Items needed:

• Zutter Bind-It-All
• Wire cutters
• ½” gauge wire (thinner books) or ¾” gauge wires (thicker books)
• Envelopes, cover stock and text for pages
• Chipboard for covers (try adding decorative paper or photos to the cover)
• Xyron 510 or Tape Runner adhesive for attaching paper to covers
• Your imagination!

Step 1: Set your guide to “C” for creating the holes in the chipboard. Set your covers (these are finished with Cavallini Gift Wrap) inside opening, stopping at the guide. Make sure the stabilizing foot is out, then pull the handle down.

Step 2: Lift covers and set guide to “B” to make continuous hole punches. Your holes will sit in the notch guide from the backside, which keeps the holes aligned. Pull handle down again, and repeat for desired book length (There is book size guided that comes with instruction for making holes completely even).

Step 3: Gather your interior page materials and set the guide to “D” to punch holes in your interior pages. (You may need to do them in small bundles)

Step 4: Collate your pages and covers, align the holes, and feed your wire. Position your wire with the soft loops ending up on the cover side, then trim to size with your wire cutter.

Step 5: Use the wire gauge guide for accurate crimping. Place your book inside the spacer and pull handle down – The wall pinches the wires to just the right thickness. Repeat until all wires are pinched closed, then you’re finished! You just made a book in less than 20 minutes.

Learn more Zutter techniques at the Creative Spiral Travel Book Workshop. Seats are still available for tomorrow’s class – Register online or call your local store for details!

–Linda
PS colors: paper bag & persimmon
Latest fave: Zutter Bind-It-All

Thursday’s Handmade Journal Workshop will introduce you to the satisfaction of bookmaking. We’ve taken away the tedious cutting tasks, allowing you to focus on construction, and leaving you with basic instruction that will guide you through future DIY book projects. Register online to reserve a seat at your local store.

Trust me when I say, this will be the beginning of very long and rewarding relationship with bookmaking!

–Linda
PS colors: paper bag & persimmon
Latest fave: 2011 Paper Source Booklet Calendar

Being an avid bookbinder and box maker, I get dreamy eyed thinking about how I will invent something fun using our bookbinding kits. Oh, and can I say what a luxury to have these pieces precut to save your wrists?! Not to mention how they make being crafty so much faster!

If I could give you one tip for bookbinding it would be the following: Have what you need at your fingertips!

So, with that in mind, here’s a list of my Top 5 Bookbinding Must-Haves:

1. PVA:MC- Have your mixture of PVA glue and Methyl Cellulose in a small tub ready to go (I use a 60:40 ratio)

2. Always have a new blade in your cutting knife. I actually prefer the 9mm Retractable Blade– You can snap off a fresh edge after about 20 cuts. A good project can be lost due to a dull blade and we all know you haven’t changed that X-Acto blade since 1996!!

3. Bone folder- The kits all use the measurement width of ¼” for gutters, corners and hinges, making the Teflon Folder the perfect tool for easy board placement – without measuring!

4. A good glue brush can make your project easier. I’ve had my glue brushes for about ten years now, and while they may look well loved with a build-up of glue, they work like a charm! Always rinse them thoroughly…then repeat, then once more for good measure. My training mantra for new staff is, “3 minutes at the sink will save your brush and gives you time to think!” If you don’t rinse your brush or soak it in water after you’re done with your project – it will harden like a brick!

Teflon folder (left), glue brush (right)

5. A self healing cutting mat to work on. This handy little mat saves your kitchen table and keeps everything nice and smooth for cutting, folding, and gluing!

Now that you know my tools, tips, and techniques, you can start creating!

If you want a bit of hand holding, we have a rare combo “Book & Box workshop” this coming weekend, October 16. A few stores have seats available, so register now! This workshop is all day – meeting in the morning to make our cute pocket journal, with a break for lunch, then back for the 5×7 drop spine box kit in the afternoon. In the end you’ll truly be on the road to becoming a seasoned book arts person!

Can’t make it to a class? Simply blend our collection of papers and bookcloth to make any handmade gift feel personal. With all the new papers we’ve gotten in from around the world, choosing might be your only challenge!

Cheers,

–Linda
PS colors: chartreuse & pool
Latest fave: 2011 Paper Source Booklet Calendar

I walked past Paper Source’s window display of colorful papers and couldn’t resist stepping inside. I was so distracted by the beautiful papers that I almost missed the handmade boxes on display! They were so beautiful I wished I could learn how to make them myself. Luckily for me, Paper Source had all the materials to make boxes right there! I picked up some book board, bookbinding cloth, PVA glue, and an instruction manual, and headed home to make my box!

The PS instructions made the box construction easy to perfect with practice. I hadn’t worked much with PVA glue before, so that was a challenge at first. But I eventually found the best ways to handle the materials, and not get the table all sticky! I was happy to have my bone folder as well to smooth the paper down on the box as I glued. The handmade boxes turned out to be the perfect way to package my cards.

Here’s how I made my box: One by one, glue and secure the walls to the base.

Once you have secured all the walls, let the inner box set for about 10-15 minutes.

Once it is set, you can begin to cover it with your choice of paper. Cut a piece of paper long enough to wrap around the entire box, and leave extra room on the top and bottom to wrap underneath and inside. Set aside and work on the cover.

Glue the front and back covers and the spine of the box to the back of the book cloth. Fold and glue the book cloth around the covers and spine.

This is what the cover looks like before you decorate it! You can glue papers onto the front and inside of the covers…

Once the paper is glued on, glue the inner box onto the inside of the back cover.

And now I have a beautiful box to match my stationery!

–Maria Kanakis, www.paperbymaria.com – New York City, PS customer
PS colors: peacock & sunshine
Latest fave: Yuzen Fine Paper

Here are a few shots from our Paper Source bindery showing the items that eventually become the lovely photo albums, journals and guest books that you see in the stores and on our website. Some are covered in our Paper Source prints, some in our imported fine papers. And I couldn’t resist a photo of our imported German paste brushes that are so well-used, well-loved and last forever!

Now, if you’ve always wanted to learn to make books from scratch, then this blog post will satisfy that requirement too! Coming from someone who truly loves to make things with her hands (top of list are books), this next piece of information will make you very happy… this year we made sure to include on our New Year’s list of classes, a “how to craft an album or book by hand.” So, for all of you bookbinder wanna-be’s, this Saturday, January 30 ALL stores will be hosting a Fabulous Handmade Album workshop. We’ll teach you the in’s and out’s of making a 6″ x 8″ album by hand. You’ll not only leave with a finished album (plus get to be the envy of your friends), you’ll get to start the year off with a checkmark next to this one! Sign up while seats are still available.

Cheers & happy gluing!

–Linda
PS colors: chartreuse & pool
Latest fave: 2010 Paper Source Letterpress Calendar

Just think, once you gain these skills you can (and will want to!) make many more datebooks as keen holiday gifts!

WHAT: You never forget your first “Datebook”!
WHERE: All Paper Source stores
WHEN: Thursday, September 24. Times vary, see store for details.
HOW: Visit our workshop page to find your store & purchase your $35 ticket.

–Linda
PS colors: chartreuse & pool
Latest fave: Saddle Stitch Notebooks

So what’s all the fuss about bone folders? Simply put, this basic craft tool is the “multi-tasker” of tools. It does it ALL. Bone folders are ideal for making cards with great folds, invitations with perfect smoothed liners, stationery with clean creases, scrap booking scores for recessing photos, and virtually anything in the realm of bookbinding. A bone folder makes anything you create look more professional. Spend some time around our demo table or at one of our workshops, and you’ll be a bone folder expert in short order!

There are two types of bone folders:

1. The old tried-and-true “basic” bone folder (traditionally made of animal bone –the way old fashioned bookbinders have been for using them for centuries) has two ends with specific purposes. One end is narrowed to a softer point, which makes them great for deep scoring of heavy-weight paper and indenting for marking on book board. The tip can be sanded to the desired roundness depending on the project.

2. The second version is the newer Teflon folder. Teflon bone folders are more flexible than regular bone folders and won’t leave a sheen or scuff paper or book cloth. The great thing about the Teflon finish: glue will not adhere to it.

–Linda
PS colors: chartreuse & pool
Latest fave: Saddle Stitch Notebooks