Handmade A5 Journal

Step 1

You will need: A4 paper, however many pages you want in your book, will be double the pieces of paper you need. I wanted 100 pages, so I used 50 pieces of paper. A4 card- I recomend as thick and strong as you can get, as it is for the cover. Enough fabric of your choice to easily cover the card, plus some around the edges, I would recomend a thick, heavy weave. glue- I use PVA but im pretty sure anything but paper glue will work for this. Hammer, a nail, cotton, needle, a block of wood, ribbon, ink pads, heavy books, and a knife

Start by folding all your paper in half, and yes, this may take some time, so I multitask by watching tv :)

Step 2

Seperate your folded pages into reams of 10 pieces, and fit them together. Mark 5cm in from the top and bottom of the fold in your reams.

Step 3

Now we punch some holes in the marks you just made. I use a hammer and nail to punch mine, although any sort of puncher will do. I used an old block of wood to press on so I didn't make holes in the floor.

Step 4

Use a very long piece of string, and start sewing from the outside in through the holes you just punched. Once you've stitched one full ream, loop the cotton back through the previous stitch to hold it all together.

Step 5

Now glue along the stitching you've just done, the spine of your book, and press it under some heavy books. I would recomend leaving this overnight to dry completely. Depends on the glue you use.

Step 6

Now its time to cut the card and the fabric. Cut the A4 card in half, these two A5 pieces will be your front and back cover. Use another, thinner piece as your spine, (measure the width of your pages and use this to decide the width of this piece of card.) Then lay the card out on your fabric and glue on. Once dry, cut the corners as shown, and fold over the fabric edges.

Step 7

Now glue in your pages (only if the glue is dry on both pieces) if not, wait till it is. Press the pages tigtly into the spine and use lots of glue, leave this to dry overnight too.

Step 8

Time for decoration! :)

Step 9

I chose to put lace on my cover, but you could really put anything on it. If you do lace to, now is the time to cut out the pieces you want and glue them on.

Step 10

Once everything is dry, choose two more pieces of A4 paper, any colour you want, for your cover pages. Fold them in half, then cut 1cm off the edges.

Step 11

Now cover one side of these pages completely with paper glue, and stick to the inside cover in the front and back of the book.

Step 12

Once your journal looks like this, you can continue decorating it with other textiles. I added some red ink along the edges.

Step 13

If you want to add ribbon, cut some slits in the spine as shown, and thread it through, make sure you have a reasonably long piece else it won't really work that well.