Book Binding

I'll apologize in advance for the length of this blog.  I'll try to make it interesting by adding lots of pics...

When I first started working at Paper Source, we were put through an amazing training program. We learned all sorts of crafting techniques and it was seriously the most amazing week of my life. One of the things that I was most excited to learn was book binding.  I'm sorry, but it is the COOLEST of all things crafty.  It was also the most stressful craft that I have ever done ever. It's very involved and there is lots of glue and lots of ways to mess up and frankly lots and lots of f-bombs. So of course, I had to master it.  I try to do a book a week now and I think I'm getting quite good at it (if I do say so myself). 

Lets start at the beginning-supplies. To make it easy, here's a list:

• PVA/Methyl Cellulose mix (60% PVA to 40% Methyl)--The Methyl makes the PVA dry sllloooowwwwly so that you have time to mess up and move paper around.
• Your favorite papers to cover the front and back
• Book cloth to match OR book cloth tape (that's what I used), you'll need two of these, one smaller than the other.
• Ruler
• Pencil or other writing utensil (tip: if you're using dark paper, make sure your pencil marks will be seen on it)
• Exacto knife
• Paste brush that looks like this
• Book binding kit OR a text block (that you can make yourself) AND book board cut to match (cutting book board is a big pain in the butt, so I buy the kits)
• Lots and lots of scrap paper to cover your workspace, you'll need big and little pieces. I re-use ripped up paper bags.
• Wet wipes and a rag to wipe your hands on
• Teflon bone folder (you can use the other kind, but it might make marks on dark book cloth, also, this one is much better because it's a bit heavier and has more edges to smooth your paper)

And some other things that I used for this project:

• Ultra Thick Embossing Powder
• Heart stamp
• Embossing Heat Tool
• Embossing ink pad
• Martha Stewart Paper Pad

With the embossing powder on the
stamp before I heat set it. 

After it was heat set.
It looks very watery...

To start, I heat embossed my favorite heart stamp onto the paper that looked like wood from the Martha pad. For this project, I purposely used the ultra thick embossing powder because it almost looks like a resin when it seals. I wanted it to look like water on wood, only heart shaped.  After that was done, I had to cut it down to fit the book boards. I guess I could have heat embossed it after I cut it, but I avoid measuring at all costs and so I procrastinated until the last possible minute.

My not yet messy workspace.

You can see the pencil
marks and the fold at the
top of the book cloth tape.

 One thing that I forgot to mention was the importance of scrap paper or brown bag paper to use in your workspace.  For bookbinding it's critical to have enough to cover your space two to three times and to have a lot of other little scraps to cover glue marks.  The PVA/Methyl mix DOES NOT COME OUT of book cloth, so you have to be very careful not to leave any wet on your desk or wherever you're working...I'm getting ahead of myself.

Now onto measuring...like I said, it's my least favorite thing and I do it the least amount that I can get away with. It doesn't really matter anyway, as long as your paper is not really big or really small...Now book cloth or book cloth tape is a different story. You need to measure this or else you can really mess up your project. To make this very simple, I measure the width of the book boards  and the text block and add 1/8" to it. Write that down number on your scrap paper so that you remember it. Take your book cloth tape and make a tiny crease at the top and a tiny crease at the bottom. Find the middle of it and mark equally out on each side (see pic), from one mark to the other should be your measurement that you wrote down. Do this on both the top and bottom of the book cloth tape. Then I draw two lines connecting both marks and then I put the book cloth around the boards and the text block just to make sure they all fit together nicely (there should be a bit of room left).

Keep it level people!

See how much I hate measuring,
not one of those edges are straight
sigh...

Construct your spine by peeling away the book cloth tape on one side and place your first book board with at least an inch left at both the top and the bottom. Do the same thing with the other board, on the other side. Use a ruler to make sure that both boards are level or your book will be really uneven and look really funny...Use your bone folder to get all the air bubbles out and to make it stick really well to the boards. Peel away the rest of the sticker paper if you haven't already and take your second piece of book cloth and stick it in the middle. Again, use your bone folder to make it smooth, make sure to really get into the edges and corners.

A spine is born! 

Once your spine is done, fold it in half and press it to one side (see pic, I can't explain this very well) so that you can accurately measure from the spine out. For this book, I wanted 1/2" of the spine to show, so I measured out from the edge and drew a faint line down the side as a marker. I did this on both sides (of course).

Boring stuff over, now it's time to glue.  If you've cut your paper, make sure you mark which edge is straight, this is the one that you are going to want to place on the line that you just drew on the book cloth.  I mention this now, because you're about to glue your paper and won't be able to handle it much or write on it after that's done...

The other side of the paper was so pretty!

Glue from the center of the paper out and go off the paper when you do it. Your paper is going to curl but make sure that it doesn't move on the scrap paper because you'll get glue on the opposite side of the paper and that will stink. Your fingers are going to get super gluey, but that's why you have wet wipes and a rag to wipe them on.

See the corner?

Once it's all glued up, take it and immediately put it onto the book board, being careful to match it up with the line on the book cloth. There should be an inch-ish of paper overlapping the other three sides. Before you turn it over, take your Exacto knife and cut the corners as shown in that picture. Be careful not to cut too close to the book board corner, leave about 1/4" from the edge. Turn the whole thing over and use the bone folder to smooth out the wrinkles. This is really important, you have to get the extra glue out of there...

Smooth smooth smooth!

Wow, this entry is really long...OK, we're almost done.  Fold the long side over, smoothing the whole way with your bone folder. Take the corner of the bone folder, and stick it in the corner of the paper to make the edge smooth (see pic, I'm not explaining that well either), once this is done, pull the edge up. Repeat on the other side. Then repeat this entire process on the

The corner thing...

second side of the book.

Both sides paper'd up.

Whoo hoo!  We're almost done!!!!

You can kind of see the mark, it looks like a hole
in the corner. 

Turn the book board over and measure 1/8" out from each side. You don't need to draw lines or anything, just find the outside corners.

Then glue your text block the same way you did your papers (center out).

All glued up and ready
to be stuck!!!

Place the pages on either corner mark and CAREFULLY shut the book. Don't let anything in there crease, use your bone folder to make it smooth. This is tricky, I know. It gets me sometimes too...

Glue up the other side and do the same thing. The second side is always a bit difficult because you can't see as much as you can on the first side.


And you're done!  Now take a picture, so that you can remember what it looks like, and then you have to wrap it all up in wax paper and put it under something heavy (I use my wedding album...) and leave it there to dry for a full 24 hours.

This was a really long entry, so if you got this far, thanks for reading and if you skipped to this part, thanks for lookin' at my pics!