I thought I would be crafty and thrifty and make some little sketchbooks out of my extra pieces of watercolor paper. I have made my own sketchbooks before using the simple pamphlet stitch and sewing the pages straight into the spines of old vintage books.

I watched one Youtube video on book binding using the more sophisticated coptic stitch method. My clever friends have shown me how to do this binding many times and the books they complete are beautiful.
I am not going to show you the results of my attempts to bind my sketchbook using this method. Please just accept that my results were very sad and mangled.

Fortunately family members intervened and stopped me from throwing my mangled sketchbook out of the 2nd story window. They reassured me that if I devoted the rest of my life to learning the coptic binding that I would probably be successful. I accepted that book binding may not be where I excel and sewed my pages together in a off kilter but sturdy fashion.

I found some decorate paper I had hoarded and folded it into an old fashion school book cover like our public school teachers taught us in the 1950’s and 60’s. Since my paper was white and delicate I covered the cover with some contact paper I hoarded also. To my surprise, I actually crafted a sketchbook I can take outside with me and use.

The reason (other than cathartic) that I am sharing my imperfect book making with you, is to encourage you to try making your own sketchbook. There are many books and videos around about book making. However, don’t be discouraged if you are not a fine book maker right from the start. Book making is a skill that you can learn if you want to. If everyone got discouraged and quit after their mangled attempts at book binding, our streets might be littered with messed up books.