28 Jul 2009

Tuesday Tutorial – How To Bind-It-All – by Shellie

Posted by Shellie

Hi Everybody!! Shellie here with today's Tuesday Tutorial!!

Pre cut your Chipboard covers and patterned paper to cover them to 5 1/8" x 3 3/4". Next cut your pages 1/8" smaller (5" x 3 5/8")

When I made my book I used the debossed line on the front right hand side of the machine as my guide for my covers, I chose to do this to get an the holes closer to the edges of my book. I will, however, show you a different way to do this later in the tutorial. Line up your first front cover and pull down on the leaver, this cuts your holes. (picture 1 is of the cover lined up and picture 2 is with the lever in the 'down' position)

In order to make more holes (so that your cover has holes down the entire side) simply slide your cover over and use the positioning mechanism in the 'B' position. You can see in the picture below that a small 'nub' fits into one of the punched holes holding the cover in place and lining up the cover while you punch the rest of the holes.

Make sure that you place the covers together the way you want them in your finished project and then line up your other (unpunched) cover the same way you did the first one, this will help you to make sure your holes line up front and back.

To punch you inside covers follow the same steps you used for the covers but line your pages up about an eigth of an inch over from your cover point. Again use the positioning mechanism in the 'B' position when adding more holes.

Use the plastic spacer to position your wire press to the right position (make sure you pick the spacer that is made for your size of wires or you will have a too tight or too loose binding) You can adjust the wire press by turning the knob found on the front of the machine.

Place your book covers and inside pages onto your wire. The company reccomends that you place the outside covers together back to back and then add your pages to make the best looking coil. Once your booklet pages are together and on the wire place your wire open side donw onto your machine, you will only be able to close 6 wires at a time. With your wires in place gently pull down the lever. this will close your wires!

Now for the tricks I was talking about!!! This guide on the side of the machine is your best friend. When in the 'A' position the guide is out of your way and you are free to use the machine with out restrictions. When you move the mechanism to the 'B' position you can perfectly line up your holes for continuous holes right along your 'longer' projects. The 'C' position is for perfect placement of your cover, place the mechanism here and then butt your cover up to it for uniform covers every time (I chose not to do this fpor my project because I wanted my binding closer to the edge of my cover) Lastly the 'D' position is for lining up and punching your inside pages when you have used the 'C' position for your cover your pages will be perfectly lined up with the 'D' pages! AMAZING isn't it??

Now for another cool trick! This cool little plastic placer is made just for smaller projects, attach your spacer plate to the measureing arm and slide it to your desired location, this is a fool proof way to line up any project smaller then 4"

You can also remove the plastic spacer and just use the measuring arm as is, this is perfect for making sure that your larger projects are all lined up and uniform. The really cool thing is that you can remove the arm and move it to the other side of the machine for a customized positioning arm.

I made 2 mini books and placed them in a wooden box that I purchased at my Local Dollar Store. I decorated the inside pages with pictures of my baby girl and plan on giving this little mini book box to my Grandmother as a momento of her Great Grand Daughter.