Small notebook cover with engraving

arh2 · December 16, 2018, 6:13pm

Made a living hinge cover for a small notebook with some tweaking after using https://www.festi.info/boxes.py/
Designed a simple closure based on the catalog desktop tool carousel (of which I’ve made several). The engravings are downloaded and the corners are modified from OpenClipart, by GDJ. I bought a set of these small notebooks on Amazon and took the covers off: http://a.co/d/0GaU0ro.

I did my covers on medium maple ply and glued just the back of the notebook in. The closure just pops in by squeezing it in and you can glue the bottom or leave it loose. Dampening the hinge eases closing the cover for the first time and I let it sit and dry like that for a while. I used the free font HermosaOpti to personalize the front.
The file: booklet.svg.zip (158.6 KB) created in Inkscape. Enjoy!
For personal use only as per forum rules!

Jules · December 16, 2018, 6:15pm

Nice job! I love wooden notebook covers they make for a great backing for writing.

dklgood · December 16, 2018, 8:09pm

I appreciate the file for such a nice project. Thank you.

cynd11 · December 17, 2018, 12:16pm

What a great gift idea! Thanks so much for sharing your design and details.

ptodd · December 27, 2018, 1:43am

This is beautiful … Love the ornate engraving! You are very kind to share your file … Thank you!

bwaltrup · May 8, 2019, 11:45pm

Thank you. It looks great.

arh2 · May 9, 2019, 6:32pm

You’re welcome! Make sure you set all the steps appropriately to engrave or cut. Sometimes the GFUI interprets “Cut” where it should be “Engrave.”

jessica.kellogg11 · May 22, 2019, 6:28pm

Is this on 3mm ply?

arh2 · May 22, 2019, 6:40pm

It’s on the medium proofgrade maple ply, which is 0.125" thick (more or less) which converts to 3.175 mm. Should work on 3mm ply. Suggestion: place the closure lengthwise with the wood grain for greater strength. I had someone with big fingers break one by accident.

anndei · January 1, 2020, 11:40pm

Lovely project!! Thank you for sharing!!! <3

arh2 · January 2, 2020, 4:13pm

Thanks! Glad you can use it.

jenniferstichauf · January 3, 2020, 7:10pm

thank you. I gave it a try and I love how they turned out.

arh2 · January 3, 2020, 7:11pm

Glad you’re having fun with it! That living hinge in the photo looks a little fragile. What wood did you use?

buddeno · January 6, 2020, 4:26pm

I love the comic book one!

jenniferstichauf · January 7, 2020, 6:16am

Baltic Birch and it is not at all fragile. there is a third one I did with proof material and it did split

jamesdhatch · January 7, 2020, 2:12pm

PG plywood doesn’t have the strength of traditional plywood. BB has 3 crossing plies - the grain alternates and makes it more resistant to breaking. PG ply is veneer over an MDF core - the core has no real strength as there’s no real linear grain.

arh2 · January 7, 2020, 6:03pm

For what it is worth… I’ve made about 15 with proofgrade basswood - always cut against the grain and they have not split, although I might not hear about ever single one I give away… I also damp the inside of the spine, gently stretch it around until it closes with the closure and let it dry like that for a day and a half for sure before I open it again.

rvogt · September 10, 2020, 1:02am

I’m new to GF but having a ball:-) Would you mind to share your settings on these comic book engraves?
Thank you!! Those are awesome!

sck84 · September 10, 2020, 2:35am

Thanks much

arh2 · September 10, 2020, 2:57am

Just used standard proofgrade settings!