DIY Blog

« The size and durability of the Moleskine Pocket notebook is perfect for my sketching needs, but the paper is not ideal. Although both “sketchbook” and “watercolor” versions are available, neither is well-suited to my particular requirements. And so, I have developed a process for replacing the paper (aka Moleskine Reloaded) while retaining all the other wonderful attributes of the Moleskine. »

How to Rebind a Moleskine Notebook: Make a Custom DIY Sketchbook! [link]

This is yet another gift wrapping post. This one focuses on reusing old newspapers (or this morning’s newspaper) to wrap gifts.

Wrapping gifts with newspapers is a great idea considering that most wrapping papers are produced overseas, with little or no recycled content, and are used to re-package something that’s already packaged! The general idea is to wrap the gifts as nicely as you can. If you wrap them sloppily, they won’t look good. If done properly, you can make a statement and feel even better about giving.

Remember the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Something that isn’t consumed never needs to get Recycled at all. Whatever you do, recycle all wrapping papers. Keep and reuse gift bags and nice wrapper decorations, such as ribbons. It’s as easy as putting them away for next year instead of tossing them. You’ll also save a trip to the store come next holiday season.

Green Gift Wrapping [link]

Yay. I’m done with the crazyness. I’ve finished my Christmas shopping tonight. No more long lineups at the cash register, no more fighting in the parking lots, no more fracking Christmas music.

All that’s left is to wrap those gifts. How about you? Done with the Christmas gifts? Maybe you don’t celebrate the Christian holiday. If that’s the case, consider yourself lucky and enjoy the holidays with your friends and family, or take a few days off and relax.

For the rest of us, awaiting the food shoveling and aunt kissing and handshaking and driving too fast in the snow because we’re late for the party, here’s a nice collection of gift wrapping tips. It would be much better if it were more illustrated, but hey, you can figure it out!

Good luck and happy wrapping

Homemade Holiday Cards and Gift Wrapping [link]

Here are a few tutorials on bookbinding. Using these techniques, you can repair old books, or make your own. You can even make your own notebooks using recycled paper or with paper you made yourself. These make great gifts. Hurry up, only 9 7 days until Festivus!

DIY Bookbinding:

• Handbound book: [link]
• DIY book press (and perfect binding): [link]

Edited debember 17th:

I had to add this great tutorial by Micheal Shannon:

• Make Your Own Moleskin [link]

This nice set of instructions shows you how to make your own paper from recycled paper. If you’re like most people, you get lots of flyers, papers and ads in your mailbox (I don’t because we have official stickers we can put on our mailboxes that say we don’t want any unsolicited bulk mail in Montréal). Nevertheless, I still get some bills and non-bulk paper waste. Handmade paper is much more interesting than its industrially produced equivalent. It has a texture, and each sheet is unique and special.

<rant>This project could appeal to scrapbookers. Real DIY ones, not the ones that buy cheesy pre-made kits or stupid sticker sheets. Scrapbooking should be about recycling, not generating more waste.</rant>

Imagine binding your own book (I’ll post something about that this weekend) made of paper you made yourself. You could also make your own holiday cards with them, or whatever project you can think of.

How To Recycle and Make Your Own Paper [link] [via]