DIY Leather and Gold Leaf Notebook
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m waaaay into gilded leather these days. I’ve got all of these awesome materials in my DIY supplies, just staring at me, waiting for me to make something awesome out of them. So I kindly obliged. And now I have the cutest notebook in town! Wanna make one? Gather your materials:
- a piece of soft leather, 8″ x 5 1/2″
- about 15-20 pieces of paper, 7 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ (I used a mix of lined paper, graph papers, and blank paper)
- upholstery thread
- sturdy needle
- scissors
- pen
- ruler
- ModPodge
- 2 small paintbrushes
- gold leaf
- bone folder
- tweezers
Start by folding the pieces of paper in half so that they create the shape of the book. I folded mine one by one using a bone folder so that they had nice clean edges.
Thread your needle with the upholstery thread and wrap the leather cover around the pages. Insert the needle through the leather and the pages, from the outside in. Make a large knot on the outside of the leather to hold the thread in place. Continue sewing the binding with stitches about one inch long. Depending on how much paper you use, you may need something to help the needle through all of the layers. (Pliers may be useful in either pushing or pulling the needle through. Just be careful!)
When you reach the end, knot the thread around itself, again on the outside of the leather.
Fold the pages under so that the front cover is isolated. On one edge (or in any design you like), paint on a layer of ModPodge. Gently lift a piece of gold leaf with the tweezers and set it down on the ModPodge. Allow it to grab on, and use a clean, dry paintbrush to pat the gold leaf down. Let dry for 20-30 minutes, and use the dry paintbrush to gently brush away the excess gold leaf.
Ta-daaaa! Now when you jot down notes, people will wonder how you got so cool as to have a golden notebook. This thing is going with me everywhere. Have fun! xoxo