Basic Bookbinding Tutorial Part 3: Making the Cover and Putting it Together

This is the third part of my bookbinding tutorial. If you missed parts one and two, click here and here. In this part, I'm going to show how to make the cover of the journal and put the whole book together.

Cutting the Boards

To make the cover, you’ll need binder’s board. If you don't have binder's board, you can use cardboard (it's good to use cardboard if you're just practicing or starting out). You want the covers to be a little bigger than the text block you made. I usually make my covers ½-1 inch bigger on all sides. Measure the board and cut it with a paper cutter or an exacto knife. You’ll also need to cut a spine for the cover. You want the spine to be the same height as the covers, but a much smaller width. To know what width to do, sandwich the text block between the board covers, squeeze tightly and measure the width of the spine.

You should have three pieces of board now. Make sure the two covers are the same size. Since the edges of the board might be kind of rough from cutting them, I like to use sand paper to sand the edges.

Making the Cover
Choose the decorative paper or fabric you want as the cover. In my example, I used decorative paper of Paris. Put a couple sheets of wax paper on the area you're working in and position the boards over the paper or fabric so there is about 1/2 inch between them. Cut the paper or fabric so it is a little larger than the boards if you lay them out next to each out.

Use your brush to spread glue on each board. Press the board over the paper so it sticks to the paper or fabric. Once the glue is on there, quickly flip the board over and use your bone folder to flatten any glue bumps. Let the board and paper dry together for about an hour. 

Once it's dry, flip it back over. You should have extra decorative paper or fabric around the edges of the board. Make a diagonal cut on each corner of your board and paper. Then fold over each flap of paper and glue it down. 



Let this dry. You have your cover done! Now you just need to add your text block and do the inside covers. Use your brush to put glue over the boards so it looks something like this:



Insert the text block in to the book by putting the spine on the textblock in to the middle section and putting the first and last page of the text block on to the front and back boards that you've just put glue on. Before your put the text block in, make sure you have a sheet of wax paper in between the first two pages and last two pages of your text block so they don't stick together.



Use your bone folder to smooth the first page of the text block against the cover. Do the same with the back page. Close the book together. You might want to shift the book a little to make sure it's all fitting together right.



I let this dry for a little bit just to make sure the text block doesn't shift around. Then I do the inside covers. You can do the inside covers before you let it dry, but I like to wait for the book to dry once I put the textblock in first because then I know the text block won't shift while I'm making the inside covers.

You can use paper or fabric for the inside cover. Usually, I'll use a matching solid or decorative paper that matches whatever the cover of my journal is. You'll want to cut the paper or fabric you're using to fit over the white piece of papers that are currently in the inside covers. Then just glue it down and run your bone folder over the paper or fabric. 
For this journal, I did something a little different and decided to collage the inside covers. For my collage method, I started off with some scraps of the Paris decorative paper I had. I try to save any scrap decorative paper or fabric I have when making projects so I can reuse it later. 

Then I put glue on the inside cover and start collaging randomly until I covered the white paper:

 



Once you have your inside covers done, let it dry. Keep the wax paper in between the inside covers and close the book. You might also want to stick a few sheets of wax paper inside the text block of the book in case glue gets on the paper.

Like with the text block, you'll want to let your book dry in between weights. Wrap wax paper around the whole book and stick it in between two heavy books (I use two encyclopedia books) or wood boards. You might want to place a weight on top of the whole thing.



Let this dry for a while. I like to let it sit overnight. When you wake up, remove the wax paper and you have a finished journal!

Here's my finished result:

Map of Paris Journal

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I like how this book turned out and put it up for sale on my Etsy. Let me know if you try out this tutorial. What kind of tutorials do you want to see in the future?