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Making and binding tiny mini books, is one of our favourite activities. Sharing with you guys, the process we follow to make miniature books. We've tried to use material that is easily available at home. Just have a bit of patience and enjoy the process! The step-by-step explanation is given in the text below. Just scroll down... You can make these mini books as sweet hand-made gifts, with some messages written inside, perhaps? Or use them as miniature photo albums or gratitude journals. For more such videos, follow us! _____________________________________________________ You will need: scissors, craft knife, kitchen knife with a serrated edge, ruler, glue, binder clip or clothes' peg, plain paper for the inside pages, coloured paper for the cover and end-paper, a piece of thick card, some stickers (optional) Step 1: Cut pages of size 4 x 5 cm. I have used 32 cut sheets for each mini book. Step 2: Align the pages and hold them together tightly, using a tight binder clip or clothes peg. The tighter the better. Step 3: Cut some grooves along the spine, using a serrated kitchen knife. You can also use a hacksaw blade if you have one handy. (I don't know if it is usual to have hacksaw blades turn up in drawers and pen stands, but it happens in my unorganised home.) Do this part carefully and thoroughly. The depth of the grooves should be roughly 0.5 mm. That's pretty deep. The strength of the binding does depend on these grooves, so cut no corners here! Step 4: Cut a piece of paper 3 x 5 cm. Any paper- doesn't have to be pretty. This will get covered later. Apply glue thoroughly to the grooves in the spine. Like, fill them up! Stick the paper to the spine and firmly press and remove extra glue. If you have long nails like my daughter, please do use them to push the glue into the spine, and squeeze out any extra glue and wipe it off. Leave to dry for 30-60 minutes. Step 5: Cut 4 pieces of the thick card for the covers of each book, each piece 4.2 cm by 5.4 cm. You can use a thick visiting card. Our a wedding card. Or some old packaging. Step 6: Choose paper for the book cover. This is my favourite part! Mixing and matching and imagining the tiny cover with different patterns and colours. I try to drag this part out longer than necessary. Like window-shopping to my heart's content before finally putting the money down on the counter. (Except during 2020, of course; in 2020 you get in, dart for what you need, put exact change on the counter and exit as swiftly as possible.) Coming back to choosing the right paper for the cover, just go with what you feel like doing. There's no right or wrong. Take the chosen paper and cut a piece roughly 11.5 by 7.5 cm. Step 7: Stick the cards on the paper, leaving enough room for the spine in the middle. Snip off the corners, and fold and stick the edges onto the card. You can keep the cover simple or add details like faux-leather edges and spine. Step 8: Apply glue on the spine of the bound pages, which should have dried reasonably well by now, provided you spent (not wasted!) enough time choosing the right paper for the cover. Attach the glued spine to the cover. Step 9: Choose end-paper to match or contrast with the cover, and cut 2 pieces of 8 x 5 cm for each book. Fold in the middle and stick to attach the cover to the bound pages. The bound pages are called a book block or signature, by the way... but let's keep the language simple. Decorate the cover if you wish, with stickers or art. Maybe print a name with teeny alphabet blocks!
