Create my own mini notebook
In this little notebook, I’m only going to re-collect important memories from my life, things that I love, knowledge and wisdom that I still want to learn and remember. The beauty of this little notebook is that you can add an unlimited amount of paper, no matter how much you write, so you can keep it as a book. I created a zig-zag structure so that when I run out of room in my mini notebook, I can easily continue to add more paper.
Check out my shorts in Youtube how I made it !
So, let’s start making the mini-notebook.
First, you’ll need 5 to 10 A4 sheets of paper. I wanted to have a thick notebook, so I used 10 sheets. I used A4 paper which doesn’t smudge when I use fountain pen.
Take an A4 sheet of paper and fold it in half.
And cut it out with a craft knife.
If you press your fingernail firmly on the fold, you’ll get a very neat and precise cut, even if you cut with the blade sideways. Repeat the same process with all the A4 sheets.
very neat and precise cut.
Next, fold half of the A4 sheet into a zigzag shape by folding one side, flipping it over, and folding it again. The A4 paper is 29.7 cm long, so if you fold it into a 5.94 cm wide fold, it will be folded without leftover paper or not enough paper. But it is not 5.9 cm nor 5.94………
Anyway, fold the paper all the way to the end, and repeat the same process with the rest of the paper.
Glue the papers together.
Make sure to orient them so that the zigzag pattern repeats consistently.
It’s going to be a little crooked because you’re making it by hand, so it’s not going to look like a perfectly machine-cut notebook.
Next, prepare two pieces of thick paper or hardboard and then glue them to the front and back of the notepad.
Now you’ll need two pieces of leather the size of your notebook.
This leather will be the outside of the notebook, so make sure it’s sturdy and about 2-3mm thick.
It’s stronger than just making a cover out of paper or fabric.
I cut mine about 1mm larger on all sides.
If you don’t have leather, you can use your favorite material.
I dyed it a muted pink.
The leather is also polished to make it shiny.
Then I punched holes in the edges of the leather and stitched them into the shape I wanted.
I tried to make two of them with the stitching style on the left, but it took too long.
So I just did one side with regular stitching.
And on the front of the notebook, I attached a piece of leather with thread that acts as a kind of button to open and close the notebook.
Now glue the two sides of the notebook’s inner paper and the leather cover together.
Next, thread a slightly thicker rubber band through the leather buttons. Then, wrap the elastic around the entire notebook to hold the paper tight and tie a knot. The knot should be hidden inside the leather button and not visible. The elastic is there to keep the notebook from unraveling and the papers from flapping around and pushing against each other. So wrap it tightly enough that it feels like you’re squeezing it a bit.
And that’s it.
If you open it up, you can see this zigzag shape, and you might think that it’s a little bit inconvenient to use because it’s a zigzag folded note, but it’s not like that at all. On the contrary, it has the advantage that you can spread it out as wide as you want to draw or write large, and you can freely spread the size of the inner paper according to the content. And if you hold the notebook with both hands, you can flip through the pages like flipping through a book.
It wasn’t as easy to make as I thought it would be, but I was very satisfied when I finished it. lol
Next time, I’ll try to write something in my mini notebook.\
Thank you for reading this long post today. !