bookish

I bet that just about every craft blogger out there has a SouleMama post that sends them sprinting for the worktable, & mine was the one about the tiny books.  My kids are dedicated artists & storytellers (especially my daughter, who loves narrative like nobody I've ever met, except maybe me, which I suspect is sometimes very, very tiring to the men in our household), we have teetering piles of pads & notebooks & story pages & drawings all over the place, & still it had never occurred to me to have a stack of little books around waiting to be filled up instead of waiting to bind the finished product.

I had the cardstock & paper, but no working stapler.  I did, however, have plenty of embroidery floss, a longtime love for the book arts, & an inability to pass up the opportunity to make something just a little bit more complex in the name of aesthetics.  Though, really, simple stitched books like this are barely harder than stapled ones.

Cut a sheet of cardstock in half (to 8.5" wide x 5.5" tall), then cut six sheets of paper to 8.25" wide by 5.5" tall. (Trimming that 1/4" will keep your pages from sticking out from the edges of the cover when the book is done.)

Fold the cardstock in half (to 4.25" x 5.5"), then do the same with the stack of paper.  A bone folder will give a nice crisp crease.

Put the cardstock on top of the stack of pages, matching at the fold line, then clip together on one end.  Punch three holes along the crease.  I happened to have a spring action "anywhere" punch around, so I punched 1/16" holes, but you can use anything that will make a small hole, really.

Using 3 strands of an 11" piece of embroidery floss, take your needle down through the center hole,

up through one end (leave a long enough tail at center to tie a square knot),

down through the other end,

& back up through the center hole.

Use the ends to tie a knot around the long stitch

& you're done.  Barely more time than stapling, right?

My kids spent the entire afternoon with these. 

ENTIRE.  I am not exaggerating.

EDIT:  My punch is the "instant setter" from Making Memories, which I picked up at my local stamping store when I needed to set some Paper Source snaps into wedding programs without ruining the smooth tops.  I like it fine & use the hole-punch tips pretty often, though I don't think it's that much quieter than the old-school individual hit-with-hammer "anywhere" punches I already had (I see Making Memories has a lo-tech punch-only version too).  Keep in mind, though, that you don't need fancy scrapbooking tools for this project:  try an awl, or a hammer & small nail.

Comments

[kayla_d]

Oh, I love them with the embroidery floss! And the rainbow stack of blank books would inspire anyone. It is such a good idea--enjoyable for the kids to make and then entertaining for them to read many times in the future.

[Angela]

That is a great idea for little books to color in -- thanks for sharing!

[erin]

thanks for the little tutorial. that post of amanda's did it for me, too. i thought that a nice stack of these and a color pencil roll would make a great bday party favor or present. you know i hate the junk.

[Stacey]

I really like the idea of the floss instead of stapling. Where did you get a punch like that? I have not seen one like that before. Thanks for how to.

[Colleen]

Hmm i could really see selling theese if they had something nice and sparkely on thr front..i wonder who might be able to do that " =]

[amandajean]

I love this idea! my kids are always writing books...and it would be great to have them made with cardstock (sturdier)ahead of time. I love the floss idea, too. it's much cuter than plain old staples! your stack of books looks fab. :)

[Kirsten]

Great idea, I may need to whip up a few for all the little cousin's in our lives for Christmas!

[Athena]

Thank you soooooo much for these instructions!

[Kathleen]

I'm going to try my hand at this. I think maybe even I will be able to do it! Where did you find that cool punch? I just got back from Office Max, Staples and JoAnn and was unable to find one.

[melissa deakin]

thanks so much for sharing this!
wonderful!
i need to get one of those punches.
thanks again!

[Sarah]

I adore this idea! Thanks for the instructions!

[amanda]

awesome! I love this method of binding - and you explained it so well! Calvin's been using elastics, which are only marginally successful. But we should try this! Thank you!!

[claire]

I have just made a few of these, and all I did to make the holes was use a large embroidery type needle to pierce through the card and paper, it worked a treat. Although I do like the look of that hole punch you used (but in the UK you never see cool stuff like that- well I don't!) Thank you so much for the step by step guide, as usual v v helpful!

[Lindsey]

Thanks for the tutorial. I am going to *attempt* to make them for all the kids in my kids' classes for christmas. *attempt* as in trying to get 80+ done in 3 weeks. :) Thanks again.

[Dee]

Thanks so much for this! I made a few with my kids and we plan to make more for gifts! :)

[la vie en rose]

be still my heart! every little book lovers dream...i can't wait to make a whole slew of 'em...

[Irene]

Oh, more gift ideas- perfect! I can't wait to whip some of these up. Thanks you.

[Irene]

Yay, more gift ideas- perfect! I can't wait to whip some of these up. Thank you.

[Stacey]

Just made a few for a gift exchange and they turned out great. Found a punch you use with a hammer (could not find one like you have) and it worked really well but gave my sleeping husband a bit of a scare. Thanks again!

[kim]

What a wonderful idea. I love it!

[Holly]

Love it love it can't wait to try it in every color combo! Our house too has piles of books-in-process (my 4 has a thing for staples but my 9 sews them in a different way than yours)... so much paper is in our house, in fact, I'm convinced we're a five alarm fire waiting for a match!

[mari]

thanks so much for the tutorial! i made a stash of books and then used a book making book to make another book, with a coptic binding, in which we chronicled our visit to a farm!

[Snippety Gibbet]

So funny. After reading SouleMama's post about the writing center for her kids, I made them as Christmas presents for my neices. They were a big hit!

[Ithaca Waldorf Handworks]

Beautiful. I am going to make a bunch load for my sons first grade class. I will post them when I am done :).

[Nancy]

Thank you for solving my no-junk-gifts dilemma. I made enought tonight to give each chld in my daughter's preschool class three spiffy books for graduation. I used cotton perle instead of floss and tomorrow we'll make some gift tags to match the covers.