If you're tired of your snail mail, greeting cards and holiday cards piling up, but don't have the heart to throw them out...I'm going to show you a way to repurpose and make into a keepsake for years to come!
First you’ll need to gather all of your holiday and greeting cards. You’ll also need scissors, pencil or pen, beeswax, binder clips (2 to 4), embroidery thread and an awl or sharp pair of scissors. Optional (cardboard and glue for covers).
You can also include postcards as the front and back, or you can fit them in an envelope, or attach them to another card to include in the book.
After you’ve gathered your materials, you’ll align your cards to mark where the holes go. I use a binder clip to hold mine together while I mark with a ruler. I would place a hole every inch or so down the spine of the cards.
Punch a hole in each card fold on the line you marked. I’m using an awl in the video, but you can use sharp scissors to achieve the same results. After you are finished punching holes, re-align the cards to form your book.
On the front and back pieces, I glued an envelope down onto cardboard. I like that it gives some sturdiness and protection to the cards. If you don’t want to use cardboard, then use that post card you wanted to include!
Now on to stitching it….stitch it good! 😜 With your embroidery thread, you’ll want to cut a length about 4 times your book binding edge. Now coat it in beeswax. This makes it less likely to tangle. Thread your needle with the beeswax embroidery thread and begin the binding process.
Flip your book face down with the spine facing you.
Flip the back of the book & first card or envelope towards you and face up. Start your thread through the right furthest hole. Don’t pull all the way through. Leave at least a 2 inch tail.
Lift up the back and 1st card slightly and feed the needle from the bottom up through the back and out again.
Now go back up through the furthest right hole (back into the envelope).
First hole done!
For the 2nd hole, push your needle from the inside out and repeat as you did in the 1st hole.
Go around the outside, up through the back, under the 1st card.
Now go back into the card hole and your inside the card again.
I should mention, when you are threading to the right, you want to come up from the previous layer to the RIGHT of the stitch you just made. Then when we come back, we’re going to go to the left of the stitch and it will make this neat looking twisty pattern on the spine.
Repeat the 2nd hole until the last hole on the left. Once you get here, instead of going back into the 1st envelope/card, we are going to flip the next envelope/card on top and sew through the fist hole on the left.
Then going on the inside of the card, go to the next hole to the right. Repeat.
Push out through envelope, and down to the left of next card below it and around ***NOT THE BACK cover, the next card below.***
Go back into the hole and continue down until the end.
When you get to the end of the holes, reverse back to the right. I'm going to continue binding until I get to the last envelope and cover. I’ll meet you there!
The final card and cover is sort of like the beginning, but in reverse...so just go back and play that section in reverse….just kidding. I’m gonna show ya.
You should have just come out of the 2nd to last envelope. Now you’re going to go up to the top of the cover, through the hole and out the other side to the right of the previous stitch.
Now go into the last unthreaded card or envelope and go into the hole. Travel down to the next hole on the left and push out of the hole.
Take your thread back through the top of the cover and to the right of the previous stitch. Now push through the last card.
Repeat all the way to the left until you get to the inside of the last card.
Tie of the end of the card to the inside thread and cut. Turn to the back and find your other loose piece you started with and tie it to the inside thread. Voila! A card book to remember all of the greetings, well wishes, prayers and thanks you received the past year!
There is a section where I ran out of yarn. If that happens, get to a stopping point within the card and tie it off to the inside thread. Then continue where you left off and tie the last start location once you’ve finished binding.
If you need other tutorials on binding, check out sea lemon. She is who taught be to Coptic bind and has the most creative, inspiring tutorials! I hope you will enjoy your holiday and greeting cards for years to come! Stay Creative.
> Find Sea Lemon Here <
