Handmade recycled paper notebook

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Handmade notebook

Handmade notebook

Recycled paper notebook

This book is almost fully made using recycled materials, probably close to 95%. The paper for the text block is made from old newspapers, the cardboard for the cover comes from an old book, which otherwise would have been discarded. The only new materials used are the kraft paper for the cover and the fabric for the spine.

If you want to know how to put together a text block for a notebook like this, check out this tutorial: How to stitch a text block.

    Usually I make the cover for my books from a single sheet of material, this one is made using two. Which one of the techniques is better or simpler, hard to tell, depends on your preference. I like both techniques, because using both provides a bit of a creative freedom.

    Here is a simplified tutorial for the cover:

Notebook cover tutorial step

    1. Gather your materials. You'll need three pieces of cardboard (preferably thick ones), two larger than the cover cardboard pieces of material of your choice (Vinyl wallpaper is very easy to work with) and one piece of material for the spine with the width of which is about five times the width of the spine.

Notebook cover tutorial step

    2. Glue the cover boards to the material and press them down a bit with some weight ( This will make the surface smoother ) and wait a bit for them to dry. 

Notebook cover tutorial step

    3. Then cut the corners off of each cover board material, but not the spine. Glue each side of the cover material on the cardboard separately either with the excess corners cut off or folded in and glued. 

Notebook cover tutorial step

    4. Lay down the spine material and glue the spine cardboard in the middle. Measure a clearance between the spine and the cover (the clearance is so that the book can open fully). Glue the spine material to the covers, but make sure everything is aligned. Fold down and glue the rest of the spine material to the inside of the covers.

Notebook cover tutorial step


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