neat, aligned holes. Since I was binding a full book I used all 12 holes, but you can choose which holes to use if you're making a smaller item. This is the CINCH but other brands would work as well. I got mine from Amazon (affiliate link)
I'm using a 1/2" spiral for the binding. My book has about 50 pages, a cover and a back.
actually don't buy the Cinch brand spiral bindings, the generic ones are so much less expensive.
I did the covers and inside seperately, but used the same setting so the holes were aligned. Once the holes are done, just slip them onto the spine.
When you have all the pages and covers on , place the spiral binding in the back of the machine and squash it in place:
Once you have it in place, just squish it down to cinch it and secure it! Once it's crimped, the pages stay in place. I like this method because the book will lay flat when opened, making it easy to decorate the pages.
Once you're done the book is ready to decorate as you'd like. I incorporated other papers that I had handy, but you could also add vintage ephemera, scrapbook papers, photographs and more. If it is thin enough to fit the hole punch, it can go in the book.
I used this method to deconstruct a larger book too -- take a look at what you can make from just one book here:
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