Finished Book

When you are unemployed, or just trying to go green, it’s important to remember to the second of the 3 R’s: Reuse. In order to use up some scraps I had lying around my “studio,” I decided to make them into a sketchbook and thought I’d share with everyone how I did it.

Materials:

  1. Scissors or X-acto Knife/Ruler
  2. 10-12 sheets of Letter-sized paper (I used paper from my recycling bin that had only been printed on one side.)
  3. Scraps of chip board or matboard
  4. Old file-folders or card stock
  5. Spray-mount or rubber cement
  6. Old wrapping paper or wallpaper, etc for the cover

Step 1: Fold Your Paper
If using paper with printing/writing on one side like I did, fold it in half like a hamburger so that the clean side is to the outside. Stack all of your sheets together with the folded edges to the same side.

Step 2: Cut Your Covers
I used old matboard that I had lying around, but you could also use something flimsier. (If you go thicker, it will be too hard to bind…) Since my inside pages were 5.5 x 8.5″, I cut my covers to be 5.75 x 8.75″ to give 1/8″ border on the top/bottom edges when bound.

Step 3: Cover Your Cover
Laying your front cover down on your decorative paper (I used left-over Adhesive Wrapping Paper I had lying around from a press kit I developed for Hallmark), trace the cover of your book and leave about 1/4″ to wrap around the edges. Cut it out. Then, with your heavy cover centered on your decorative paper, cut a triangle off at each corner like so:
Diagram
Spray adhesive to one side of your heavy cover and to the reverse side of your decorative paper. Center the two adhesive sides together and wrap the decorative paper’s edges around the cover as such:

Bend the flaps over the back of the cover.

Step 4: Cut Out and Adhere the Endpaper
Use your back cover to trace out an endpaper on the old file folder.

Use your back cover to trace and cut out an endpaper for the inside front.

Spray with spray adhesive and mount on inside of front cover. This should ensure your decorative paper doesn’t come unattached.

Finished Front and Back Covers

Step 5: Bind Your Notebook/Sketchbook
Stack your book pieces together in this order: back cover, folded paper, front cover. The open ends of the folded paper should all line up on the edge that is spiral bound. Either take to Kinko’s or bind by hand: I prefer a wire coil as such:

Inside of finished notebook

Step 5: Use Your Book
Not sure what to do with it? Might I suggest referring to UE Project 1 and 3 (Make a Portrait of a Portrait and Make a Portrait of Your Bookshelf) for starting points?

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