How to Make Your Own Book

Hello friends. So I was stumbling the other day (on stumble upon, of course) and found this great idea! And with Valentine's Day coming up, it gave me inspiration. Click here to see the tutorial or just follow along here!

Things you will need:

1 pack of cardstock

Pieces of cardboard, chipboard or extra cardstock

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Blank index cards
1 pack of colored cardstock or index card

2 rubber bands

Pencil

Ribbon

To make the pages:

1. Fold the index cards in half

2. With all of the folded edges facing the same direction, align the pages (this is important, if they aren’t perfectly aligned, some of the pages might not be glued properly/could fall out), and secure with a couple of rubber bands along the edges opposite to the folds.

3. Cut out a piece of cardstock that is a little larger than the side of the folded index cards for the spine of your book.

4. With your hot glue gun, apply a layer of glue all over the end of the side with the folded edges. Pinch the paper together as you apply the glue to make sure it is the same width all along the finished edge. When applying the glue, start from the middle, and work your way up and down to each end, be sure to use enough glue, so that all of the pages stick together.
5. Apply your cardstock spine to the glued index cards.

  

6. Center and glue a small piece of ribbon to each end of the spine, glue to overlap the edge of spine. Glue a long piece of ribbon to the center of one end of the spine (this will be the bookmark).

7. Apply a dot of glue to the center of the front page of the page block. Align and glue a folded color peice of cardstock. Then go around under the three non-folded edges of the paper, applying a bead of glue and smoothing as you go along. Repeat on the back of the block.

To make the cover:

1. Measure the width of the spine on the index cards and on a sheet of cardstock make the following lines as seen in the picture. Make a little mark at the center of each side of your paper. On each side of those center marks, draw three lines paralleling each other (6 lines total):

5/16”, 5/8”, 13/16” inch from the center mark.

On each of the lines 13/16” away from the center mark, make a perpendicular mark on the center of that line facing away from the line.

2. Fold along the lines, pinch to form little pleats.

3. Make a pencil mark, 1 9/16” on center, on one side of each of your (2 5/8 x 3 1/8”) cardboard pieces.

4. On the unmarked side of the cardboard pieces, apply a dot of glue to each of the four corners.

5. Flip over and glue, using the marks that you made to align the cardboard.

6. Trim cardstock to approx. 5/8” all around the edge of the cardboard. At an angle, trim the corners, leaving a margin of approx. 3/8”.

8. Crease the ridges that you made in step 2. so that they face away from the center, and overlap the cardboard.

Fold, crease, and adhere the cardstock around the margin of the covers to the cardboard.

9. Use the technique that you used in step 6 of making the page block to adhere the inside cover (the red cardstock) to the inside of the back of the cover.

You’ll have a 1/16 margin all around the edge of the lining of the cover.

10. Repeat step 9, to adhere the front lining/page to the other side of the cover.

Voila!

xo, meaghan with an "h"

Like this idea, but don't have the time. Tell me, and I'll do it for you!