From Vintage Book to Handbound Journal - How to bind your own Journal

1. Intro: the idea for this class came about when I was running out of space in my current bullet journal. My brother darling is very messy. It's I'm just using it to organize my life so that all of a sudden I thought, Why don't I find my own journal on it? That got me thinking about using a very tatty old book cover that those book covers would be perfect because Hope freak, I wouldn't think of them to be too precious to use. Hello, and welcome to my class. My name is Nina. I'm an artist. A teacher Andan online content creator. On in this class, I'm going to show you how you find your own journal for your bullet. You're going to learn how to take the existing textbook out of the book. You're going to learn how to cut new pages, how to create signatures, hard to create templates, to make the binding horrible tower to bind the Holberg, how to do the spine. How Teoh, a bookmark on how to put the text block into your existing book cover on as and Kevin Adeline, but something that is completely optional. But I'm also going to show you how you can create a simple pocket that goes in the front of the book on more complex pocket That is a bit like the malls getting pockets before DUP pocket in the back. If you would like Teoh out in a last because I have done my journal, then I'm also going to show you how to do that. I can tell you how much I love using my own bound journal as my bullet journal. On every to do list is more fun because I can use my own. So if I got excited about finding your Jonah, I hope I have. Then please enroll for this class. I'll see you inside the classroom. 2. Tools & Materials : So let's have a quick look at all the tools and materials we're going to need in this class . I'm going to talk about a book cover in a separate video, but apart from that oversee, you'll be needing some paper on. I tend to use just ordinary printer paper when I get my printer paper. Always trying. Make sure that I get recycled paper for this class. I'm going to use coffee. Died paper. It's just because it's my personal preference. And also for me, I find, because I'm working with kind of like old, slightly grungy book covers feel that coffee died. Papers work really well. Then you will be cutting the paper. So whatever way you prefer to cut your paper is fine. I really liked using cutting mat on a craft knife. Onda, also a metal ruler, but you might have a view teen or a different paper cutter. I mean, you could potentially cut the paper with a pair of scissors, but if you would be quite difficult, Teoh get like really nice, even cuts. But you know it. It's possible as long as you don't mind that maybe the papers aren't quite even. You know it's absolutely find. Use a pair of scissors, then you're going to need a piece of cardboard. I just reuse cereal boxes. That's going to be the template for the whole spirit going to punch into the papers so that can bind them to punch the holes I'm going to use untold. They come in different shapes on kind of sizes. If you haven't got one, don't panic. If you've got something like a good like this, looks like a quite a big needle or even a thumb prick would work if you were thinking about binding more books. I condemn finitely recommend getting an old they're not really expensive are just really good tool to have. Then you are also going to need either something like thes clothes, pegs or some binder clips. That's just to hold the papers together while we are selling them. Then I've got a bone folder, which I find really useful when I fold the sheets of paper to just go over the crease that I personally, really like to use. Glue stick to then blue the text block, which is all the papers, all the signatures sewn together into the textbook on then we've just spoken about binding the book. The thread I would recommend for this project would be Are you the, um, waxed linen threat, which is very often used in book binding on then I'm not using a particular bookbinding needle. What I've got here is just a nice, thick darning needle. The most important thing is that it's, you know, it doesn't break on that the eye is big enough for the thread to fit through. If you haven't got any waxed linen thread which I assume you probably don't don't worry. You don't have to go out and buy any immediately what you could do. Instead, you might have some embroidery floss, so it might be easier for you to get hold of embroidery floss, and that works as well. The only thing I would really, really recommend doing is just getting some bees wax. This is actually kind of like left over bit off beeswax candles I had and just I melted it . And I'm using this to wax any embroider false that I'm using in projects and all you need to do is really is kind of like put it through the wax kind of until you feel that the threat gets kind of like all the little threats get kind of glued together by the bees. Wax on. They don't come apart if you It's more like one thread instead of lots of, um, and it gets also kind of a little bit stiffer because this is going to make it easier to. So the signatures to service signatures together into a text block Andi, if he can I would really recommend you do this. I know that some people have also used dental floss for binding books. So if you've got any dental floss that should be working as well. Okay, so if you wanted to take it further on, So those are all the materials we need for the basic book just to bind a text block on, put it into into the cover. If you wanted to add a bookmark, for example, you would need some ribbon. Nothing to think. You know what bookmarks looked like? I wouldn't go for anything thicker than ordinary bookmarks on this isn't any special Robin masters Any ribbon you can get? Uh, then you would want to glue the ribbon onto the back of the text block on. This is also where the textbook, um, we're all the signatures that we've CERN together. We'll need to be glued together as well at their spine, Teoh. Give them kind of more strength and to make sure that they do in fall apart. And that's where a new using, just ordinary PV a glue that is just kids PV a clue. It's nothing very special. What I like to do, however, just pull a little bit into container. This is just the lid off a job, and then I've got my special glue brush that I don't use anything else but just the group because I didn't want to destroy all my nice brushes. So then what you can see here is some muslin. Andi. I don't always do it, but it's something you can do. And I'm also going to show you in the class hand, using it just to cover the spine before the text block goes into the book business again to strengthen the whole book structure on Occasionally, I will also grew a little bit into the spine part off the cover again to give it a bit more stability. But a said I'm going to talk about this in more detail in the lesson. Um, this is just a very simple muslin, I think. But you could also use cheesecloth I don't have that could be the same thing, but it's just very, very fine fabric. I just happen to have a lot of it because I was given a Lot four freezer. I've got it. It's not expensive. If you've got some very, very fine cotton, you should be able to use that A swell. But if you were thinking about adding on elastic to put around your book, then you would need oversee and elastic. You can go for wider one or a thinner one. They come in different colors again. That's completely up to you. What you would like to add, do your book just to quickly show you what I'm talking about. I've got this'll plastic that holds the book together, and I quite like the look of that as well. And I just feel that my memory, not notebook, is less likely to fall open and things will just stay in place. But you don't you don't need it, but if you did, then you would need the elastic. I've added a button, so you would need to have some buttons at home. And then, of course, a needle and thread to so the elastic together. So it's a loop. And to add the button to it, another optional extra of this class is theme friend on the back pocket. I'm going to show you how you Teoh both of those again. You don't have to do those. They're just optional extras that you could add to your journal if you wanted to. I have been using some wallpaper left of wallpaper to create these pockets, but in this class I'm going to use some scrapbook paper. So any scrap of paper that you feel you would like to use that is, You know, there's a lot out there. The important thing is that it's not just thin paper you're going to use. It has to be a carp stock quality. To work as a pocket a man, you will order need a pair of scissors just to cut the threat. You'll find a list with all the tools and materials that I'm using in this class that you will need to make your own bound notebook as a downloadable PD F file. As part of this class 3. Choosing a Book: I know we come Teoh a really important part of our materials. And that is of course, a book on what I found works really well for this class or for this project. Or at least I think so is use a book cover that maybe doesn't look or that exciting on its own. Because I work a lot with old books and I re bind or books into journals. I tend to go for, like, the really nice covers, just simply because they are more appealing than maybe just a cover like this. But I still very often find old discarded books that have been like, really warned. Nobody wants them any war. Most of them are probably about to, you know, end up on the land filled. But I've been looking for ways to use them. So just to give you an example, this is quite a really battered book cover on. Maybe just on its own. It would have bean possibly slightly boring. Andi, I thought also, if I used a book cover that isn't or doesn't seem to be so precious, I would be a lot more likely to just use it, for example, as my bullet journal. If I had a really pretty cover, I would want something like really special to go into it. So that was one of my ideas to go for book cover that it was just a book cover and not too exciting on I find it now by the end of having bound of this book or this notebook that I really love the way this cover looks like. So I've got a selection off books here that I know from my own selection off old books Onda . And it doesn't really matter what you know what the content is. Just make sure that you know the cover is intact so that you don't have to pfaff around with having to kind of repair the cover. I've got one book that I definitely want. Teoh turn into Notebook on That's this'll one. I found it in hay on Wye on It was there in the that is Honesty Bookshop. It's outside on. This book was actually in a box set out in the rain. Andi, I just fell in love with this cover, and I just felt that this book needs to be rescued, so I destroyed it on bond. It's brilliant, and I was very tempted to use this book for this class. However, as we can see calm, the back here is coming off, so I would have to somehow repair this first. But I thought for this class, what I really wanted to do is just focus more on the actual book, binding and make the whole book binding process kind of easier by giving you a cover so that you don't have to work on making your own cover. But you've already got a cover. Plus, at the same time, you get the chance to reuse something that might have ended up on the landfill or you know something that nobody wants, and you turn it into something that you can use and you do want. So just from that point of view, I would probably try and go for something that has, you know, a nice cover that is workable. But with the sizes, it's totally up to you what size you would want to go for. So I was thinking, I'm very tempted to go for this little book, first of all, because it's not very thick and for the purpose of this class just so that I get a chance to create this class. It doesn't take too long for me to create this class. And I can just share this class with you. I'm going to use this one and turn this into a notebook. I find this is a really lovely little flies off a notebook. I'd probably go with this one. But as I said, any off the other books would have worked really well, the only thing that you need to remember that it has to be hard cover book so that we can make a text rock buying the text block and then put it in here so that you will have replaced the original text block that is in the book. 4. Prepping the Book Cover: So the first thing we need to do with our book is to take the original text block our words . So I've got my knife. And as you can see, that is a big gap at the bank on. What I have to do now is to cut a long correct this crease or this edge. But I have to do it in a way that I don't damage the actual cover. So with this one, you know, take your time, do it very carefully. Her. The first part is the trickiest. That's cutting in check, very girl, and you want to find that very often There's a piece of cloth glued to the back of the text block, so you've got the paper, and then very often you will find a bit of cloth, a swell now just cut along. Sometimes you can kind of slide your life in there. Just make sure that's really only the tip off your knife. Getting there. You can see I'm really taking my time. Just feeling my way. Yeah, way go. I need to do the same thing on the other side, and by now it will be a lot easier because I can kind of fold this back. Just cut along. Here is the tech Smoke to one side. Hold onto the text block because you can use the pages from your book for so many other craft projects and mixed media projects. But I'll put this to one side. Now. Now with our cover what I'm going to use, uh, contract some of the pages as a template to then cut. The new pages are going to go in there. I'm going. Teoh could have cut along here. I'm going to use a pair of scissors. This gonna have to, you know, be careful that I don't cut into the cover. What's way around? I could see Yeah, the next thing that I really like to do. Or anyway, just to strengthen the spying a little bit more on also the kind of the connection between the two. You know, the two parts of the cover on the spine. I quite like to just blue. A little bit of fat break something like a sex like a muslin at the back. So just get a strip of Muslim Andi glue it in there. What I usually tend to use to just strengthen the spine is just Cem Muslim. No, nothing. It's also kind of something similar. Teoh cheese cloth. Andi. It's just a really fine material. I just happen to have a load of it at home, so I quite like using it. But don't worry. If you haven't got anything like this at home, you could just use some other kind like thin fabric. Try not to use anything that is too thick because it will make it. It will be make. It's kind of like to to think an additional layer. I mean, sometimes I've just used paper, just glued it on there, so I'll just do find it the easiest to just put the glue directly onto the spine rather than the fabric on. Didn't you can see that? But if God, this plastic underneath, um, it just I realized I could try and do this. This came from Wall calendar, and then I just thought, Why don't I reuse it? Do you have on my desk? If I didn't want to get all the grew on my on my desk to that seems to work quite well. So and then I just usually so this is PV a glue, and I tend to just put a little bit into, uh, a container. This is just the lid off a job. Find that easier to use this way, and then I've got a brush that are always used for applying PV A glue. So if you're in, if you're going to use a brush, make sure that you don't use your best brush. And then I'm going a little bit over the edge because that's what I really want to do is protect the spine. And then also, I kind of offended additional, um, strength to having the spine on the front and the back cover safely together. Just a thought If, let's say, if your spine was more damaged and you wanted to, you know when it would really make sense to glue something on there to give it more strength. I would then definitely go for a fabric that is not as thin cheesecloth. But let's say like a thin finish cotton, because that will will help strengthen the spine more earned, then understanding Teoh put it on. What you can do is kind of at the top. I'm gonna kind of lining it up with the top edge of the paper. But what you can do is just let it overlapped because some people quite like it if you know the cheesecloth or, you know, in this case, the Muslim code that peeks out a little bit. I should have obviously of ironed this bit of fabric, but I'm sure it will work. I'm just using a bit more blue to flatten it and just make sure that the whole fabric has bean covered in glue. Onda, um, sticks nicely to the cover. I just cut this little bit off. Fantastic. So I can now let this droid on and actually get started on cutting the pages. 5. Cutting the Pages: So the next thing we need to be doing is start catching our pages on. This is where we're coming back to the orginal text block because I'm going to use pages out of here at Mar Tim Place. So and I want to have kind of like a double page on in order to do that after you cut out one off the signatures, so we'll just see. Okay, I get hold of one of hm. On what? I'm doing this just to quickly explain what a signature is in a properly found text block on which will find in a hardcover book. You can see if you if you have a look kind of like this. You can see that the, you know, the different signatures gets bound together. Oh, yes. You can see them here quite nicely, Michael. The little likely settle almost like waves. Like these individual little stacks of pages. Eso you've got, um, basically one she did paid her that you fold up, and if I folded up, let's say five of them on stack them at one into the other. Then that would make up one signature on. Then the book is made up off all those signatures sewn together. So now I'm trying to find where one off those signatures starts and ends because I should be able to. Then see, there we go. I can actually see the stitches, because in the middle of one signature, we can find the stitches. Now, just very carefully. Just cut the bread. Okay? That he goes should be able to toss steak. I can just pull this out. Now, you can see how this used to be One sheet of paper and got folded up on, um, for that full really lead for our attempt it. So the paper in this book is quite things or what will receive what it could have done is then used this piece of paper, then maybe get some heart stuck out on, then transfer the measurements onto some cards so I can use that. But for now, I'll just go for this. Let's have a look as he can. Maybe if I just put all these pages to one side or just work with one to start with. As you can see here, the book page is Boyda, Then my sheet of paper. If I hard it this way. So obviously, if I turned it the other way, eight would pit fit perfectly. However, I would have to cut off a little bit at the bottom, on on the side. So at this point, I would try and make the decision. Do I want the pages to be exactly the size, or do you want to be more economical, kind of miss a little bit on either side. Now that means that I've got quite a nice bit of paper left on that I could use this in a different project. I could actually make a just a tiny little notebook average of the left over pages. And I think in this case what I'll try and do because I always try Teoh kind of like make most of all the materials I've got. Obviously, there are instances where you have to really exact, and then you have to live with having more off cuts. But I always keep those off cuts on. If you've watched any of my other classes, like the Mixed Media Art Journal, I would, for example, keep those two then use in those journals. So what we can do? Let's just see what it would look like if I had a page that was slightly smaller. So what I'm doing right now, I'm just I'm using my my grit on the cutting map to line up the paper I want to cut, so I know it's all straight. And then I'm lining up the top edge off my templates with, you know, with the top edge of my paper on. Then I can, obviously, what I'll do in the end, I'll just measure how long it is. And then I know exactly how much you need to cut off. But just to do this really quickly, sometimes I do that when I'm in a bit of a lazy mode and just because I want an example just to see if I would be happy with the page that is kind of slightly smaller or not quite as wide. So let's have a look. So I'm just folding it in half. Just go from high book cover. So let's have another look. This was the original text block on. We do know that the text block is never quite as big as the both cover, so, you know, smaller already. How would I feel. What about the pages being a little bit smaller, They would be sitting in here kind of like that. I think I have to say I turned mind. I am absolutely OK with them being a little bit shorter and then me being able to use a with this lovely material here. Four different notebook. And I hope you're OK with me to do it like this on. You know, always you feel free on bond. You know, if you want the pages to be exactly the same size as the pages from the order original book , definitely cut them like that. But in this case, I just feel this is the way it would like to do it. And in the end, it's the same. You know, it's the same process off cutting and folding and binding the pages. I just I wanted to show you no only how I'm making them, but also to kind of the thought processes behind it. And decisions are making along the way. So now that I've got this sorted out, the next thing I would obviously be doing is cutting a lot of pages, and then you might be asking like How many pages would I be cutting for the book? Let's have another look at the text block, obviously, because first of all, because the pages of really thin I wouldn't be able to put as many off boy coffee died printer pages into it. So if I see you know, if I kind of like, um, counted all the pages and said, you know, about 300 plus in my like 300 pages in here, So that would make, uh, you know how many how many pages would I have to fold Teoh to get that? That would probably not work out firstly, because they're thicker. Secondly, because this book was bound with the Let's say, Call it the proper machinery, you know when the book can be with a proper book press and the way it's all being folded. There was a lot of machines involved. Where's we're going to do all of it by hand, and so the result will be slightly different. So what I usually do is I just start cutting. Um, let's say, um, in this case, I would probably just out off by cutting let's say, 50 pages, or maybe even just 20 pages and then start folding them on, stacking them just to get an idea of how full my note burgers are going to be with that amount of pages. So let's start cutting. That's a look. Well, I'm going to do. I'm going to cut a few pages at this time. I don't know how many I got here, but you know something that if you've got a beauty mean, you probably know how many pages you can cut with a guillotine, because I'm doing it appear my craft match. I kind of know roughly how many pages I can cut at the same time. What I'm going to do to just keep them all together. I'm going to use these paperclips are not paperclips but these clips to just hold them together on two sides. And I'm not too bothered because, you know, they don't stack up 100%. So what if, you know, I could just really cut them one by one, but that would for me, that would take that would just take too long. I just realized that probably just need to turn right my cutting mat so it can use the numbers to help me cut now I can actually measure be original book page. No, look, we're not quite 17.5. It's 17.4, but I think just to make things easy, I might just go for 17.5. I'm using the numbers on the grid down he after at 17 here and then just moving it upside cops kind of referee 1/2 sometimes. What I do it just use in this case, I use a bit of washi tape. Let's just do that here. Come and go. We got 17 and I've got So hof is just the just stakes. Give me an extra groups and extra line, Line it up, making sure that lying up the top edge with the line on here. Then I'll just very gently go down cup the pages I don't use. I don't use a lot of pressure and I got my first lot of pages hot and then I just put them to the side and I just go through a few more pages so that I said I would have, like roughly around about 50 on. Then we'll have a look at folding them and creating signatures to see if how many more pages we think we might need to put into the notebook. And then when you got your stack of papers cats we can get started with fording them up. As you can see, I've got my phone fold already. So if you haven't got a bone folder, you can use the handle of a pair of scissors or a kind of the handler off a butter knife or something. Show you What are you going to do with it? Always just boarding 1/2. Make sure that you align the edges on Um then with the help off the bone folder, I can just make this really nice, sharp edge, which is going to help us to be able to squeeze a few more pages into the notebook because then the full blown take up so much space, raise a pair of scissors. You just can't go longer kind of like that or anything that has kind of a blunt edge that you feel would work. So I'll just carry on forwarding all the pages. I wouldn't I mean, you can fold a couple a times that probably wouldn't foot mold and two at a time, isn't it? It's just it just gets more and more difficult to make sure that you know alot. The edges and corners are lined up nicely because you you know you want. If you're had binding a book, it would be 100% perfect. But that's one of the you know, that's special charm about the hand bound books I find. But at the same time, just to make things easier for yourself, try and get that right, so just carry on folding all my pieces of paper on. Then we can look at putting them into into signatures on See how many more we think we need to put into the notebook. So, as I said before, I quite like to have about five pages as a signature 12 three. So that makes up one signature on how you can maybe already tell is the more pages we are stacking into each other, you can see that the ones in the middle are starting to stick out on. That's why you don't really stack more than five pages into a signature. Just to avoid that, this happens and that's why you actually need signatures in the first place so that you can just put a lot more pages into a book. And then usually what I do is once I've got my signature, I'll get my phone fold again. Just go over the edge on then that once done. And I just carry on with the rest of my folded papers, put them in signatures and never have a look. Okay, so we thought have quite a few signatures here. 23456 10 that I've got exactly 10 because I didn't know didn't kind of count them beforehand. That is pure chance. So then why Teoh? Just grab the mul, stick them in the cover. I'm kind of like just have a look and see what it feels like. I know they're not bound yet, but you can kind of still get quite a good idea. You know, if you just the oppressed them groups, if you press them together a little bit, if you're looking from the top very nice and full. However, I feel, you know, if I'm squeezing it like that, I feel I can get probably at least list three or maybe four signatures in there, so I'll carry unfolding them, make a few more, and then we'll go back and have a look 6. Prepping the Pages: next thing, I'm going to make a template. So I know exactly where I need to pierce the holes for sewing. Let me just show you we've got the individual signatures and to be able to throw them all into text block, we were half to punch or we have to pierce holes into the back. Or let's call it the spine off the signature because you want the holes to be Aziz much in the same place. It's possible, in a way, the individual signature. So they line up really nicely. And so that means that our textbook is going to align. I am going to make a template, so the template needs to be the same length as my signature. So what I usually use is just some cardboard. And so for other temperate I'm going to use a cereal box and I'm just going to use that side part for it. So just cats Chris off very quickly. You can use any kind of card, stock or cardboard I like to recycle. Service can go, sir. Next. How? Look, just line this up. Okay? On the next thing I'm going to dio I want to fold this in half and you'll find out why that is important in a moment. So I just, uh, try and find the middle. This is not vital to have it exactly in the middle. It's just roughly is absolutely fine. I'm going to use the bone folder, so it's going to be easier to fold. You can use the back off a butter knife to do this. Now that I'm using the edge off, the ruler is actually helping me. Teoh, fold this up way Go. Okay. See, You know it's not entirely in them, you know, in the middle decrease. But that really doesn't matter. So the next thing I need to do is work out where I need Teoh. Put the holes and I'm going to go for five holes. We find that in most books you would go for five holes. So the easiest one, Of course it's the one in the middle. I'm just going to measure. Have you said you waas about 17 corned five. It was kind of between eight point five and six ish. You know, I don't don't over I think it too much because basically you really just want all the pages notice all the signatures to have the holes in in the same place. Then the next one is the hole from the top. Andi, I always go in kind of like centimeter and 1/2 which is, I think, roughly about an inch. But please double check. Because are you work in centimeters and not in inches. They're not very good when it comes to you're translating them. But ghoul should be able to help you there. Okay, so I've got three holes now on then. So the last two, we're a go between the middle whole onto the n tal and at the other side, a swell su have a quick neck. That's seven Here. It's also seven. There, there, that's 3.5. I've got this one here on. It won't be 100% but you know, Please don't worry about that. It's good enough for our purposes. One important thing, though, is to make sure that you right one and it doesn't matter which one just right top, because then you always know. But this is the top off your template. So you can then always have this template lined up with the top off your signatures because , you know, the measurements weren't 100%. If you always line up, if all your signatures are being punched through with this side facing at the top, you'll still make sure that all off the holes in the signatures are going to be in the same place. If you don't write this down and you go, sometimes you go this way and then sometimes that way, that will definitely mean that the holes will be incoming and slightly different places in the individual signatures. Okay, so now I'm going to just p s the first holes in their before. I'm going to use it on my signatures are, as you can see, I've got my yellow pages out. I find thes work. Really well, you can see is because when I've opened it up, it has this fantastic groove that I can just hurt my template in there that in a moment I could put the signatures in there on. Then I can use the groove to plunge or appears the holes through Onda, and that is just really helpful. Ready to go. I can grab my first signature. What you can do to make sure that you're you don't your pages don't move around. If you like, either use a little clip or even just a paper clip to hold them together. Then you're lining up the top of your template with the top off your, uh, off your signature. Andi, make sure that it sits nicely in the groove on, then use your all. Also, something else you could use is either the needle you're going to use for the sewing off the book or something like a thumbtack. Or sometimes you get these, um, like this sewing pins, But they're quite quite thick, so they've got something like a little like a little head, which makes it easier to hold onto. But these are really not very expensive. So if you were thinking about biting more books, it would be worth getting one of these. Okay, it's all lined up, and then I just ps through. You don't have to use a lot of pressure. Really. You will just kind of like feel that you go nicely into the group, Andi. Then I've got my first signature ready. So now what? I'm doing what I might actually do. And now we're just that I remember where the top off my signature is and where the bottom of it is, because otherwise I wouldn't really kind of know I'm going to get a paper clip and I'm just going Teoh, clip it or put it there at the top. So now it was No, this is the top of my signature that when I'm putting it away and I'm going to do the others, I can put them on top of this one. And I know which side they need to be facing because I might not ps a la the holes and all the signatures. And one time it might be that I start when I got distracted or have to do something else. I have enough time and so that I remember which way I stack them. I've always got the reminder on my first signature, so I'm not doing it with every signature just the first, and then make sure there I've done the others that I just stuck them right up. So let's just do one other one. It's crap this You can make sure that for the pages are lined up nicely, find the middle again. I'm going to clip this on. I'm going to stick it in the groove that my 10 played. Make sure top is where the top is. The line is up. Grab my old. He is the holes and I'm holding onto the template. What? I'm doing it because I don't want it to move around. So there we go. That's the 2nd 1 done Summer moving the clip. I know this is the top. I'm turning it around on. I'm putting it on the 1st 1 in a way that I know this is the top on. This is the bottom off my signature. And then I just carry on piercing all of my other signatures off. Once that is done, we can start sowing the textbook. 7. Binding the Textblock Part One: we're now ready to start with the actual bookbinding process, So I've got a needle. As I said, it's just a new ordinary darning needle. I have cut off some of the linen thread. This is already not the best way off. Storing the thread eso Please, please try and be a bit more tidy when it comes to a more organized. When it comes to storing your thread, I'm cuts off pretty round about a meter, but more than a meter. I don't want it to be too long because I don't want it to tangle up very easily. And I'm using the things color just so that he shows are better on the paper. This read, as I said, counted in different colors, but and I could have gone just for a white or a cream. But also considering that the book cover is green are quite like the idea off the threat being bring. And even though you usually can't see it in some instances, this was still kind of like a show a little bit through. Remember for what? This is but a paper clip. So this is the top off, uh, signatures. I'm going to take the first signature. I've got the needle. Thread it. We're starting at the top. Are we going from the outside? We're going to go in through the first hole. Just pull the thread through. And I'm just going to leave out About what I would say. Roughly five centimeters. Then on the inside, I'm going down through the next whole putting it through, trying to make it. I don't want the threat to be lose, so I'm you know, I'm pulling on it at the same time. We have to make sure that I don't pull this out accidentally, and then we go again in through the middle hole. So this is if you're suing, this is a bit like a running stitch. I put it through. Let me go back down through the next hole. Now I'm at the bottom hole, go back in. So now the next thing I'm going to do when I'm only going to do this this way with the first signature, I'm going back up on their by filling in the gaps. So especially now I'm making sure that I don't have any slack in the thread. But he don't want to pull it too tight because you don't want to put any strain on the paper. So I'm going back up to the top right now. At this point, I'm going to tie a knot using the end Read Just tying ordinary double. Not trying to it kind of as tied to notice. I can do it without damaging the paper. Don't worry. Won't be. You can see that it's still a little bit of slack here. Don't worry too much about it. We just want we just don't want the threat to come out anywhere on, you know? So we don't have to worry about this disappearing anywhere, and so that this is secure. Now we're going to add the second signature again. I know where the top off the signature is. So I'm going to put it on top of my first signature. But before I start suing, I well, I find really helps is to if you open up the second signature right to the middle, go because again, I have to so through to the middle off the signature, but the same time I want it to, um I don't want it to move around while I'm sewing it, so I'm opening it up and then I'm going to use thes clips. You could also use thes pegs. They work. And I'm just clipping kind of the first signature and half off the second signature together. Because this way, I don't have to worry about holding them together. And I can just really focus on the suing, but same time I've got really easy access to the middle of my signature. So now I'm starting off basically with the same thing, and I just noticed what with all the talking. What I should have made when I should have paid attention to is that my not sits as closely to the first hole as possible, and that's what I usually do. But talking to you got a little bit distracted, so learn from my mistakes. It's going to be OK. But now when I'm putting the needle through pulling Veru, I was going to be OK. But instead of my threat going straight from the first hole to second, it kind of goes from here to there. So if you can try make possible that you not is as close to the first hole as possible. But if it's not, You know, you could see it does work, but you might not want You're not to be further down here. Okay, so I've got my thread here, then I'm going back down. So this stage, everything seems to be this. That what? Everything is the same. But I'm putting it through. No, I couldn't pull on it to make sure that it's nice and tight. But now what I'm doing, I'm taking the needle on I, um putting it under the thread from the first signature. Kind of looping it around goes underneath here. I'm doing the same on the other side. New thing I found. And then I'll be going back through the same hole onto the inside on again. This is something we are only going to do this way with a second signature. Once we start on the third signature or the other signatures are going to be sown in, like, all thrown together to the text block like the the egg signature. And I go back through the middle hole, click through nicely again. I'm going to loop it underneath this threat underneath the other one, putting it a little bit. And then I go back through the same hole, Because this way, I'm filling in the gaps straight away, going down to the next hole. Okay, You can see every time I'm pulling on the thread to make sure that it's sitting really nice and tight again underneath the threat. Okay? Drooping it round under this side on. Then I'm going back inside through the same hole. I'm going down to the bottom hole, okay? And at this point, what I'm going to do, it's just Fred it underneath this one, just pulling it up like that. Because at this point, I'm going to add the third signature so I can take these clips off again. This was the top or so, but really helped us having visited a threat at the top. So you always know that in the textbook that we've already started on, this is the top we've got here. Out of the paper clip. Come. You know, this is the top of all the signatures. So adding the next one get him looking for the middle of my signatures. Now, in this case, I'm going to attach it with both eclipse again. So what I need now I'm kind of doing the same thing as I have done with the second signature. So I'm just using. I'm ignoring my first signature. I'm taking all of my second signature. Then I've got half off my third signature. So I've got the middle open lining it all up, making sure that the holes knowing up. Then I'm going to take my clips. I just have a quick look with lines up on now, we can get started with the third signature. If you're doing this for the first time, you will find this probably a little bit confusing and very fiddly. But I can promise you that. You know, by the time youth and it like your six signature, it will get easier and easier. And don't ever forget that this is the first book you are binding. You're learning a new skill. So it's absolutely normal that it might be a little bit difficult. It might be a bit fiddly, and also that you will have to rewatch paths of this video over and over until you know what you need to be doing. Just keep doing on. You'll be doing fine. So this is the top. This is the bottom. I've got my third signature here, so I'm going in through the bottom hole into the middle of my third signature. I'm just putting it through nice and tight that I'm going back up. I'm going into the next hole, putting this through now. Of course, I need this third signature to be attached to the rest of the text block. So this way comes in really handy that we've got the second signature and half of our third signature back stuck together because now I can open up my text block. I'm going to loop my Fred's of rounds, the thread that is connecting the first in a second signature. So it's a bit like I know you've got a bit like a butterfly. First signature, second and third. I've just come up this way. So I'm going in on the right side, just sticking it through the gap. The gap that I've got between this paper. So this signature, at least two going down and then I'm coming back up on the other side. So if years I've looped it round, pulling on it and then I'm going back in through the same hole, you see me doing this? I'm doing this slowly. I'm going to repeat it. Because I do know that, you know, in the beginning, a lot of this can seem very confusing. So now I've come back through the same hole. I'm going in through the middle hole or actually going in and then out from the outside, pulling this through. I'm doing the same thing. Your friends. I'm going on the right of the hole down. So I am. Have a look. We've got this is the inside of our signature. The ones that were sewing. This is our first signature. And this is why I have come out. I'm going back in so that I'm looping it around the threat that is holding together the first and second signature on. Then I'm going back in through the same poll on going up through the next hole. Yeah, same thing in coming back up because I'm using the waxed linen thread. It's just really easy to keep thread really nice and tight on it doesn't want to move around. So I'm at the chop putting this through, and in this case yeah, exactly. So I'm putting it through, and then I'm just kind of like looping it ranch here the same way. Now I can take I take the piss off and we've got You got three signatures in our textbook, Mary going to take the fourth signature lining at the top with the top, putting it on there. And you have guessed correctly I'm going to open up to fourth signature to the middle. Okay, I'm going to grab the whole off our but signature. Then I'm placing new signature that is going to be added. So this would be our fourth onto the whole earth. The third signature lining up the pages lining up the holes. I'm getting like clips. I find that maybe if you're starting, it's easier to just stick pegs on. So let's do it that for this signature, and they're also probably easier to adjust. The only thing is that I find that with the pegs that my thread seems to want to just loop itself around those small You just have to look at for that. Okay, so I'll start at the top this time, so I'm going in through the top hole, putting it through. I want to make sure sitting nice and tight I'm going down through the second toll, I'm going to pull this through, and now I'm going to loop it. At this time, I'm going to do pit in a way that I've got. And now this time I've got kind of my little wings I've got sort of for the fourth and third signature on one side and then the first and second on this site, some only holding up the signature I'm sewing on the one that is next underneath. And then I'm doing the same thing. I'm going into the gap inside, putting, coming back on the other side, off thread. It's a looped it around. And then I'm pulling again to make sure that it's sitting nicely, going back in through the same hole, then going down through the middle hole, pulling tight again. I'm going down through the gap, coming back up, pulling, going back inside through the middle hole. I'm going down the next hole, pulling tight, going through the gap. Perhaps you can always check. You can just see. Yep. This is where it came out going back on this side. Andi going back into the hole, you might find in the beginning that it helps you to kind of keep it open like butterfly wings. Do you find, uh, kind of you to find that gap easier? Go into the last hole. And actually, the thread has been behaving itself really nice that you didn't loop yourself around the pigs, so I'll go, Didn't you look up, Come back up. I can take out my picks. Now we've got the text block looking like this. You will normally kind of like, find that I find especially kind of the first text block I've done. Always wants to kind of, like, stick out a bit mawr than than the others. That just seems to be kind of a habit off the first signature. So don't worry about that. As I said, it's, you know, it's something we are hand finding we don't have any or we don't have kind of any any kind of machinery that is helping us to kind of let really keep it absolutely, on the same way in keeping the tension throughout, sewing in exactly the same way. But this is the beauty of doing it this way. It has something like really tactile and organic about it, and I've read Reunite, Get so a kind of slightly kind of not perfect look is it is part of this process, and I just just really love it. 8. Binding the Textblock Part Two: if no God, quite a nice text block here. I've still got a few signatures that need to be added. At this point, I might just like to put the text block into the book to just see what it looks like. We're just stick it in like this After you look from the top, it looks can, like, really nice and full already. So at this point, I could actually decide that. Um, yes, I think maybe if I added those few signatures, maybe my book is going to be too thick. However, when we're going to blue, the back of the signatures together, we're going to add PP a glue to the back to make sure that they stick together. Even better. It's going to be a little more compact, and I just have a look and put all of the's signatures making sure that I don't mix them up , kind of keep them all in the same way. So I know where the top and where the bottom is. Just put it in, have another look. And actually, now that I'm putting a lot of them in with a text block, I think I actually feel that Maybe putting all of them in could make the notebook a little bit too, I think, especially if I'm thinking about maybe adding a pocket at the back and maybe a little pocket in the front. I would like to put things in, so let's just take two signatures, put them on there because I kind of feel that I would still like to add a little bit like that. And I think the to signal just look quite good. So I'm going ahead. I'm going to So oh, to buying. Really? I'm going behind two more signatures to the remaining textbook on. Then we will look at a gluing the back and right getting the text block ready so you can actually go into the book. So I'm just in the process of setting on the last signature on. As you can see, I've just run out of a binding thread here on de. So I'm going t need and just add a little bit more, even though it's the last signature. But, you know, these things can happen. So I'm going to show you how I'm attaching mawr off the book Binding thread. I did film. Um, did film when I added some thread here. But when I hard to look at the video, unfortunately it became very bright outside, so the whole video was very bright. So in a way, it's quite good that I can film it again because I'm hoping that this is going to be a better quality. So anyway, before I took the needle off this thread, so I did come through this whole from the inside, and then I went on and looped it round. You know where we have our butterfly wings and put the needle in their loop it round and come back out. So this stuff I got and then I took the needle off. So I've got my new threat. And just to make it easier for me to tie a knot in order to be able to kind of keep attention in the thread, I'm going in because by when I looked a drowned, I went in from the right side. I looked around. I'm going to go in again from the right side. Andi just holding on to the bitter thread. Then I'm going to group this one around as well. There we go. It's not too confusing that I've got the other bits of thread as well. So I've got I should have done it in a different color again. So I've got my new bit of threat. We've got a piece there hanging out on the right side, and I've got my orbit of thread before I tie or not. I'm not taking the youth thread. Go back through the hole, Basically carry on with what? What he was doing. So yeah, I'm just trying to make sure that or the near the thread stone tangle up and also I'm going to do is just hold on to both of the threads, go through the middle hole. I'm going to pull it through, but because I'm holding on shouldn't come through. Now I'm going down. Okay. At this point, I'm going to tie a knot here. Just a simple double. Not okay. And then I could just carry on. I'm just going to leave the threads as they are, just for now. I'm almost done. Show you in a second. How? I'm just going to tie, uh, the last bit of threat because then I finished my whole text book. So here we go. going, Teoh loop This round I get before I pull it before I tight in it can see. I've got still this little loop. I just go in there, go through there tight knit. Um, I thread is a bit long. There was really no need to have it this long for the last bit. But as I've already got an idea of what I'm going to do with the remaining paper, I just would you cut it longer because I'm going to use the same one? And then what I tend to do is just go through kind of like the next bit kind of loop it around again, just taking it underneath the the thread that has bound the textbook together, do the same thing. I'm leaving this loop. I'm gonna go through it sometimes one, sometimes tories and just pull on it. So I've got kind of like a second little not there. They're not just capital Rounder bet around, but here on, um, I'm going to glue everything first. And so the glue is also going to help Make sure that they're not stoned. Become undone. As you can see, it come like this Signature is wanting to stick out of it. And this is the first signature we did. And that will always happen. Would always be a little bit like that. When you hand bind the books, At least that always happens to me. So I'll get the PV a through, and then I'm going to show you how I do the rest. 9. Adding a Bookmark : the glue is dry on. So what I'm going to do before I add another layer of glue, I'm just going Teoh, cut the ends of the threads. I'm still going to leave, kind of like a little bit behind. It's just a tiny but like that, But the rest can just go on then because I would really like to add a bookmark. I brought out some of the ribbons. I think that would work really nicely with this. So if we were just having a look at our text block on our notebook the way it would look like so I was thinking of going with Green. I've got this really nice faded green, which I think looks very, very vintage and would look nicely also. I was feeling it looks really nice with this gold embossed title, but then I've got to other greens. Let's just check this. This is a bit thinner, but that would work really nicely as a bookmark. I've got a wider one that is quite dark. Andi, I have to say I find it really difficult to make up my mind because every time I just put one of thes onto the book. I feel like, Yeah, this is the one I want to use So it's it's just really, really difficult. Let's have a look what we thing with having them inside. So I quite like also how the faded green works with the T died of the copied I papers. Let's have a look with this one. But this one looks really nice is well because of the contrast. So I wish I could just ask you Are you a thing? Um, I should choose, but I think I'm going to go with either the dark green okay or kind of faded green after, say, I quite like the contrast between the light of pages on the dark green Here, Let's have another look. That's a look at this. This is actually really satisfying after, say I really like this, but I think I'm going to go for the dark green. So just to show how I then try to go, uh, can I just show you my thought process on how I'm choosing colors, but you might do it completely differently, which is absolutely fine. You might go for contrast ing color, which could also be really fantastic. So I have to. At this point, I have to make up my mind Which part is going to be the top on the bottom? I know we've seen treating one part as the top, which was mainly due to the fact that we wanted all the signatures to line up in a way, how they have bean p est apart from that because we haven't got any page numbers. We haven't got any images. Basically, we haven't got anything in this text block that could then accidentally be upside down so we can have it either way. But I think I might just stick with out of the way went to this is the front of my book. This is the, you know, this was the We were doing it this way. So this was top on this the bottom of the text block. On Day three. The bookmark is going to be attached to the back of the spine. Always like to go. I'm getting This is about two centimeters. I'll just go through with one bookmark for this one, which will then you have to go inside the book. And I quite like the bookmark to kind of stick out off the book on that prefer to cut it longer, because then I can always shorten it so that Meg's okay, So if I just cut it, he and I'm cutting it at an angle so that the ribbon doesn't fray, so it won't be needing this part. Now I need to get my glue. Wigan. As you can see the way I make sure that the glue wouldn't dry out it just put another a lid on top of that I was using. But I know that if I had stored the glue for, I don't know a couple of days that wouldn't have bean enough. But because I was doing in the same day, he was OK. It's just a try to not use any extra plastic like, you know, it could have used Cling Film, but then I would have had to throw out the Cling Film. Andi, I try to reduce my plastic waste as much as possible. So for today, because I knew I would carry on this work really well, have just little thoughts on you know how you can be more environmentally friendly, I guess where you're crafting. So you're in grabbing my brush. I'm just adding doing in the same way. That is the first time. This time around, I'm going to put the grew on first, and I'm going to add the bookmark like that. Try make sure that it is sticking on the in the middle. I really want the bookmark to I've soak up all the glue. I like that. So I really feel it's sticking nicely to the in her to the spine. And then it doesn't want to stick to the spine I think I might do. It's partly due to the fact that it's in there, doesn't lie flat, so destroy this. Just press it down with my thing. I'm usually not one. I don't really like to have glue on my finger. That's why I didn't do it before. But it does help, and then I just carry on. Just add more blue to the rest of the spine, put a bit more grew on here. Normally, I find that two layers off a blue are sufficient, so have a look what I feel. It looks like once this is dried and I would also then make the decision. If I feel that I would like to put a little bit like a thin strip of muslin on top, especially considering the bookmark, because it would be a shame of the bookmark in a came out after I put everything into after put the text block into my journal. So I let this dry in the same way as I've left to dry before. Okay, so let's have a quick look. The blue is dried, but I noticed that my bookmark doesn't really want to stick to the text block up here. It seems to be okay for the rest of the text spot by. I thought I could do it this point Order to show you how you can add a bit of cloth to the back of the spine. Not just do that, hoping that it will just keep it in place. So I've got another bit of cheese cloth cut. Andi, I just wanted to be big enough so that it will cover the spine on, then just come over the edge for kind of a tiny little bit on either side. Then I'm going to do the same thing again, just at the glue. And I did try to um, kind of reattach the bookmark, but it just didn't want to. I think at that point, the ribbon was already a bit too stiff, so that didn't work. But I think, you know, just by showing you things that can happen to me and how I deal with, um might help you to just, you know, know how to go about things like that and what to do. One of the same time I can show you how to attach, you know, some Muslim to the spine off the back of our text block. So at the moment, I'm just putting a tiny bit of, uh, blue there on this side and on the other side again, it's a lot easier to apply the glue to the text broke raw, the then the cloth. Then it would have made it easy if I had. I end my fabric beforehand and I just make sure that it's sitting straight, and then I just press it down. You can see it's a bit longer here, but I'll just cut back off um and Merman Joe. Just wait until it's dry and then go around the edge and just press it down Okay, now that I know exactly how much blue I need to put on, maybe a little bit of even though I don't want you didn't want this last layer to be too thick, it's not surprise. It's actually quite thin when I touch it, because this is the page that is going to get to the end. Page is going to get glued to the actual cover off the book, but will get there, you know, next step you out of it or greater here. I kind of quite like to take my time with it. I want to make sure that I don't get any glue unto my other book pages because Christie, I don't want them to all glued together. Well, that looks good on the other side again. When you let it dry, it might be best to put it onto some plastic to dry because oversee the you know, the Muslim is quite thin, so I could feel the glue coming through and you don't want to Could have put that down onto paper and then the paper sticking to the Muslim while you're at the back, I just stick a little bit more blue onto it. Were you thinking? I just really want to make sure that the Muslim sticks really, really nicely to the back off the I text block and water up here. You know, when I'm not trying to make sure that my bookmark, um, I will stay in place once I've finished the whole book bonding process. Why? Sometimes I could just, you know, go a little bit more grew on the outside, but I'm tend to be kind of a bit more careful there spying that I really focusing on. Okay, so I'm going to let this dry on if you've got a lot of time on. Do you want to kind of carry on and do something else with your book while you're waiting for this to dry? But I'll do. I'll just start measuring the back pocket that is going to go into the book, even though I will have that video later, because obviously we can only attach the pocket ones. The text block is safely in the book, but you will see me measuring the pocket in the cover without the text blocking 10. Glueing in the Text Block: All right, We've come to the moment where the text block can be glued into our book cover. And I have to admit I always find this the most terrifying moment of the whole process. So if, if you feel the same, don't worry, you're not alone. And even though it's really very, very straightforward, because what we need to do now is now we've got the textblock here. By the way, that worked really well, adding that muslin on top of the spine. Now for you that my bookmark is really secure, securely attached to my textbook. So what I need to do we've got are with you, make sure that, you know your your book cover is right side up. You've got your textblock in the right way up. You know, you might, you might laugh, but this can very easily happen that you put the textbook in the wrong way and then you've got your bookmark or at the bottom of the book or not the top. So just make sure that you've got all of that sorted. The next thing we're going to do is take the first page of the textbook and that is going to get glued to the front cover. And then at the back, it's the last page is going to get glued to the Backup recover. It doesn't really matter where you start going to use a glue stick for this. I personally wouldn't go for PVA glue unless you've done a lot with PVA glue and feel really confident about using it. I find it contains too much water. It just makes the people wore a lot and I I've tried it. I prefer to use a glue stick. Or you just use the glue stick to yeah. The glue onto the cover again rather than the paper. Again, is to do with the water content in the glue. And I find that if I put any glue onto the paper, it will kind of like start to walk a little bit and also it's not easy to accidentally tear your page. So just try make sure that I've got the cover covered in blue everywhere if I can if I hold it a little bit against light, I can see if I've missed any any places. And the way I do it, I kind of put the text block in where I know it's going to be in the book. Make sure that I've got equal distance from the top of the book to the textblock on either side. And then I just put down the page. I'm starting from the inside out and just gently press down. Really like the way it's sitting here. Including very nicely. Oh, a little strip here. Well, we haven't got any page sitting. That was because oh, pages were shorter. But there's something we can do though. So don't worry about this. Now, I obviously can't just close the book at the moment because I don't want any of the pages to accidentally stick to this part of the cargo that by half covered with glue but no paper goes on it. So I'll just pause to use a bone folder now, go through carefully over it. Now what I can do now is just get some plastic as before, and just cover this up. So we just got a bit of plastic here in the book. I close this and I'm going to do the same back of the book. So she makes sure that if you've put some muslin on the book cover, make sure that that's nicely covered in blue. This can be a little bit trickier because the first pages already been front is being glued on. So I usually just kind of have sitting like that. Put the textbook upright and then go again from the inside out. Very gently, very gently. Press it down. Then from, I'm doing it from the inside out like that because it helps to avoid creases. Then we've got this trip, they're getting bone folder which will help me to get rid of any air bubbles. But again, i'm, I'm careful because if the glue of the paper will soak up the glue and because of the moisture that is now in the paper, it will tear. We could tear more easily. So I feel that looks quite nice. I'm just going to use the same that if plastic here. Close my book. I probably put a heavy book just on top of here. And then I'll wait for the glue to dry and really make sure that it's absolutely dry before I start adding the pockets, if I want to go for the pockets. But in the next lesson, I'm going to show you what you can do to cover up the front and the back page in case it hasn't been completely covered by the textblock patient we just glued on. 11. Adding End Papers: So what other things you can do if you find that once it's glued in the front page of the back page and you've still got some of the for the old book cover peeking through is just cut another piece of paper on. You could actually use some Venus and really nice pattern paper on, Kind of like create your own end paper this way. But as I'm going to put a pocket on here, I'm not going to bother with pattern piece of paper. I've just chosen one of the coffee, died papers is actually one of the extra papers that didn't make it into the book. I've just measured out how much I need. So went right from the edge off the original paper that has bean glued in. And then I could make sure that it turned Let the I don't want the paper to go right into the crease because it gets moved a lot on. But I found that it doesn't really want to stick that well because of all the movement on. Then it keeps just coming up, so I just you know, I measured it so that it would kind of end just before the crease on, you know, then that's absolutely fine. So then, obviously, the next thing is I need to add some glue and I'll go back to the blue stick. Do you find it easier to put the glue onto the book cover rather than the paper? Sometimes I do both, but I'm just checking. I've got everything nicely covered in the blue on. Then I start on the outside unjust, pert two corners line than with the corners off the off the book. Once a few, they look nice. I go slowly onto the inside again. Don't get too stressed out if you feel that the paper has some bubbles. Cool. Awesome increases. Remember that this is your first book. No, you're learning. You should just be kind of like, really proud for, you know, that you've got so far you've got your book almost bound on their way. Do you mind to be doing everything by hand? It's not going to be as perfect as a board book. Well, that is the beauty of the hand bound books to Fantastic. So now I'm going to wait for this to dry before I'm going to put the front pocket in. But if you decided that this is how far you want, Teoh, take your journal, then. Basically, you're finished. Eso You could skip the videos with the friend pocket on the back pocket. I am going to add an elastic to this one. So you could then either watch the video. I am showing you how I'm adding the elastic. Oh, you could just say narrow. Thank you very much. I think I finished my book. Make sure that you let everything dry and settle before you start using it. And you could just get right through to the end of this class. 12. Adding a Front Pocket: right. So first of all, let's have a look at creating a little pocket in the front and going to show you how to do the simple one. First on then Thea the one one that is very similar to the one I created This so a similar shape to this one. So for a very simple pocket, which I basically I've already cut have a template. I'm going to show you how I measured it. Basically, what I want is something that is like a rectangle on it will be attached on three sides, top on the side along the bottom on. Then it's going to be open on this side, and I can use it to slide tickets in bits of paper, in stickers in or anything photographs, anything that would like to keep safe. So what I've done is measure the length off the book cover, and I would probably go to about 17 centimeters. A man with all your was thinking about six centimeters, so that would be 17 time six. But as you can see here, I'm going to fold over the edges to make it easier to first of all, glue it and it will give me more space in the pocket. So on the top, on the bottom side, we need to add one centimeter. So it's going to be 19 centimeters long in this case, on on the side, we are going to add one centimeter. But we don't have to add another centimeter a year as this site is going to stay open. So that would be seven already cuts this bit of cod stock. The next thing I'm going to do is at the center meter to say I'm going to school. The extra center center have done it on two sides. I just have one side left going forward it over. Would he scored the other two. Then I'm going to cut wake and see this part where these two meet there is kind of like a little square. I'm going to cut out a square in their various ways of doing this. But this just seems to be the simplest. It works really well, one. So if you wanted to be, just use it like this. I know there is an overlap, but that kind of gives you a little bit of extra strength if you wanted to the other thing you could do using this corner as a guide. A man just cups that angle. So if I hadn't cut the square out, I would have had a good night. You're just cutting off a triangle, doing the same thing himself, eyeballing at a little bit. And then I can see when I'm folding it over. I don't have on overlap battle, but the other version works as well. So on a lot I need to do really is. Then add some glue on these three sides. I personally would probably use a glue stick, But you could also use PV a glue. I would just use a double sided tape on. Then you would glue it into your book and you have your friend pocket. I mean, you could make the pocket could be a bit narrow. Every depends on you know what you're looking for? So this is the very simple pocket in the friend. Now I'm going to show you how I made the other one on again. That isn't kind of like a perfect measurements. I can't really give you a template for this one, because it's also depends on the size off your book, but we kind of have a look at this one. As you can see, it doesn't go up to the top. You could have it going up to the top. You can have it narrower at the bottom. You could just have something that goes from the top down there. That is kind of a little bit like a like a triangle that I personally just liked this shape . I mean, he could just play around with a sheet of paper before used the card stock on playing around with different shapes and see what you like and then almost like, create your own shape off off a pocket. But for this, if I'm wanting to recreate this, I'll just get a piece of paper to help me. So let's beautiful establish how far I want to go up here. Maybe if I went up about here, let's make it 14 centimeters. I just made a little drawing shape. I've got 14 centimeters here. I'm going to work out how long I want this part to be. I would go for nine centimeters. I've got nine centimeters here on then the next two measurements I have to make a decision that is this one on the one at the top. I kind of quite like the one I've got here on. That's 4.5 centimeters. Let's just look, how about I'll go? Could I look for five in this case for would be about here. Maybe I'll just go for about four centimeters in this case because it's a smaller book. Andi, I went up six centimeters in this case, and I think I might go five cents meters. Yeah, Andi, To establish this part, I'll create the rest first and then kind of work out where I want this roughly where want this to be? And again, I would have Teoh add a centimeter. In this case, I added a centimeter away around Chris with the straight. I just wanted to make sure that it was a little bit sturdier of round there because they're kind of like more open open spaces or open corners in this, um, in this pocket, 11 centimeters here on 16 centimeters. And I just get started on those two because those are kind of the important lines and the rest is going to be a no determined afterwards that this is going to make it easier for me . So I just cut it. Uh, yeah, I said I wanted it to be. They want to talk part to be five centimeters now, of course. Have to go for the added extra sent to Meteo. That would be here. I need to go up five centimeters from here again. I'm adding the centimeter at the bottom, so it's six centimeters. So I've got that. Basically, I've got kind of the two points that I need to connect. Ugo, Is this cup that here And now? I'll just add the centimeter all the way around. I'm going to quickly scoring. I'm using the grid on my cutting mat to help me establish where I need to where I need to school the lines. It's just really helpful because I don't really have to measure anything. But if you were measuring, if you didn't have a cutting Matt, you would just go. You make three marks, it would go one centimeter in, then again, and then just connect the three Marx you made then just school along there. So that works as well. I understand. Forward, over. And then I can go ahead and just cut coolness. See, this is the corner. Yeah, So I can't, You know, mustn't cap lower than this. Just just repeat this. These two owners are a little bit tricky, so I'll just do those half scissors. I'm kind of not. They're cutting out a slide. I go back checking. Yep, that works. You can always can look forward it over. Kind of establish where you feel you need to cut something cut. You can always cut. Kind of like a smaller amount out. If your card stock, if you feel you need to add some or you can cut out some more and then you just see that because I was talking to you, I folded at it. The school marks on on the wrong side. So in a way, I think this is a really probably a really good thing to have happened because now I can tell you make sure that when you create your school lines all received, you want your pocket to go in this way around, so you have to make do the folds the other way rounds. But you know, it's not a problem because they've bean scored. It's just really easy to turn them around. Go on. I've got mine of the pocket. So I've got obviously and this is going to be my almost like my pattern on def kind of created pattern first when you put it in Ondo or a template when you then you can kind of check if you like it or not. If you want it smaller, if you want a bigger you can adjust it on, then go to your scrap of paper on. Um, cap that out and then you know that you definitely have the right size that you're happy to put in your journal. So I'm going to transfer this onto theme scrap of paper that I want to use in here on. Then we are going to glue it into the front of the book rights. It just occurred to me that I could maybe show you how I actually transfer the template onto to the scrapbook paper. So I once this side to go into. So I went this side to be the side that I can see the appetite of the pocket on. I can actually just use this side and draw around with a pencil just because even you know , it doesn't really matter if I still see a little bit of the pencil mark, because I'm going to fold those parts over anyway. And this way I can see exactly what part is going to show on my pocket. And if you know, if I've got the parts or the part of the pattern that I want on the pocket and then lining the back up along with the edge off the scrapbook paper, But depending on the pattern of your scrapbook paper, you know, you know, you might not line it up anywhere, But, you know, if if it's, um, a piece of scrapbook paper where you have kind of, like cut lots of other shapes out, then you might have to put it somewhere mawr in the middle and away from the from the edge on. Then I'm just going Teoh, I'm going to cut the shape out on. Then I'm going to, uh, school or allow the or the sites. It's kind of a centimeter all the way around. So those who pass are just going to get folded over on, glued to the back off the actual pocket. I've done the 1st 1 ready. So I'm just adding a some blue this side, folding it over a Zinkhan. See, I'm using the glue stick. I find that glue stick works, but you really have to make sure that you are quite you know, you have to make sure that it's really nicely covered with a blue stick thes three parts that are being folded over definitely worth three well with a glue stick. What I find that with three or the two other sides that are being glued into the book cover that occasionally they find it trickier to adhere to the book cover. So if you wanted to use double sided tape, I think that this would be quite a good idea to do. I'm just going to stick with the glue stick. I'm going to add glued to this long part. No, it's long strip on. And yeah, the one go. If you were using PV a glue for these three areas that if just fold it over, make sure that no blue is sticking out because otherwise, now that we're going to put this into the book cover, you wouldn't want any glue that came out to actually then stick to the book cover because that would mean that your whole pocket, it's glued to the book cover. So you might want to wait for this glue to dry before you hurts the pocket into your book. And then what I need to do, really is just line up the pockets with the sides off my book cover. I'm going to stay on the paper, Pardes. So I'm not going over onto the fabric cart just lying in up with the paper, glued in and paper, pressing down really firmly. I could go over it with bone folder. Uh, then I'm going to just close it hurt Heavy book on top on, then just wait for the blue to drive on. Then I'm going to add the back pocket. 13. Adding a Back Pocket Part One: and then at the back. God is this pocket that will fold out if I can show you this way. It's like a little accordion fold is very similar to, I think. Is that the mole skin or the lost or journals that have them? Or maybe both. I've added a little flap for this one as well. On this is optional. This pocket consists off four different parts. You've got the pockets that we've got this to accord. Yone folded bits of paper on either side on then the flap. So I'm going to show you how to make this pocket at the back first. But first of all, just to let you know what kind of paper it would be best to use for these pockets, I always go for scrap of paper. But because this ordinary paper wouldn't be thick enough, you want something that is a bit sturdy, where you could put things in that can be moved without tearing. So I find scrap book paper works brilliantly or any other kind of carte stock that has the same thickness as a scrap of paper. I have already made up my mind. I'm probably going to use one of these for the pocket, but just to make it easier and so that you can actually see how I do the measuring. I'm just going to use a very simple kind of white. I just just a white piece of card stock that was remnants I'm just going to use is as a kind of a sample just to show you how to do the measuring. So we just have a quick look. Been this journal as you couldn't see the pocket doesn't cover the whole of the back cover off the book, and I've got a little bit of space around the edge. And also, it doesn't quite go up to, um I would say, kind of like the where the back cover meets the text block because it just makes it a lot easier to put something in and take it out if it's not too close to the textbook. So if we going to have a look at this book, I would probably want to go in like, let's say about kind. Maybe not quite a centimeter on the same cover right there. So I would want it to be bouts. Let's say between 16 16.5 centimeters wide if you were looking at the you know, the envelope sitting there. So this would be how wide the envelope is and this is how high the the pocket is going to be. So this would be about 16. Andi here. I would probably want it to be about going in about nine. Yeah, not more than nine centimeters. Otherwise it just gets too close to the text broken, actually wondering if I would probably want to go for about eight in this case, and just to give you an idea of how this pocket works, I know this is not the right size, but just to show you how it works. It is a sheet of card stock that is folded in half and that makes the actual pocket. So if I need something that is eight centimeters Hi, I would have to take have to take that by two because I need to fold it over. So that would be 16. And then also, let us just go back to this one. I'm folding in the top part off the card stock just to make the edge even more stable. And also it helps with stabilizing the accordion past that are going to go in. So we have to add, um, two more centimeters to it. So you just said, if that is eight times two, which is 16 on, then you on 16 plus two centimeters. So that would be 18 eso we would want it to be from. Okay, do that. In this case. You want that to be 18 centimeters long on from there to their fate would be 16. So then I would have this part that goes here. Thought it. So I got the sample cart start cut, Andi. Then I just need to be able to fold over that centimeter on either side thistles where the bone folder comes in handy again. So I'll just go one sent to me toe from the top. I use my bone folder to make crease and then I can Awesome used the ruler to help me fold this up. There you go. And then I'll just do the same thing on the other side. Here we go. I've got no this part of my pocket finished. So the next thing I might want to do is just add if I wanted to add a flap at the top and you don't have to. I think I've seen I think it was a large storm on it just had the pocket and there was no flap at the took up top. So you don't have to worry about that if you are going to go ahead and make a flap. Then again, obviously has to be the same with as your envelope I'm in. Let's say you want you want the flap over hanging about. That's the three centimeters. Plus you need to add, I would say at least another two centimeters that will be folded back and will be glued behind the pocket. I'll go for six centimeters altogether on, so it's 16 centimeters wide, Andi on and six centimeters kind of tool. If I'm still thinking of it about the as as a pocket, so just measure that quickly. So I've cut my flab. Then I'm going to use the bow folder again. That's good. You help me. Great! The crease I folded over. It would go kind of like that behind behind my, uh, my pockets. Now we're going to do the side parts a kind of reach depends on how far you want this to kind of open up. If we have another look at the one that I've already done, I've made it kind that quite the deep pockets for that is not really necessary. So what I want Tiu have I want to like. That's just how wide have these folds. They are 2.5 centimeters here. But if I just wanted each full just be two centimeters, that would give me four centimeters. Let's just do the measuring that, because just Teoh kind of quickly show you what this accordion fold is. The kind of looks like when it's not glued into. So if I just hold it like that amenaza comparison, you can see this. It's kind, like this part you can see on this outer part off the card stock on this part gets glued into the poke. It kind of like that so that you can open it up. So that's that's it really on. It kind of feels a lot more complicated than it is. Once you've made one, it will just be visible. Just Ruby really easy, and they're such handy little pockets to have in your journal. Let's just double check. So it needs to be eight centimeters kind of up eight centimeters high. Remember, we need to off those. And as I said, I wanted each fold to be to said to meet us. So I want this part to measure two centimeters. I want in this part to measure two centimeters and then, um this outer part that gets glued in, I'm going to make that two centimeters and that two centimeters again. So we've got 1234 times two, which is eight. So I'm going to do is I'm folding it. This is the way it needs to go in. So I'm calling. This is the width. And this is the height. Just because I'm looking at the envelope or that the pockets like that. So I'm folding it in half. I make sure that you line up all the corners really nicely, so that, you know, you get really nice straight lines, and then you take the top piece of paper on you fold it over, meeting your first fold again. Make sure that it's really nice he lined up. Then you turn it around on you do the same thing on the other side on. Then when you open up, you can see it's kind of like an M shape on. If you thinking if it is an M, that's how you are going to glue it in. See if we're looking at our pocket from the side. You just open up these two folds, then the glue would go on there. This is a little bit fiddly. You could probably use double sided tape if we find that easier. So that goes in there. Grew on here that gets glued onto the other side. Make sure that you don't get glue anywhere else because otherwise you will kind of like glue together your whole accordion fold on. Then once that is done and you have to do it on both sides first is when you fold this over on, glue it on. Did you do the same thing on the other side? But I'm going to repeat this with the actual A pocket folder have cut for this book. You should have your pocket, your two accordion folded side parts on. If you would like Teoh, you've also got your envelope flap. We have to wait for the text block to go in first on. Then we can add the pocket 14. Adding a Back Pocket Part Two: So I'm now ready to put my little pocket into the back off my journal. Um, just to show you quickly, I cut all the pieces narrative the scrapbook paper on. They've got the main pockets. I've got my flat, Andi. Then I've got the two sides parts. If you're using a scrap of paper that has a pattern on and maybe at one pattern on one side in a different pattern on the other side, I mean, once, if you put the accordion that's been they know you can't really cod really see them. So, no, you don't really have to get that worried about it. But if you want it kind of the same pattern on the outside a way round, make sure that when you do your enfold that your the pattern you want to be on the outside is kind of on the outside off your m. So, you know, just try and remember that. So the first thing I'm going to do because I'm going to glue the to the to no one just call them the two m parts. So you're to accordion folds into your pocket, and I'm fuding up. That is a bold and mine is really tiny. I should have made sure that it's bit wider, So definitely go for at least kind of like a centimeter on. Then I'm going to take one of the accordion folds, so I've got the end that needs to be on the outside, and I'm putting some glue on one side there again. This is something that can be a little bit fiddly, but it's either I find it's worthwhile in the end. If you want. How could it? I'm just lining it all up. So the first crease with the edge off the back off my A pocket folder pressing down, I suppose he courage definitely use double sided tape for this. It might be quicker because I have to wait for, you know, for the glue to really kind of like Dry really do its thing. Okay, so but one side now I'm going to do the same on the other side again. I've got my M, so I'm going to put glue on this side and glue it onto here sometimes. Find it easiest to just kind of see where the end if my pocket is on the line up the crease . Exactly what needs to be press down, then turn it around, make really sure that it's sticking, okay? And the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to fold this over. I'm doing this down so you can see this is kind of apart from strengthening the edge. It's also kind of holding down the two flaps at the top, sometimes helps to use the phone full. Enough of this that's looking good. Now I have to do the same thing on a kind of This is the point where I try to do both at the same time because I find that easier. So I'm going to put glue along this side of my M, doing the same on the other side. Then again, I have to make sure that I followed this up, and I think this is probably the trickiest part because I need to fold us over now. Make sure that it's aligned that kind of on both sides. You can always cut if I create your first pocket. Just using some new some scrap paper just to get the hang off, making this pocket before you start using your favorite scrap perform this one, and then I kind of make sure that you know that nothing that my pocket doesn't glue together. As you can see, this is kind of like a smaller pocket than the one I've got in the other book. That really depends on how why your accordion folders? Because that will determine how wide your pocket is going to be. But I didn't want to have a massive pocket in, But this, uh, journal absurd. This one works for me. Men. Of course, I'm going to do the same with it. A folder on top. Just put some glue on that one, trying to make sure that I don't get glue all over my pocket. So I got the pocket folded. Well done. Now I can attach my flat to the pocket. So this is going to be the flower. So I'm going to put some grew along there and then just attach it to the back off my pocket . So I'm lining the top back off my pocket with the crease off fold in the flop, and then something else I personally also like to do is have rounded corners. Obviously, I would have been easier. Teoh can the corners before I added the flap to pocket. But this is obviously optional. I've got my little pocket. Well, that's left to be done for me is glue it into the back off the book. They're just bad. Flew to the back off the pocket. And what is something that you might want to remember when you put you know, when you're working out, how many signatures you want to have in your book? For example, if you were to add a pocket at the back off your book, but that will attract some additional volume in your book Hey, now I have to make sure that my flat goes to the inside. I'm going to just eyeball it always could have measured it on. Uh, maybe I suggest you do that until you're you know, unless you're happy to just I ball it is. Well, I just try and make sure that I've got it like equal distance from the top on the bottom on the side. And then I'm just going to stick it on, press down again. I'm going to stick it under some really heavy books. I wait until until it it'll droid I can use my pocket. I'm just going to be really careful now and then we're ready to work on our closure. The elastic. 15. Adding an Elastic Closure: So in this last lesson, office class, I'm going to show you how I'm adding the elastic to my journals. Let's just have a quick look at the journal I've already made to show you what I'm aiming for. So this is my own journal, and I decided to add one of those thicker elastic grounds to it. We're still about some of that left. So could either use this 10 I could use a thinner one, Onda three only reason that I'm doing it just to hold the book nicely together. I also really like the look of this Andi. I personally like adding a button, but, you know, that is completely optional. So I've had I've had a look at the book on and, um at whether I wanted a thinner elastic or a thicker one on decided that you were the Booker smaller, quite like the look off a sicker, wider elastics. I'm going to go for this 11 thing I've been thinking about that would be possible. There's may be taking kind of a, uh, the night elastic on, then having like double it up. Kind of like that. And then maybe just so the ends together. It's kind of like you have got, like, two these and then just sewing those together, um, in hiding the part where they need you sewed them together with a buttons. I quite like this idea, but just for this cows, I'm going to go for the simpler version. So let's have a look there when I'm measuring the length of my elastic are Put it round the book. Andi, I pull. You don't want to stretch it too much. Still want to have a little bit of give in the elastic, but still feel that the elastic would actually hold your book nicely together? So if you if this works really well and then I just cut the extra bitch off. So this is where my elastic overlaps on. Then I've just got needle and thread on. Then just start. Sorry. And I'm you know, I'm not doing anything. Friend. See, actually, what I've done five. When I did the other elastic breath that button, I kind of did both at the same time. Um, if you didn't want a button to hide the elastic, you might won t do something like a running stitch. If you wanted to kind of like one way on or the other. So you would be going kind of something like that, then kind of go back. That would look a little bit Tidier. I think that's one of the reasons why do you like to use a button? Because you can kind of hide, You know, the way you've sown the lasted on and then I would do the same at Look at the other end. But you might have, like a really nice fancy way of putting the elastic and, you know, the the ends of the elastic together. I just really want to add button now, so I'll have a look. I've got a nice selection off, but this year I've got loads of vintage buttons, Woody, how to look at a few, and I think I quite like this one. I won't go through the whole process of Have Bean trying to choose the button because that would just take too long. But basically all I do is I just kind of put the elastic on the book on. It's just this is easier. Just put the elastic on the book, and then I put the button on there and just see you. Do you like it? Don't I like it? I don't like it. Or this could be a maybe put the next one here, I think No. On then. Have another one. So I go through all my button options on then if I've got let's save. I had smaller quite like this one. That I go back to the ones where I thought, Yeah, those those might work and then put them on that again. I have another play around and, um, then connect start making out my mind by thinking rt of all of these three. This is the one I like the least, uh, on that, but you might find it easier. You might just know straight away, This is the button. I'm going for white tent over things, but, you know, just to show you how I go through my, uh, button decisions and I was trying to work out how I feel that the button works with the elastic with the color off the book on also, with the writing on the spine. Even though obviously it's no longer the book but still part off the cover feature. So I quite like to take that into consideration as well on. And then once I've made up my mind, I just broke the baton on the elastic on. Then I just So the button on there as you would kind of like normally So button, it was nothing really special. Just make sure that you so both parts of the elastic together as well, so that you feel that the elastic is, um I think the two ends of the elastic are securely attached. But, you know, if you wanted to, you could just So the elastic first. So you could just so the elastic first, and then add the button. If you wanted to be absolutely sure on once, I think you know the button it securely attached. Okay, then kind of at the back. Just so gonna go just go through the elastic a few times, just making sure that my threat doesn't come on tangled. And then just get off the end on and the last is ready to go on the book. Here we go. We've got a while. Hand bound journal. All finished. So let's just have a very quick look at our finished journal This is what it looks like after some re pleased with how it turned out. So in the friend. We've got our friend pocket on. Now we've got our text broke in the book. Well, let's say in general, we've got a bookmark in here on then at the back, we've got the little back pocket on. It's now ready to use. 16. Class Project: Hello again. Thank you so much for taking my class. I really, really hope that you enjoyed my class on that. It has inspired you to make your own hand bound journal. So obviously, for your project, I would love you to have a go at making you earn hand bound, general, you know, take it. As far as you know, I just make the very I would say kind of that basic a hunt ground, general. But we do is get a book to use for the cover. Then make your text block and put the text block into your drum and you're ready to go. If you wanted to take it further, you can add a bookmark. You can just the front pocket you can add. Just the back pocket is completely up to you. How far you want to take it? If you want to have an elastic on it or not, you can also just take a photograph off your journal making process that you don't have to upload the finished project. You could just maybe take a photograph while you are maybe finding the book or even just you know, the book. You've chosen the cover plus on the pages you're going to use in the book. So that's completely up to you. You couldn't also just take photographs off various stages and then show a few finished book or so please feel free to attack me on social media. I would really love Teoh, connect with you for social media and see your work. And also see how you are using your journal. It's f you. One of the most rewarding, uh, aspect of teaching a class is to see the take off your students on how they are using what I've learned and then create their very own version off what you've taught in a class that I would I would absolutely love that if you are not following yet on skill share. But you like this class A would be fantastic if you could follow me there because that means you get all that updates. You will always get informed whenever I do create a new class of gods. A few other kind of more bookbinding, no notebook making classes on skill share on. I've also got a selection off classes that are more focused on journaling on. I'm working on more classes that have to do more with erosive mixed media. So again, thank you so much for taking this class, and I can't wait to see your own hand bound journals.