Transcripts
1. Introduction to Making the Notebooks: Hi, my name is joy. I'm a watercolor wildlife artist out of Nashville, Tennessee. Today though, I'm going to
take you from how to take your artwork to
creating a product. Today's product being a top-bound spiral
notebook with mine Pages. A hardcover, Artisan, unique cover featuring your artwork. Here are few examples just to let you see
what you can do.
2. Gather the Materials: Let's gather the
materials that we need to get started to make your own top-bound spiral
notebook with your own artwork. Let's start with paper. You can use lined
dot grid, whatever. Ad, medium weight chip
board to the size you need. Your own artwork, preferably
already in the computer. Kraft paper gift wrap, paper cutter of some sort. If you don't have that, a straight edge and
a cutting knife, glue, an optional
sewing machine. I sewed mine, but
you can glue years. Binding machine of some sort. You will also need coils that
match your Binding machine. Now I don't know about you, but I'm ready to
gather the things and get started
making notebooks. Let's go
3. Lets Get Started : I love making this notebooks and I'm eager to get started. I hope you are to. What we're gonna do is grab our chip board. I'm using a cutting surface
here so I don't cut my table. Got my artwork that's
already printed and cut to the size I want to go
on my notebook cover, made sure on left
a little bit of extra space at the top for the binding when I measured
how big I wanted it, my artwork is
actually 8 " by 10 " and the chip board is
eight-and-a-half by 11. I'm going to use kraft paper. But this is gift
wrapping craft paper. It's not the thicker craft paper that you see in a
lot of craft stores. I chose this because I
feel that it's thinner, easier to fold and manipulate. However, I will let
you know it does when you glue it
onto the chip board, it does wrinkle because
it's then I liked this. It gave to the Artisan. Look, you'll see how
it all ties together. If you don't like that, you can always use
regular craft paper. Just make sure you get big
enough to be able to fold over the sides to cover
your chip board. Now I'm not measuring
this precise. I'm just leaving extra around
the edges to cut and fold. Here we go. You can see I'm definitely
not being precise with this. I'm just cutting it. Going to make for these
that way I'll have a couple extra in case
I make any mistakes. You'll see here, I have
actually already glued it down. I'm just using a
clear school glue and then I cut the edges on it. Just use a brush to
apply the school glue. You'll see that
here in a minute. And then I let it
dry all the way. Getting the top
here off this glue. Okay, so I'm just going to
pour a little glue into this cap and use this brush. This is just clear school glue. I use this because with
the wrapping paper, it works just fine
to hold it down. The it adheres to the craft
chip board very well. I'm just using a
brush to try to keep my fingers a little cleaner. You use whatever
you need to use. I'm going to crease the
edge and folded over. We go. Like I said, this
is wrapping paper. It is going to wrinkle a little. This is the look
I was going for. If you don't like that, you can always choose
to use a thicker paper. I do like the craft color look. It adds to the Artisan look as I'm doing this,
it's a collection. I'm creating various Crafts. And this colors of the
craft paper ties It All Together with the
watercolor artwork. I think it's just
a perfect match. Getting this off my hands. This is going esco glue. She using attack, you might
be a little different. The school glue is washable. It's another reason
why I like it. It dries clear. Another reason why I like it. Okay. The last side. Also dries fairly quickly as long as you don't
get it too thick. That is one key here you want. That's another reason
to use a brush or a cloth or something
to apply this glue. When you apply a thicker glue, especially if you using
a really tacky glue, you don't want
lumps and your glue or it will show through
on the other side. My goal was wrinkles, not lumps. In this. We go we have one more. You can see where it did
wrinkle on the other side. That's fine. You'll see why
that's fine as we go along. Let's do the second one
real quick. Here we go. Little bit of glue. I encourage you to
have FUN with these. You're making them for
customers rather than yourself. You're going to want to
create things in batches. After you've made a couple, you'll know the
process and you'll be able to do it in
batches to where you do a bunch at this stage and then
moved to the next stage. And it will move along
faster that way. Could also possibly use
a roller for your glue. I'm, I don't really recommend
glue sticks for this. It doesn't permanently
adhere and I'm selling these so I wanted to make sure that it is a
high-quality product. Glue sticks, but the it didn't permanently
adhere very well, I guess is what
I'm trying to say. Now, when you're doing this
and you're folding them over, make sure you're mashing
those edges down. And as it dries, you're going to want to
give it another firm. Push down on the edges. Edges are important to having a good quality product
because that way they will, the paper will not peel up. Is last side. My fingers are getting a little
sticky here. This corner. Now because I cut the corners. And the beginning, it
wasn't rocket science. I just cut the tip off
at each corner, left, maybe an eighth of
an inch between the edge of the paper
and the chip board. And it just makes it easier
to fold over the edges and have nice clean corners
rather than bulky corners. Okay? Now what we're gonna do is let these dry completely evenly, a heavy book on
them after they've had a chance to not be so tacky
4. Adding The Artwork: We have the cover rapped. Before we do the
Inside of the cover, it's time to add your artwork. Now I'm going to so it here. I'm just gonna do
a straight stitch. I've made sure to leave room at the top because I'm going to add the spiral coil at the top of the notebook
and I don't want it touching the artwork
to make it separate. So I'm just going to
so a straight stitch, I'm using white thread because I felt that matched
my artwork best. The Artwork is just
printed on card stock. For this. Now, if you do not want
to, so no problem. Use a tacky glue, not the school glue
that we used earlier. Something like an
Elaine's tacky glue or a stronger craft glue and glue down your artwork to the cover rather
than sewing it. But if you choose to, so it, You saw it just like you
would a piece of fabric. And it's very simple. So somebody who's not used
to sewing or Making close, this is just very simple, straight stitch on four sides. And we've done this before. We add the Inside to the cover so that the stitching
only shows on the front, not the Inside of
the notebook cover. So you see I'm going slow. I want to make sure
this is straight. Now if you're gluing this, make absolutely sure that it dries 100% before you
do anything else. I like the unique artists
and look, the handmade look. It goes with the collection
that I'm putting out. That's why I'm
doing this sewing. But it is not necessary. You can also, as an alternative,
laminate your artwork. I'm not a fan of fat. I don't like the extra
plastic when I can avoid it. But to me, the thread
and selling it on is much more
environment friendly. Just make sure you've
printed out your artwork a little smaller than where
you putting the Binding, putting the binding
across the top, you'll leave it about three-quarters of
an inch at the top. If you're putting
it down the side, leave a half to
three-quarters of an inch down the side if that's where
you're going to bind it. I like top-bound because
I'm left-handed. And being left-handed, those side bindings
Get in the way. Whereas this way I
can write either way. I'm going to do one more. The other one that we glued. I'm just going to
center here and make sure I leave
room at the top for punching the holes for the
binding. For the coil. Here we go. I'm just going to align it up. Make sure when you do this, you start with your needle in the cardboard or the chip board. Otherwise, it's a little tough, not just used a
regular needle here. I have some needles
that I used to. So BlueJeans and things
with their sturdy needles. So if you need to bind
needles just at the store, look for your
heavy-duty needles. If he the one that comes in, your machine will work
but if it breaks, just replace it with an heavy-duty needle used for sewing jeans and
things like that. But it's not giving
me any trouble. I am going slow because
I don't want to break the needle if I
don't have to go. Knife muted the sound of the sewing machine in
case you haven't noticed, just so you can hear me
talking almost there, Making sure it's flat and F your sewing this down
instead of gluing, it, makes sure as you go around there are no
bubbles that it is flat. You can even use the clips along the side to
hold it in place. If that would help you. But you do not want any
air bubbles in here. Now when you turn the corners, make sure your needle is down. I'm having a little difficult
to getting it there. Now that it's down. Turn the corner. This is just so that you can I'm doing it slow to make sure that there's
no bubbles in here. I'm holding this
down very tightly. Like I said, if you're not as experienced at sewing this down, you can use the bowl clips that you buy at any office
store and clip it down. And then of course,
if you've glued it, you need to lay a hard book
or something on the top. There you go. Hard book or something
on the top and let it completely dry before
we go to the next step.
5. Adding the Inside Cover: We're starting to look
like a notebook cover. Now we're going to start
adding the Inside. I'm going to take to craft
pages that are just slightly smaller than the cover
itself, just lightly. Now these are not
the gift wrap craft, this is just craft paper. You can either use
craft card stock for this or craft paper. It doesn't make a difference. I used craft card stock because this is
what I had on hand. This is a place where you can use your school glue
again because it dries clear and this
will dry, nice and flat. That's why I did not use
the gift wrapping paper on the inside because I wanted this to dry flat
with no wrinkles. So you will need a paper or a card stock for
the Inside here, card stock will give a little
bit of half-done thickness. Your hard cover, which is what I liked with this
when it finished. Just adding the glue. Taking my time. Since this is school glue, I want to get make
sure I haven't covered towards not
going to come up. Just in case these notebooks, whoever purchased,
purchases them, takes Gifs them abuse. They will be able to abuse the Notebooks are and the
paper will stick to it. It will not come off. Here we go. I'm going to flatten it down. Make sure it sticks
all along the edges. With school glue. You have to wait for
a minute or two and repress it again Book
so that it gets tacky. Few using a tacky or glue, it probably will not
take as much pressure. But I want to make sure
these edges are down. We're going to let
this dry completely. Make sure they are
really good and dry. You can even make sure that the edges are
down a few more times. I just don't want
any edges to not be glued surrounding the
second one real quick. Add some glue here. Just like we did the first one. I'm doing two
because I feel that that way if you're working along with me rather than pausing, you're able to work on one and complete it while
you're watching this video. Make sure all of these
edges are covered. That's why I'm using a brush. I want to make sure I
get those edges covered. And the reason why I
don't just pour the glue out onto the card stock is that it will cause it
to wrinkle and glue unevenly and that will show
on the outside once it's dry. So you don't want
any lumpy parts? If that makes any sense. I'm just making sure there's
plenty of coverage here. Trying to nugget too
sticky in the process. Now one thing about
this school glue is that it is washable. It also dries nice and clear. It works perfect for
paper products like this. Okay, we have them glued, put the excess back in
the bottle, screw it up. Now, I'm going to make sure my brush doesn't
get on anything here. Grab, I'm grabbing a couple of heavy items so that this
dries nice and flat. Even going to use my
binder on top here.
6. Lets Talk Paper: Lets Talk Paper. Now when I was doing this, I could not find paper
that I liked and I wanted to try out a couple
of different things. So I tried out paper that
went horizontally with lines. I tried out paper that had lines broken into two
sections like this. I also tried out paper
with vertical lines. And I will say my favorite is just your standard vertical
line, college ruled paper. And I found the lines
to print out on Etsy. So just Google search, you'll find the
paper that you like and purchase the
file and print away. I used a cheap printer with an old printer
that is discontinued. So I'm not going to share
which one that was with you. But if you use an older printer, the ink is very cheap. I don't even think I replaced the cartridges when
I was doing this. Okay, now for the punching, you see I've already started. I have made sure that
with my cinch punch. By we are memory keepers. I liked this one because it's manual and it's small
enough for me to store. If I made these notebooks
in bulk for wholesale, I would probably use
a different machine. But for the amount of notebooks
I make, this is perfect. So I made sure all those little blue Bowlby looking things
there in the front or pulled, push out or pushed
in, I should say. So that all the holes punch. I have my alignment
on the side perfectly lined up to where every one of my punches will
be in the same spot. Now I didn't notice
with this machine that the little holder for the paper there on the edge
does slip sometimes, so you have to make
sure you do not push against that. What? I make sure I push
the paper all the way to the back and pull down. Now when it starts
getting stuck, I either empty the hole, punch pieces out of the back. And I also make sure
that there is nothing stuck in the area that I pushed the paper
into for the punch. Now for this section, I pushed the side
all the way out, is perfectly set
to where it will fit an eight-and-a-half by
11 inch piece of paper. This little piece
on the side goes in the second hole from the end. So that all my
holes will line up. And I pull the fifth one out. The fifth little punch out so that it does
not punch a hole. And I do this because
I want the end of the paper to not
have half a hole on it. This will make an even punch. And then even edge on my paper. Musing about 70 sheets. I tried to do 80 or 90, even tried to hundred, but I'm using five-eighths
inch coils to bind this with. And 70 seemed to
be the max I could use and still have a
comfortably fitting notebook. Now when I say 70 sheets, that is 140 Pages
counting front and back. And I'm using
regular copy paper. I'm using a quality copy paper, but a regular copy paper. And the reason why I chose a little higher-quality
copy paper is so that when people
write in there notebook, I don't want it to bleed
through very easy with a pen. If they use pencil, of course, that's not an issue. But if they're taking
notes and pen, I would like to make
sure that they're Pages do not bleed through and they can use on the back punch. Once you get a system down, this goes pretty quick. Just make sure it's
pushing all the way back to the
back and nothing, none of the little punches are left inside to block your paper. The instructions that come
with the sense Bookbinder, very clear and easy to follow. These are also very easy to find use to few would like one. Or you can go online. And there are many brands
of punch machines. Just be sharing purchase
coils that match. Okay, let's finish,
just finished punching however many pages you're putting in your notebook. And I will see you
in the next lesson. We're going to punch or
covers and the backend
7. Binding It All Together Part 1: Now for the fund part, the binding, this is where
it all comes together. Start with the cover. I'm using my sense
binding machine. I'm going to make sure
everything is pushed in, push the cover all the
way in and press down. That will give me a cut
most of the way across. Then I'm gonna do the back so that I make
sure the holes match. I always do this sets together. Sometimes they don't want
to come out of there. Now I'm going to scoot this over and I'm going to pull out fifth one because I
want to stick this in. Press down the little side piece here into the second hole
and that will line it up. I'm going to use the measuring
area and make sure Get this flap doesn't want
to come down then this flips over so that
if you have a piece longer than what fits
right here, you can. So that's what I'm
doing. I'm flipping it over but it popped off. That's okay. Okay. The second hole over
mashed down the little holder, line it up. Matt pushing all the way. Now you see I have the
fifth one pulled out. And that's because I don't
want to hold on the end. It'll give me half a
whole I don't want that. I want an even edge on the end. There we go. Do the other side of the top. The top covers a
little more difficult because it's thicker
but it does work. Press down the second hole, make sure that it's pulled out
so that one doesn't punch. There. We go, mashed down. Get it out. Okay. Cover set number
one. The second one. This is the backing, I'm sorry. The backing. Alright. Push this all the way in. Turn, this sideways. I'm going to measure the coil. The coil is too long for
the size of Book I'm using. I'm going to grab my pliers, wire cutters, employers alike, going to measure it and see where it needs to be
cut. There we go. I'm going to use the pliers with the little wire
cutter in the center to cut this to the size I would
like now if I was going on the long side
rather than short, this would be a perfect fit. But across the top is shorter than down the side
of the notebook. Here we go. Let's reposition it. There you go. And we fit. The second one. Got it. It's always not the easiest. These are not really
that difficult to cut, but I'm left-handed and a lot of these tools are made
for right-handed people, so it's a little more
difficult for me to chop it. Okay? I'm gonna make sure the
edges are good to go here. I'm going to line this up, set it on the side
of my sense binder. Then we're going to prepare
to put this together
8. Binding It All Together Part 2: Gathering the tops
and the bottom's, I'm gonna grab my paper here. The paper is gonna go in first. Now I've punched the paper in the exact same manner you
saw me punch the corners. I didn't like that one. The wires on that
one we're crooked. So I'm gonna put another one
in here that's straight. Okay. The papers, I'm going to start adding them
a few at a time. Here we go. You don't want
to add too many at once. It makes it difficult
to put them on. I've got one that's just
a little crooked here. Here we go, straighten it out. Adding some more paper. Now you'll see on this paper the lines are going sideways on some of the Notebooks I have
the lines going across. You can also use dot grid. You can use plain
paper, graphing paper, whatever makes you happy
the way you love to take notes or your customers
if you're selling these, continue to add papers. Now I've discovered this is
a five-eighths inch coil. And I've discovered if I use more than 70 to 75
Pages, it's too many. So I'm going to add 70 Pages. Now pay as far as Paper choices. I just used copy paper. I use a pretty good copy papers
start with now I'm gonna add on top the cover
on top of the paper. And then I'm going to
add the backing last. And you'll see why in a minute. I'm going to lift this up. Turn my sense binder
around. Whoops. Little off here. There we go. Get it on correctly. You can switch to this one. The other one had
a little piece I didn't wasn't happy with. There we go. Top next to the paper and
the backing on the very top. Turn my machine around here. And I'm going to set
this to five-eighths of an inch because that is the width of my coil and it won't match the coil any
further than it should. Push the notebook all the way
to the back and press down, scoot over, press down. And you're almost
finished. That look great. Perfect. 70 pages is
perfect to go with this. Now I'm just going to take
a pair of pliers here. And I'm going to fold under the rough edge of
this coil so that no, the sharp edge does
not hurt anyone. Just using the
same pliers that I used to cut the coil earlier. The other side is already under this just a
little bit more. And now you finished. You have a notebook. And I hope you enjoy
your notebooks for your boosts, for classes. Whether it's for yourself
or to sell, enjoy
9. Finished: Hi. I'm now ready to use
our new notebooks. Get ready to take another class. Two, get notified when the other classes around
and I'll see you soon. Bye
Joy Neasley, Watercolor Wildlife Artist
