DIY Mini Notebooks

Years ago, probably around the time I started this blog (which by the way is almost 8 years ago!), I dreamed about owning my own binding machine. It all started a few years before that when I worked as an administrative assistant in an office. We had a binding machine. I used it all the time for putting books together for work. I always thought it would be awesome to have one at home to use for mini albums. Well, if you’ve ever looked into the price of those commercial grade binding machines, you’ll understand why I don’t have one. 😉 A few years after I had worked in that office, I still wished I had my own little binding machine. By this point, there was such a thing as a small one, just for scrapbooking! I was excited about this, but it was still a dream of having one. I didn’t know if it would ever become a reality. Well, last year, I was lucky enough to have We R Memory Keepers send me one of their Cinch machines. It is an at home binding machine!! To put it lightly, it was a happy day when this little machine arrived at my house. I’ve used it on a few different projects, and I love them all. Today I’m going to show you how I used it to make these DIY Mini Notebooks. As a funny side note/story about these little notebooks, I was in labor the entire time I was making these. I was trying to get a project started and finished up to put up on the Pebbles blog. With my due date fast approaching, and having had contractions for months at this point, I figured the contractions that I was having weren’t real anyway. So I got to work putting these books together. I got to the point where I was pretty sure that I was in real labor, but I kept working anyway. I had to wait for my husband to get home from work, so it did me well to keep my hands busy. By the time I got them finished up, it was too dark to take pictures of the finished project, so that ended up waiting until I was back home from the hospital with my baby. Anyway, today I’m sharing with you how to make these, and if you are in labor, just know that it’s possible to make these. Ha!

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Supplies:

The first thing you need to do is pick out the paper and cards that you’d like to use. I picked out four different patterned papers from the 6 x 6 paper pad, and found coordinating foiled quote cards to go with them.

I trimmed the patterned papers down to the size that I wanted to make my notebooks. Then I cut up several sheets of the printer paper that were the same size as the front cover. I also cut a sheet of white cardstock to fit the back for the back cover.

Once I had all of the pieces cut, I punched the holes with my cinch.

Cut the binding down to the size you need using your wire clippers. Using the side of the cinch machine, slide all of your paper onto the binding. Just follow the instructions on the front of the machine, it tells you how to use it. You’ll bend the binding into place using the back of the machine.

Once your binding is on, adhere the foiled quote card to the front. I really wanted to use dimensional adhesives, but while thinking about these notebooks, I thought they’d be great for a purse, so I didn’t think dimensional adhesive would be the best option. I kept it as flat as possible.

Once I had the foiled quote cards attached, I added a sticker to the bottom of one, and some solid colored twine to the others.

These notebooks were SO simple to put together, but they are adorable and make the perfect little gift.

In fact, since I had a few of them, I took them to Snap Conference with me and gave them to my Snap room mates from the last few years. We didn’t room together this year (I took my husband and baby with me this time), but I still thought it would be fun to give them a little something.

So if you are like me and have dreamed about having your very own binding machine, you should totally check out the Cinch. I promise you that you’ll love it!! 🙂

If you liked this project, you might also like these:

DIY Cookbook with the Cinch