If you’re interested in paper crafting, making your own books and notebooks is a fun way to use your paper stash. You can use bookmaking skills to make mini notebooks, junk journals, or regular-sized books, depending on how complicated you want to get with it. I made my own journal to keep track of the social media marketing that I need to do for my websites, and this is how I did it.
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Materials you’ll need.
- Cardboard for the cover interior (flat, not corrugated, thicker is better.)
- Fabric or heavy paper to use for the cover.
- Embellishments and extra scrap fabric for bookmarks and decorations (optional)
- Fabric to attach to the signatures.
- Stapler (long-arm version is best) You can also sew the pages together.
- Glue (Sobo or strong craft glue will work best)
- Extra cardboard to smooth the glue on, or an old credit card.
- A cutting board to put on the cover to weigh it down while it dries.
- Optional silicone mat that won’t stick to the glue.
- Scissors
- Paper for the interior pages (printer paper is fine)
- Fabric or decorative paper for the end pages.
- Tape for the signature and to hole the cover down if it won’t stick
Making the inside pages.
For this project, I decided to make something specifically for a tracking notebook that I use all the time for this website. Since the notebook I use to track my blog posts is nearly out of space, I decided to print my own interior pages and build a new book that fits my blogging routine exactly.
I started by making the inside pages. These are the sheets I’ll use when I’m writing blog articles, set up like a checklist for all the steps I need to remember to do with each blog post. I laid the pages out in Photoshop, printed a stack on regular printer paper, and folded each sheet in half to create booklet-style pages.
Next I grouped the folded sheets into small bundles called signatures. (If you look in a book you’ll see the signatures in the spine.) I used 15 sheets per bundle and stapled along the fold to hold each register together after clipping the pages together to keep them from moving around.
A long-reach stapler makes this much easier because you can slide the pages in and keep everything straight, but the main goal is simply to get straight, centered staples so the bundle folds neatly.
If you don’t have a long-reach stapler, use a regular one and open it up, then staple it into a pink block eraser, then fold the points down. Or you can sew down the center of the page to sew the pages together.
Press the edge of the signature to make it as folded as you can, depending on how thick it is.
When you fold several sheets together at once, the outer edges won’t be perfectly even, some pages will stick out a bit more than others. If you want a crisp, uniform edge, you can trim everything flush with an X-Acto knife. I didn’t bother this time, because it doesn’t change how the notebook works.
Attach the signatures together.
After I made several signatures, I added a tiny amount of glue along the folded spine edges so the stack would behave more like a single block of pages. In class we used Sobo glue, but at home I used Elmer’s glue because that’s what I had. The trick is to keep the glue right on the edge and barely inside the edge of the page, enough to hold things together, but not so much that you glue the pages shut or make the book stiff.
Once the glue was on, I clamped the stack with large binder clips and let it dry. This project has built-in waiting time, and it really pays to let each stage set before moving on. I used several big clips to keep the pressure even. You can definitely make a thinner notebook with fewer signatures, but I wanted something substantial that would fill a proper spine and last a long time.
After it dried, I wrapped the outside of the spine with strips of tape to keep the book block from shifting while I worked on the cover. It makes handling everything much easier. Since the outer pages will be covered later when the page block is attached to the cover, the tape won’t be visible in the finished notebook, so you can use whatever tape you have.
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Add fabric to the signature edges.
I also glued a strip of fabric over the spine edge, like the reinforcing cloth you see on many hardbound books. I wanted a little flexibility where the pages meet the cover, because that’s how “real” books are made and it made sense to do it that way.
I used a stiff, slightly see-through fabric, kind of like tulle, but a thicker weave like crinoline, so it would strengthen the spine while still bending easily. I centered it over the spine, pressed it into the glue, and let it dry in a way that kept it from sticking to anything nearby.
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Make the cover.
With the pages prepped, I moved on to the cover. The spine section has to match the thickness of the stacked signatures, because that measurement determines whether the book opens and closes comfortably. I originally planned to use fabric, but my iron had been borrowed and I couldn’t find it, so I used a faux leather sample instead. It’s fabric-backed pleather, and it gives the notebook a finished, “real book” feel.
For the cover boards, I used thick cardboard from the back of a watercolor pad. It’s much sturdier than cereal-box cardboard, which is a good way to upcycle, but you might need to double that up to make it thicker.
I laid the faux leather face-down, spread a smooth, even layer of glue on the first board, and pressed it onto the fabric backing.
Then I placed the spine piece and the second board, leaving a small gap about an eighth of an inch between the boards and the spine so the cover can bend instead of resisting every time you open the book.
To prevent warping while it dried, I pressed the cover under some weight. Cardboard tends to buckle as it absorbs moisture from glue, so keeping it flat makes a big difference. I put everything on a silicone baking mat (so nothing would stick), then stacked a heavy cutting board and a paper cutter on top. I left it overnight, not because it always needs that long, but because I wanted to be sure the thick boards and the faux leather bonded well.
See my list about handmade books on Benable
Trim the cover fabric.
Once it was dry, I trimmed the material and wrapped the faux leather around the edges. I cut small notches at the corners so the folds would sit neatly without bulky overlaps, then glued and folded the long edges first, then the short edges next.
The pleather didn’t grab instantly in a couple spots, so I used tape to hold everything in place while the glue set. If you’re using cotton or another absorbent fabric, it usually sticks faster, but faux leather can be a little more temperamental.
I also added a simple bookmark by gluing a strip of denim near the top inside edge. Any bookmarks or ribbons should be attached at this stage, because the endpapers will cover the raw ends and make everything look finished.
After the cover was dry, I printed decorative paper for the inside covers (the endpapers). I tested two print settings, one more photo-quality and slightly darker, and one standard, and both looked good.
You can get printable paper to use for this on this site if you look for the printable dollhouse flooring. The patterns work well for this kind of thing, and the patterns that I used came from those printables.
I glued one sheet of the decorative paper that I had trimmed to be a little smaller than a full page to the inside of the cover to hide the folded edges and lock the bookmark in place. This first piece was mainly to cover the spine so that when I glues in the signatures on the fabric, the spine would be covered. If you’re gluing the signatures directly to the spine, you don’t need to add this extra piece of paper.
With paper, less glue usually looks better because too much moisture can cause bubbling. I probably used more than necessary because I was still thinking about how well paper would adhere to the faux leather cover, but ideally you want a thin, even coat for the smoothest result.
Then I attached the pages to the cover. I trimmed the reinforcing fabric on the book block so it angled down and wouldn’t stick up, tested the fit against the spine, and glued that fabric directly onto the spine area. Because the fabric could stick to nearby paper while the glue was wet, I let the book dry standing upright with the pages separated just enough to keep anything from bonding where it shouldn’t. The goal here is a flexible hinge that opens smoothly instead of pulling tight and tearing.
Add the end papers.
To finish the interior, I added the end sheets that permanently connect the pages to the covers. Each end sheet is folded in half, one side gets glued to the inside cover, and the other side gets glued to the first (or last) page of the book block. This part takes a little patience because glued paper gets soft quickly, and you may still be working around fabric near the spine.
I went slowly and smoothed things out with a flat edge (a piece of cardboard works well, and a credit card would too) to press out wrinkles.
After that, I could close the book and let everything dry, since the glued areas weren’t going to stick to the wrong surfaces. Once it was set, I checked the edges and corners and found a few spots that hadn’t stuck as strongly as I wanted. Faux leather can be tricky with basic white glue, so I used small pieces of double-sided tape along the edges to help hold those areas down.
Even with the extra flexibility, there’s still a hinge “stress zone” where paper can tear if it’s pulled tight over the bend. The fix is simple, just glue a narrow strip of fabric, ribbon, or paper over that crack to reinforce it. I used a small green fabric strip on the inside front hinge and repeated it on the back, then trimmed any loose threads. It strengthens the fold and looks like it was meant to be there.
In the end, I had a sturdy handmade notebook with decorative inside covers, a built-in bookmark, and best of all, custom pages designed specifically for my blog post checklist. It was a really fun, useful project, and it’s easy to adapt. Add more signatures for a thicker book, change the spine width, swap cover materials, or redesign the interior pages for your own system. If you make one, build in drying time between steps and don’t be afraid to test different materials until you find what works.
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