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DIY Hand-Shaped Book

Hello! Today’s DIY is a bookmaking project! I was inspired to make a sketchbook for myself and a friend and I wanted to make a book that is an interesting shape. This project is relatively easy but does require a bit of patience.

You will need:

  • Cover Paper (Can be watercolor paper, bristol, a thicker decorative paper)

  • Interior Paper (Could be sketchbook paper, printer paper, just anything thin)

  • X-acto Knife

  • Waxed-String or any string

  • A large needle

  • A puncher tool, thumb tack, or nail

  • Hammer

Step 1: Print and cut out the stencil above. It is easiest to do this with an Exacto knife but you can also use scissors. Trace and cut out a front and back cover out of cover paper. Trace and cut out 20-30 interior papers. Remember that you will need a ‘left’ and ‘right’ hand for the cover papers.

Step 2: Align the papers together, including the front and back cover pieces. Using the stencil, punch holes into the four dots shown on the left side of the stencil. You can also use a hammer and nail, a hole puncher, a push pin- whatever you have.

Step 3: Follow this 4-hole Japanese Bookbinding tutorial to bind the book together. “Sea Lemon” on Youtube does a great job walking you through the binding process. Some tips I have are to make the holes pretty large, the ones shown above were really small and hard to work with so I would go a few sizes up. You also do not have to use a needle, I used the thread dipped in beeswax and was able to bind my book just fine.

This project makes such a wonderful gift and there are a lot of different ways you can change it from what I made. You could illustrate your own cover for example, or fill it with sketches of things you can hold on your hand. You can also experiment with making books of different shapes.

Have fun and happy bookmaking!

Warmly,

Olivia