Mini DIY Book Tutorial

I came up with this DIY book tutorial as I was brainstorming classy holiday gifts. You see, as much as I love DIY, around the holidays the term gets overused by bloggers {obviously I, too, am guilty of this — see the title of this post} as a way to entice people to make cheap gifts to give in bulk. “Cheap” is nearly always the selling point. However, I think we should approach DIY a different way. The truth is, I would much rather receive a thoughtful DIY gift than a store-bought gift. Case in point: in college, one of my friends gave me this little booklet of poetry {which inspired this tutorial}.

I remember receiving it and being dumbfounded by the time and care he had taken into making it. I could imagine him writing, folding, and gluing; all with the intention of giving his creation to me — and I thought that was the coolest thing. He had clearly put a lot of energy into his creation, and that, to me, was worth more than if he would have handed me a $100 bill. I think people who are not stingy with their time are the best kind of people, I really do. So, for the holidays this year, I hope you make some soap for someone; I hope you knit a scarf; and I hope you create a few of these mini DIY books. I’ve got some suggestions on how to use them at the bottom of this post.

To make a mini DIY book, you’ll start out with a sheet of paper. I’ve got the American standard 8.5″ x 11″ {21.6 x 28 cm} here, but any piece of paper with similar dimensions will work. Divide it up into four even pieces as shown.

Cut along the lines to get four identical smaller pieces of paper. {Mine are 4.25″ x 5.5″ (10.8 x 14 cm).}

Now, use a sturdy ruler to make crisp folds along the center of each piece of paper. For more detail on how to use a ruler to make folds, pop over to the Personalized Birthday Card Tutorial for a second.

Once you’ve folded all the pieces, put them all together, one inside the other.

The goal now is to bind all of these together somehow. You can sew them, you can staple them, you can glue them … whatever. I have chosen to use a small {1/8″} hole punch to punch two holes in the spines. You can use a bigger hole punch, but I like the clean look of smaller holes.

Next, grab any twine or ribbon you have laying around. I’ve opted to utilize some very thin polyester mending thread.

Poke one end of your thread/twine/ribbon through the top hole, and pull it until it’s protruding out the other side about 4″ {10 cm}.

Next, poke the other end of your thread through the bottom hole. It should extend much further than your top thread. Tie them together, maintaining that short/long ratio.

Use the longer side of the thread to wrap around the two holes as many times as you can, like this:

Once you can’t wrap anymore, tie what was the long thread together with the short thread in the back.

Then snip both threads so they’re about yay long.

Just as a note, if you are using thicker material than thread, the wrapping probably isn’t necessary, and you can go ahead and tie your ribbon/twine in the back after step one and call it good. At any rate, now you’ve made your content, and it’s time to make your covers! To do that, grab any box you have around; I have chosen to use a cereal box.

Cut two pieces of cardboard about 1/4″ {0.6 cm} larger than your folded paper. My folded paper is 2.75″ x 4.25″ {7 x 10.8 cm}, so I’m going to make my cardboard about 3″ x 4.5″ {7.6 x 11.4 cm}.

Now, choose a cover for your mini DIY book. I’ve picked out this stout little fellow from a vintage art magazine.

Cut the cover about 1/4″ larger on each side than your cardboard pieces. For me, that’s 3.5″ x 5″ {9 x 12.7 cm}. Then, lay your cardboard over the back of your cover, and draw straight lines from each corner of the cardboard, like this:

You’ll end up with squares in all four corners.

Cut all your squares out …

Then take a pair of scissors and snip the corners off the edges of the top and bottom flaps {leave the side flaps as-is}. That looks like this:

Now, put glue on all of the flaps. You can use regular white glue, a glue stick, whatever.

Insert the first cardboard piece in the center, and fold the side flaps down on it.

Fold the top flaps down and voilà!

Choose a material for your back cover and repeat the same steps.

Now, return to your mini book pages. Flip them over such that the front of the front page and back of the back page is exposed — basically, splay out the booklet. Drizzle glue over the back of the back page, like so. {Alternatively, you can use a glue stick.}

Be sure and brush it out so the paper doesn’t bubble as it’s drying!

Flip the booklet over and glue it to the exposed cardboard side of the back cover, like this:

Repeat with the front of the booklet and the front cover.

And that’s it! You’ve got a DIY mini book, ripe for whatever you want to do with it.

I actually made a couple of these because I like them.

As far as what you can do with these — like most of my tutorials, you can tailor them to your needs pretty easily. Here are some ideas I have, and if you have additional ideas, plus do let me — and others — know in the comments!

• Keep it for yourself and use it as a note or address book.
• You’ve got exactly twelve pages, so you can make your book into a calendar {punch holes in it to make it a hanging mini calendar!}, and keep it for yourself or gift it.
• Instead of writing someone a plain letter, make one of these and write them a “book”. It will be neat little switch-up!
• For a really sentimental gift, you can title your book “12 Reasons I Love You” and illustrate/write a different reason on each page.
• Make a set and give these away as gifts in groups of 5-10. They’re handy little books to have around, whether they’re kept near a phone to take notes or used as a little field journal.
• Make it into a “birthday book”. Write month names and the top of the pages {first page “January”, second page “February” … etc.}, and then make a list of whose birthday is when. All the January birthdays will be on the January page {e.g. “Alice — Jan 2, 1990”}, the February birthdays will be the February page, and so on and so forth. At the beginning of each month, you can reference whose birthday is coming up and ensure you send warm wishes/a card/a gift.
• I love new recipes, so I love the idea of transforming these into mini cookbooks and gifting them along with sweets this holiday season.

Whatever you do, I’m sure it will be cool! You’ve got a blank canvas here and you’re creative: I have faith in you. If you’re ready for the next level in bookbinding, be sure and check out Jessica Moeller’s guest post from last year!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend; and as always, thanks so much for reading!

XO,

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