DIY Wooden Journal | Sea LemonPosted by Aagesen Haslund on June 14th, 2021 [, Music, ], hello, it's Jennifer from State lemon. In this tutorial, I will show you how to make a wooden journal which looks fancy, but it's actually pretty easy to make. You don't need any wood, cutting tools and most of these materials you can find at your local craft store. This book is made with one of my favorite binding methods, which is the Coptic stitch and, if you're not familiar with that, I'll include a link to a tutorial in the video description below, and you can also see a card linked to that in this video. And if you want to add line pages to your journal, I'll also include a tutorial on how to make your own lined paper. I have made a few of these journals in the past and you can choose to leave the cover blank if you want to - or you can add, a pre-cut shape, which you can usually find at the craft store and they are pretty inexpensive. I'Ll include all of the supplies I used and links in the video description below and while you're down there be sure to hit that subscribe button. If you are new here, I make new videos every week and especially if you want to see more bookbinding videos hit that subscribe button. Alright, let's get into it for my paper I'll, be using cheats of eight and a half by 11 inch paper and I'm going to fold each of those pieces in half and run a bone folder along the edge so that it's pressed completely flat. Repeat that on all of the pieces, so you have all of them folded in half and now we're going to take those and make signatures. So I take one sheet and just pile three more on top of it to make one signature and as you can see, these are four pieces, and that is what a signature is then repeat that on the rest of the pieces. So now I have seven signatures. More hints for my cover, I'm using this large sheet of birch plywood, it's 12 by 24 inches in size, and you don't have to use the exact same thing just make sure that you find something that is thin, use one signature as a template and trace it on To the wood and repeat that step to make the front and back cover, you can use a ruler and a utility knife to trim those out, and it really doesn't take much to cut through this board because it is so thin. Now that the front and back cover are cut out, you might notice some little splinter sticking up. You want to make sure to sand those down. You can use a file or a piece of same paper and just smooth out the edges so that there are no rough section. I also recommend sanding down the corners to a slight curve so that they aren't so sharp. Now, back to the pages we're going to pierce the holes for binding, but first we need to measure out those holes on the folded edge of one signature mark your holes for binding. I did three marks on both ends, which were one inch apart. The measurement and number of holes is really up to you. I prefer to make them toward the ends of the book because I feel like it makes a more tight and secure binding now unfold that signature and pierce those marks with an awl to make the holes and make sure all of the pages in the signature are Specht evenly, while you're doing this now take off the top page, with the marks on it and set the three others aside and you're, going to use that top page as a template to make the holes on the rest of your signatures. So your piercing, through all of those marks onto the new signature, taking the top page off the template and setting that aside and then continuing on with the rest of the signatures and when you're done don't forget to put that template back onto its original signature. So that you have four sheets in that stack now, let's mark the cover holes with that same template on that signature, you can use that as a guide and put it about a half inch away from the edge of your cover board and Mark those same holes And repeat that, on the other cover, then for the cover holes, I'm going to use these metal eyelets. These lack as decoration, but also protection for the thread so that it doesn't snag on the wooden cover each hole will get one eyelet and a backing. You can pierce through the holes with an awl, and you can make the hole as large as the eyelet will fit. Eyelets come in various sizes and colors. Some have backings some don't and you can use whatever you want, just as long as the size will fit. Your binding needle pierce, through all of the holes on both covers and pop all of those eyelets in and now it's time to set the back of those eyelets I'll, be using a setter tool that came with the eyelets a long time ago. I think there are better things out there now, but I'm using hammer and the center tool - and I'm just going to flip that over to the back and then put the backing onto each eyelet and set it with this tool by hitting it with a hammer. Until it's flat - and you want to make sure you're doing this on a surface that is suitable for hammering if your tool doesn't set it completely flat, you can always go back to it and Hammer it until it is flat with your cover repeat that on all Of the eyelets and then your covers should be ready for binding I'm using this brown cotton craft thread and to estimate how much I need. I roughly string it out along my signatures for as many as I have, and then I double that, because I'm doubling the thread and then I'm going to wax the thread with beeswax and I have a whole other video on this. If you're interested, this will protect the thread and make it less tangled when binding with so it's a lot less frustrating to use. I highly recommend you wax your thread and then going to thread it to my curved binding needle. You can also use a straight needle. I found the curved works really well, if you're doing a Coptic stitch, I also have a video covering needles. If you want to check that out and I'm going to double thread it with a knot on the end, alright now on to binding the book, and I'm going to do this with a Coptic stitch method that I've shown on many of my videos. A lot of you already know how to do this method, but if you are new to this and new to my channel, I have a whole separate tutorial covering how to Coptic stitch bind a book. I recommend going to this first because it's an in-depth focus on just the binding method itself. It was made a few years ago, but it is the basics on how to do the stitching method, and then you can come back to this video and apply it to this book project and while you're binding. If you have really long friend like I do, don't get frustrated, just go slow and have some patience while you're binding, because it might get a little tangled while you're going. But you will get through it and if you just find a little bit slow in the beginning, you'll have less knots and tangles I'm binding on the covers. Just like I would, with a chipboard cover or any other material. Just because it's wood, it doesn't make a difference, it will bind on just same, and here is my finished Coptic stitch book. You can choose to leave the cover blank. I found these pre-cut woods shapes from the craft store and I decided to use this script II. Hello on the cover I used strong hot glue for this, but you can also use any other wood glue press it onto the cover, and now my book is complete. Here is my final wooden journal and I really like how it turned out. I think the metal eyelets give it a nice polished, look and just like any other Coptic stitch book. The pages do lay flat, which is great for journaling. I hope this video inspires you to make your own wooden journal and, if you make one for yourself, I would love to see pictures of your projects so share those with me on my social links and be sure to hit that like button. If you liked, this tutorial feel free to request future book projects in the comments below and make sure you're subscribed to my channel sea lemon. If you want to check out more book projects, I'll put a playlist right here and if you want to learn more about. But finding supplies and tips I have a whole other playlist right here. These links will be below and I will see you guys next time.Like it? Share it! More by this author |