New Zealand: Introduction and Planning

Purple mountains light up at the dawn of a new trip. Those little black dots on the grass are sheep!

You can jump straight to Day One of the trip.

I am so thrilled to be sharing the recap of our recent trip to New Zealand!  This post will serve as an intro and talk you through the months of planning that we did.  If you are dreaming of  visiting New Zealand in the future,  I hope this information makes your planning quicker and easier.

Be sure to follow this blog as upcoming posts will walk you through each day of our trip with details and pictures.

Advertisement

How to Make a Hardcover Book

After seeing our recovered Bibles, one of my nieces wanted to make a hardcover book that she would be able to write and draw in.  The process was basically the same but it was actually a little quicker to do.

Next time I would make two changes:
1.  Use a very thick and stiff utility knife to trim textblock or not trim those pages at all.
2.  Woven the reinforcing ribbon into the thread that stitched the loose pages into signatures for an even stronger connection between the pages and the ribbon.

Here is an annotated slideshow of the steps:

Acid-Free Paper from Sketchbook

Cut Pages Out of Sketchbook

Print Lines on one Side of Pages

Fold Small Groups of Pages Together

Stitch Pages Together into Signatures

Inside of Signature

Back of Signature

Stacked Signatures

Clamp Stack of Signatures Together Very Tightly to Prevent Glue Leakage

Apply a Couple of Layers of PVA Bookbinding Glue and Embed Reinforcing Ribbon in Glue – Should Have Slipped Under Signature Thread

Unclamped Text Block

Trimming Textblock – I wish I hadn’t – Should have used a Very Stiff Utility Knife

Top View of Trimmed Pages

Uh Oh! Blade Flexed Creating Wavey Edge of Textblock

Cut Backerboards out of Chip Board

Cut Spine Board out of Chip Board – Width Equals Textblock + Thickness of Front and Back Cover

Place Backerboards about two Thicknesses from Spine Board on Cover Material and Trim with 1″ Extra Around Outside

Glue Backboard to Cover Material – Fold and Glue Corners

Fold and Glue Top and Bottom Edges

Fold and Glue Sides

Place Heavy Objects on Cover and Let Glue Dry

Glue ONLY Ribbons to Backer Board (Don’t Glue Spine to Spine Board) – Glue in End Papers (Not Pictured)

Place Heavy Objects on End Papers and Let Glue Dry

Finished End Papers

Finished Pages

Finished Cover