Hemp Bound Notebook Tutorial

Hemp Bound Notebook

For the "Hemp Bound Notebook" you will need the following:
Copier paper (about 25 sheets)
Chipboard
Decorative paper
Hemp
Large eye darning needle
Glue stick
Tacky glue
Cut your chipboard 7 1/8" long x 4 1/8" wide (cut two pieces)
and cut two pieces 7 1/8" long x 3/4" wide (cut two pieces)
Cut your decorative paper 6" x 8" (cut two pieces)

Using the Anywhere glue stick by Stampin’ Up! Glue the chipboard to the backside of the decorative paper. Start with the small 3/4" strip and then add the larger piece. I used a toothpick set between the pieces to space them evenly. (Click on the photo and you'll see the toothpick better) I did this immediately after I set the large piece down. Do it right away while the glue will let you move it a little. Set it aside and repeat for the back piece. When you have finished with that, clip the corners. Leave about 1/16" so it will fold over nicely on each edge and not show any chipboard. Once your corners are clipped fold them over and glue them in place with the Tacky glue.

Cut two pieces of white copier paper, or you can use contrasting decorative paper) 4 ½" x 6 7/8". Using the glue stick, set in place over the exposed chipboard.
Cut your white copier paper 4 3/4" x 7"

Now for perfect hole placement take one of your copier pages and fold it in half so it is now 4 3/4" x 3 ½". Fold it once more. Now find the center of that area (you can fold it once again to find center or you can measure). Take your Crop-a-dail and punch all 4 holes at one time. Open up the paper and use this as your guideline for your pages and for the cover. Set your Crop-a-dial to about 3/8". Mine was set shorter and now that I look at the book I wished I would have moved it inward just a bit more. But you didn’t notice it until I just pointed that out to you now did you??? LOL Using your paper hole template mark the areas for the front and back cover too. Punch them out. Your book is now ready to assemble and stitch. The stitching instructions look long but they are very detailed and easy to do.

Sandwich your copier paper between the covers. Taking a piece of hemp about 40" long, thread it through a large darning needle. You can try to bind the book without a needle, it can be done but it is more difficult. Holding the book in front of you so you are looking at the top, take your needle and insert it from behind in the last hole. Draw the hemp through leaving about a 2" tail. Come back around and enter the same hole. Holding on to the tail, go through the hole again. Draw the hemp tightly around the spine. Now go across the top to the next hole. Here you will be working from the front to the back. Insert your needle in the hole, coming out the back. Bring your needle back to the top and insert it in the hole again, you want two threads around each hole... The front of your book will have one long stitch. Now take your needle and come up from the back to the front. Insert it hole on the back again and your needle will now be in the front of the book, repeat so you have two stitches on the spine. Insert your needle in the final hole, coming out the back.. Come back through that hole again. At this point your needle will be hanging off the back of the book and you will have two stitches on the front of the book and one on the back. Now you will take the needle and insert it in the second hole on the back. Creating another stitch on the back. You will have two there now. Coming up in the front you will go to the next hole and come out the back. Your front how has 3 stitches. Bring your needle through the last hole, coming out the front. Now go back on the top only, no spine stitches and just go in and out every hole and coming back to the bottom. What you are doing here is making two stitch lines coming out of each hole on the front and the back. Tie the knot in the back and add a little tacky glue to hold it in place. When the glue is dry cut the excess off. You can always work it out so the threads are in the front and you can tie them in a bow and decorate around it.

Your book is now bound and ready to decorate as you wish. And yes, there will be 3 strands around the spine on the last hole. And I ended up with about 10" of excess hemp. You can cut your 40" a bit shorter if you want but it gets difficult to work with if it’s too short at the ends. Tie the excess in a couple of bows and save it for another project. It’s a fun and fairly quick project. I hope you have fun with this. These make very elegant looking books and depending on what you use to tie the book you can really make them classy! They're great for Stamp Camps too!!

Thank you for stopping by,
Wanda