Making My Own Handmade Notebook

notebook handmade (1).gif

Hello, how are you? It is so hot today, imagine yesterday the heat index was just 40 degrees Celsius, but today it rose to 46 degrees Celsius. It felt like I've been frying alive. LOL

So yeah, back to the topic. Whenever I make a sketchbook, I always write notes or a to-do list, so it always ruins the drawing-only sketchbook LOL. So I force myself to make a notebook specific to any notes I want to write.

Now my notes are all organized in one place, and I no longer stress finding where I wrote all my notes.

Materials I Used:

60 Sheet Paper
Cutter
Bone Folder
Metal Ruler
Cutting Mat
Pencil
Awl
Needle
Thread
Bee Wax
Clips

Ribbon
Glue
Thin Paper
Headbands
Cream Paper
Brush
Chipboard
Faux Leather
Garter
Hot Blower
Heavy Books

Craft Time!

I divided the 60 sheets of paper into 6, so each group contains 10 sheets, and these 6 groups of paper will be called signatures in the bookbinding world.

I grab one signature and place it neatly on a flat surface.

And fold the signature in half.

To fold it evenly, I use my bone folder to do the job. I do the same thing on the other signatures.

Then I am going to use this clip and a two-thick chipboard and sandwich the signature between them to flatten them up. Doing this makes the next process easier.

In this part, I am going to make a punching hole reference. What I do is I cut a thick chiboard with the same length as the signature, and then I mark the part where I want the holes to be.

I grab one signature, and then I am going to use the punching hole reference I made to poke a hole. This is what it looks like.

Do the same on the other signatures, and then I flatten them again using the chipboard and clips.

Sewing The Signatures:

To sew the signatures, I am going to need a needle and thread.

After hooping in the thread into the needle, I am going to knot the end of the thread.

To stop knotting when sewing the signature, I like to run the thread into beeswax three times.

I grab one signature, and then I poke through the first hole of the signature until the knot.

And then from the inside I poke out the needle and thread to the next hole until the last.

I tie a knot at the end, and after that, I return to sewing, going to the first hole and do the same thing, tie a knot at the end, and poke the needle out.

After that, I grab another signature and put it above the first signature.

Sew from the first hole to the second hole.

and then sew it under the thread of the second hole of the first signature.

And then return that needle to the second hole and proceed to the next hole and do the same thing.

Grab another signature and then poke in the needle and thread in.

Poke the needle out and then loop it below the second signature and do the same thing on the remaining signature.

Sew it until the last signature.

This is what it looks like, and then I flatten it again using two chipboards and clips.

Glue The Signature:

I pour glue into a container and dip the brush that I am going to use to coat it enough to cover the signature.

Then apply the glue to the part where I sew the signatures.

To make the drying time faster, I use a hot blower to do the job.

Then I am going to glue the ribbon, making sure to place it at the top part.

Make sure to glue it upward.

Then, for the headband, I am going to glue the top and the bottom of the text block.

Carefully place it at the top and bottom.

To secure the signature more, I am going to glue a piece of paper.

Then I am going to glue the front cover paper. Make sure to glue just a few centimeters of the paper.

I do the same at the back.

Making The Thick Cover:

For the cover of the textblock, I am going to need faux leather, chipboards, scissors, a squeegee, and glue.

I glue the back of the chiboard.

And the press into the faux leather.

I added a paper in the middle for extra. And then I ran the bone folder around to remove any bubbles or to flatten it.

Then I glue the top and bottom first.

Run the bone folder to flatten it evenly.

Then, to the side, I cut the excess leather to prevent the cover from bulging on the side.

This is what it looks like, and then glue the side.

I forgot to cut the other part, so I am going to LOL.

Flatten it with a bone folder again.

Gluing The Cover and Textblock:

To glue the textblock and cover, I am going to add glue around the front and back cover of the textblock.

And carefully glue it together.

Adding The Garter:

To add the garter, I slit the top and bottom of the cover, then put in the garter, and then glued the garter to make it stay there.

This is what it looks like. Let the notebook dry below a heavy book for a whole day.

The notebook is ready to be used.

Now it doesn't have to use my sketchbooks as my note-taking book LOL.