Book 287 - Grand Canyon Suite Finale - Recycled Beer Package Notebook-Perfect Binding

Here's the final entry in the "Grand Canyon suite." (You can see Books 272 and 273 for the first two books made form this same beer carton. Obviously, I really like the graphics on this box.

The cover of this perfect-bound notebook is made from the side panel of a carton of beer from the Grand Canyon Brewing Company, based in Williams, AZ. It's a fairly lightweight chipboard so I backed it with sturdy, metallic-finish card stock. The panel is a piece of white chip board also bonded to some of the metallic card stock. This makes the covers slightly sturdier than a commercial notebook cover.

The book block is made from tan text weight paper stacked and trimmed to size. Then the entire cut end is glued together with padding compound, a glue developed especially for perfect bindings like notepads and magazines.  The block is attached to the covers with black duct tape, which then also creates the spine.

I've never really watched anybody do this kind of perfect binding, so I'm pretty much winging it. and I have a feeling  I'm leaving some crucial step out or doing something else wrong. The book seems fine, but I'm worried that it would not stand up to use. I need to see a tutorial or watch someone who knows what they're doing make this book. Then I'll have it.

Books 276 & 277 - Grand Canyon Suite - Recycled Beer Box Books/Journals - Single-Needle Coptic Binding

Ah... more recycled packaging books, and very cool packaging it is.

We recently started selling beer in our store, and one of the beers we carry is from a small brewery in Williams, Arizona, called Grand Canyon Brewery. Both the cans and the boxes they come in have great graphics, so of course the cases screamed "Books!" at me.

Here are two journals from the same case of beer. The first is a long, narrow book. I used one side of the case and cut it in half lengthwise to balance the graphic in an attractive way. I backed the two pieces with heavy brown card stock for added stiffness and strength and punched holes for the stitching stations for a coptic binding.

I wanted something on the pages for added interest, so I found a nice photo of the Grand Canyon, sized it and reduced the opacity so it would print very faintly, then printed enough pages for six signatures. I trimmed the pages, folded them into signatures and punched the holes for the stitching stations. The book is bound with beige linen thread in a single-needle coptic stitch or chain stitch binding. When you open the book, the faintly printed image of the Grand Canyon is on the left side and the right side is blank for writing.

The graphics are what make this book.

The second book in this series was made from the top part of the box, the one with shaped cutouts that make a sort of handle to make the case easier to carry. Again, I backed the cardboard with heavy card stock, this time in a canvas-textured moss green. With an Xacto knife, I carefully cut away the card stock from the hand holes and creased the cover at the center of the cut-outs for the spine.

I folded ten signatures of text paper trimmed to the size of the book and stitched them to the spine with a modified button-hole stitch from Alisa Golden's book. The stitching was done with linen thread in a goldenrod color.

To close the book, I added a length of braided linen thread and a brass button for it to wrap around.