DIY Book Binding

As a homeschooler, I have a lot of printed material for The Spawn. I've been organizing the mountains of papers in 3-ring binders, filing cabinets, folders, cardboard boxes, and on each and every flat surface in our house. You name it, I've stacked papers on it.

I considered purchasing a comb binding system to attempt to subdue this chaos.

Then I came to my senses and bought a timeshare. Ahem, I meant some brads and duct tape.

I recently purchased Build Your Library for Kindergarten to supplement what I'm doing with The Spawn. I want to wrap up my Pre-K Literary Explorations program while working on the Kindergarten history. So I'll happily use BYL for Kindergarten LA in hopes that I can keep plugging away on 1st grade stuff before 1st grade sneaks up on me. Le sigh.

Here's your DIY bookbinding lesson:

You'll need:

3-hole punch

brass brads (these are 1.5" but I also have 1/2" for smaller projects)

cardstock for front and back cover

printed material

ruler

duct tape

pencil

scissors

markers

Step 1: Hole punch your stuff.

 Step 2: Insert the brads from the back of your book. Open the brads so that they're parallel to the book spine.

Step 3: Use your ruler to draw a guideline approximately 1/2-3/4" from the spine.

 

Step 4: Tape the front of your book.

Step 5: Tape the spine and back of your book.

Step 6: Trim excess tape.

Step 7: Write your book's title on the spine. I also color-code my spines.

Yay!!! A book!