Hard-cover Book and Bookmark

I made a hand-bound hard-cover book and a super fun bookmark that I had so much fun making and am super excited to share with you all! I learned how to hand-bind books a few years ago and found it surprisingly calming, especially when it all comes together and you can admire your work. have fun!

For the book you will need;

paper

ruler

ale

embroidery thread and needle

hot glue gun and sticks

fabric

letter opener or bone folder

exacto knife

scissors

For the bookmark you will need;

card stock paper

ribbon

hand drill

wire

hole puncher

small toy (I used a bee but whatever works, as long as you can drill through it.)

paint

paint brush

beads

spray varnish

colored pencils

To start you need to find out how many pages you want in your book. I chose to do thirty so I folded my paper length wise and put them in five piles of six.

Once you have chosen how many pages you want do likewise ( I would recommend choosing a number that is divisible by five so that it is easier to bind to the cover,)

Once you have all of your paper folded take a pile and start to put the each piece of paper inside of each other and continue with the other piles until you have five text blocks.

hint, I like to use my letter opener to make sure that all of my text blocks are tight,

Measure the length, width and height of all of the text blocks. Measurements may vary depending on how many pages you have and how far you want the cover to jutt from the pages, I would recommend adding at least an extra half inch to the top bottom and opening sides

Measure out your lengths on cardboard and cut

Take an extra piece of paper and cut it in half once its cut in half glue it to the sides. Now take the fabric and cut to the right size

Now glue the fabric tight on the cover

Measure and cut the other piece of fabric and glue it together

Measure out where you want to put the holes to bind once you have done that use the ale to poke through the cardboard. Now glue the strip to the fabric and use the ale again to poke through the fabric.

Use the same measurements you used for the holes in the spine to open the middle of the text blocks and poke through each one so that when you're finished your holes should line up with the holes on the spine.

Thread your embroidery needle and put it through the first hole of spine and knot it off on the inside. Thread the needle through the second hole so it comes out on the inside, now take a text block and thread the needle through the second hole and back out though the first hole. Thread it through the first hole in the spine continue that process all your other text blocks. You have now finished your first bind, repeat the process for the other two binds

Congratulations you have finished your book and it should look a little something like this.

Now you can stop here or scroll down for a cool little bookmark

Start by taking you toy and drilling a hole in the appropriate place.

Paint the toy and apply varnish.

Use the wire to loop around and create a loop on the underside of the toy.

Punch a hole through your cardstock.

Now to decorate the bookmark. This step is all up to you.

Tie the ribbon through the hole in the bookmark, tie another knot higher up on the ribbon. Start beading! Once you have your beads on, tie the ribbon to your toy and tuck the excess into the beads.

You have finished your bookmark! You are ready...

Now go out and enjoy your beautiful creations!