I’m downsizing my bullet journal. Well, my Piccadilly bullet journal fell apart completely a fortnight ago, so much so that I couldn’t even salvage the hardbound cover. Yes, it has a pretty rough time in my everyday bag, and I’ve been using it more lately to scribble and draw during my very rare lunch breaks at work. Then I finally gave up when I knocked over some PVA glue during a resource-making activity and did my best to save what I’d written, but the pages are now stuck together. So, it’s sorta just been acting like a paperweight on my desk. And, I haven’t been bullet journalling for a fortnight either. It’s a weird feeling, almost akin to a strange sense of grief. Hah.
That aside, I decided to rummage through my multiple boxes of hoarded stationery at home, and came up with some up-cycling ideas. I had forgotten that I’d bought some stupid amount of Moleskine stationery four years ago when it was on sale on Amazon. Money has been a massive issue this year so far, so I thought that instead of going out there and buying more stuff, I’d make something with what I already have. I haven’t used any of these notebooks before, so I’m now going to start using them. This is what I made today.
I know a few readers have requested that I make some YouTube videos of some of my posts, and my only excuse is that I don’t have the time right now, what with the movie editing, etc. Hopefully this will suffice for now, and comments/questions are always welcome :)
This is basically three pocket Moleskine cahiers bound together and inserted into a Piccadilly hardbound cover. If you want to know what I do with the notebook part of the Piccadilly books, I’ve kept them in ziplock bags and stored them away. At the end of the day, it’s what’s written on those pages that matter more than the cover itself.
For this project you will need:
- 3 pack pocket Moleskine cahiers
- a hardbound cover still in tact (or you can be ambitious and make your own – Google “bookbinding” for some ideas)
- some floss or waxed cotton
- sewing needle
- patterned/coloured paper of your choice
- glue
- scissors
- tube elastic (or hat elastic)
- button embellishment
I started off by removing the cardboard covers from the Moleskine cahiers and using a coptic stitch to bind them together. (Google “coptic stitch” and there are thousands of tutorials on it). I use floss instead of waxed cotton, and it’s the cheap floss, too – does the same job. This is how it looks like after it’s finished.
I tore out the inside pages in the Piccadilly hardbound cover and tried my hardest to leave the ribbon marker and elastic closure in place.
I had some spare scrapbooking paper lying around, so I cut out two pages to cover the messiness of the inside cover.
After this, I contemplated for awhile. I was of two minds about attaching the bound cahiers to the cover because it just meant that I wouldn’t be able to use the cover again, and I’d be compelled to buy another notebook. So, I appropriated the idea of the MTN and decided to use a piece of tube elastic wrapped around the spine of the cover. I fed the bound cahiers through the elastic to secure it in place.
Then after this, I thought, “Hell yeah, let’s do something f@#%ing wild, and embellish this!” I found some yellow buttons I’d purchased from a bargain bin at Spotlight whilst shopping with a friend. I fed the elastic through the button holes and tied a knot underneath to secure.
Et voila! New bullet journal for me to trial from today :) These are a few more pics from different angles.
There’s a bit of an overhang with the bound cahiers because the Piccadilly is ever so slightly smaller than a Moleskine, but I really don’t mind it. I’ve also gone back to the grid paper. I will need to nut out how my current system on ruled paper will transfer to grid paper. I’m sure it won’t be too much of a problem :)
Thanks for stopping by! Have an awesome weekend :)
dm
D says
You made a midori at the end! ;-) Nice idea. I love your site because I can apply a lot of tips during my research career, I’m a scientist and I was really looking forward to a flexible system in order to stay organized without stress