Make your own...

Hand-bound diary

You will need:

• two A4 sheets of thick cardboard
• fifteen A4 sheets of plain white paper
• flower stamp
• black craft paint
• decorations
• small sponge roller and paint tray
• string or embroidery thread
• 18mm needle
• pewter stick with a sharp point
• craft knife and cutting mat
• metal ruler
• pencil and scissors

To make:
1 Use the reverse side of the craft knife and the ruler to trace a line all along the centre of each piece of cardboard to divide them into two A5 sections. Fold each sheet in half so that the line lies in the inside of the fold.
2 Use the sponge roller to apply a little paint to the flower stamp and press it all around the edges of the cover to decorate it. Leave to dry and decorate further according to your own preference.
3 Divide the white paper into piles of five pages each and fold each pile in half.
4 Fold each pile open and make marks on the fold line 15mm from the top and bottom and then between these two points, another five points, each 30mm apart. Do the same with the two cover pages.
5 Use the pewter stick to press a hole in at each of the marked points on the pages and the covers.
6 Fold the piles of paper and the covers closed and place the pages inside the covers with the holes lining up. Thread a piece of string measuring approximately 1.5 metres through the needle and start binding the book.
7 Consult diagram 1 and insert the needle in hole 1 in the folded cardboard. Press the needle through to the inside of the cardboard and then push it through hole 2.
8 Insert the needle at hole 3 until the inside of the bottom pile of folded paper and then push it through hole 4. Pull the thread tight, but be careful not to tear the paper.
9 Consult diagram 2 and insert the needle at hole 5 in the cardboard. Make a loop over the string between holes 1 and 2 and press the needle through hole 5 again.
10 Consult diagram 3 and guide the needle below the loop that was formed between holes 4 and 5 in step 9. Insert the needle at hole 4 again.
11 Press the needle through until the inside of the bottom pile of paper and then press it through hole 6. Repeat steps 9 and 10.
12 Keep on binding until you reach the last hole in the bottom pile of paper and then tie a knot. Cut the edges off neatly.
13 Thread more string into your needle and insert the needle in the next pile of paper at the hole just above where your string emerged in step 12.
14 Press the needle through to the next hole. Consult diagram 4, guide the needle below the loop that was formed previously and insert it through the same hole again.
15 Keep on binding until you reach the last hole in the pile of paper and then repeat as previously to bind the rest of the book.

Compliments of : http://www.ideasmag.co.za/content/?category_id=10&id=2227