How I made my Hardback Cover
18:10
Today I made my hardback book cover. I took inspiration from the book which my friend on illustration course made, and referred to a step by step guide I found here.
As I had already binded my book I just needed to attach the signature to the cover. I did this by glueing a strip of fabric using a hot glue gun, glueing only the very edge to the fabric, and leaving two sides free. (as seen below.) I used the booklet which I had printed wrongly as a test first to see if the technique worked as I didn't want to ruin my photobook if it went wrong.
I then made the hardback boards from a thick cardboard which I sourced from the back of a sketchbook. I left a 5mm gap around three edges and cut it with a craft knife.
I then had to make the spine, which I made the same width as the two pieces of cardboard which made the front and back together with my booklet inside.
I then glued the two pieces of cardboard and the spine down onto my backing paper, I chose to use black water colour paper as it felt more personal than a bright shiny card. Also choosing to keep this plain and having my lining as more of a cover kept my book minimal looking from the outside.
Using a hot glue gun again I glued the pieces of fabric which I left out to the cardboard, and then used pritt stick to glue my lining paper over my back two pages. I used pritt stick here and when glueing my backing paper to the cardboard as if I used wet glue this could have warped the paper and caused visible bumps and bubbles.
Finally I pushed the spine of my book outwards to create two little indents which is the signature of a hardback book.
If I were to make my book again there are some small aspects which I would try to change, such as where the cardboard is still slightly visible behind the backing paper the three of the four corners, caused by me cutting to far away from the edge. I plan to try and fill in these gaps with either black maker pen or add some paper on top to try and improve this. Also where I have been using glue and black paper the black has stuck to my fingers and I had unintentionally marked an inside page slightly, but I hope to be able to clean this.
0 comments