How To: Make your own book or journal

Why buy a journal or sketch book when you can make your own? You can create a unique and special book for yourself or to give as a present to someone you care about. This is a personalized gift your friends will be sure to remember.

Create a space where you can showcase and preserve your poems, drawings, and thoughts. Design and make a simple yet beautiful book that is as unique as you are.

Step 1: Cut the blank paper

Cut the blank paper to the size you want. Then fold each page in half and insert them one inside the other.

Step 2: Cut the decorative pages

Cut the decorative sheet of paper to the same size as the blank sheets. Fold this sheet in half and place it on the outside of your folded blank pages.

Step 3: Cut the cover page; fold

Cut the cover page slightly taller and wider than the other sheets. Then fold it in half and place it on the outside of the decorative sheet.

Step 4: Mark three sewing points inside the book

Open the folded pages to the center. Measure and mark the center of the fold with a pencil. Then mark two more spots – one halfway from the center to the top and one halfway from the center to the bottom.

Step 5: Pierce holes

Use the bookbinder's awl to pierce a hole at each of the marks in the fold. Be sure that each hole goes all the way through the cover page.

Step 6: Sew the book in the center

Thread the needle and push it through the center hole from the outside of the book to the inside. Leave 3 inches of thread hanging on the outside.

Step 7: Continue sewing through the other holes

Push the needle through the top hole to the outside of the book. Then bring the thread across the back of the book to the bottom hole, and thread it back through the center.

Step 8: Tie the thread and cover the spine

Tie off the thread and trim the ends. Then glue your strip of colorful paper down the outside of the book's spine to cover the thread. Now, grab a pen and start writing.