Book Binding, Project 2

Ah, so I know the last book binding project was not very well documented. Let's face it, this one might not be either. I'm not writing this as an instruction manual. Just a really neat picture of the process from start to finish. Maybe, if I was good enough with our camera, I would do a whole freeze frame process for you.

This project is a pair of journals for a friends' two youngest children. It's a fairly easy bind, but I've already run into a few hiccups.

#1: In an attempt to ease my Christmas stress, I was going to buy pre-prepared journal text blocks (blocks that are already cut to a specific size and lined). Sadly, the only pre-prepared text blocks I could find were for a closed spine binding, meaning the pages were already sewn together. I'm doing an exposed spine binding (fun because you can see all the sewing) so I need unsewn text. While they answered my query with a "we've been looking into getting unsewn text blocks" it didn't really help my present situation. So I went with the next best thing. I had the paper custom cut to the size I needed it although I'll still have to print the lines.

#2: While I got the paper cut to a somewhat standard size, I got a little extra on the sides knowing that I'll need to trim the edges at some point. This has caused a problem with my printing lines on the page as my computer gives me NO LEEWAY at all in playing with my side margins. Argh! So I've come to grips that I'll have to just cut it down to standard size and either leave the edges untrimmed (not a bad look... if you've read the Series of Unfortunate Events, it gives the effect that those pages have... uneven but unique and kind of fun) or get them trimmed as scantily as possible.

The good news is, I was finally brave enough to go get our ink cartridge refilled at Walgreen's. So far, so good and I love the feeling of saved money.

Anyway, keep an Eye out for the documentation of this next project ;)