Tutorial on how to make your own Journal. You can use it for whatever you'd like (eg: journaling, sketch book) Make sure to read instructions underneath photos to fully understand the process in making a Journal.

Step 1: Step 1: Gather Materials

Any kind of paper - has to be 15 cm x 21cm
Cardboard - 21cm x 5cm
Leather material - 30cm x 45cm
Thread - about 100cm
Ruler - to measure and trace
Pencil - to trace
Scissors
Needle
Super glue - should be able to glue leather

The measurements are only here to make your life easier, but you can always make your journal smaller or larger. If you do that make sure that your leather piece is big enough to wrap around the edges. I made that mistake and my journal came out smaller than A5 which I did not want.

Step 2: Step 2: Cut Out Leather Material and Carboard Piece

Leather 30cmx45cm

The important thing to remember is to make the leather piece large enough to wrap around the edges, so that you won't have the problem of having too big of paper that overlaps the A5 cover.

Cardboard 21cm x 5cm
The cardboard piece is there to hold the structure of your journal. You can also use cardboard on the sides of the journal, but I prefer the cover to be soft.

Step 3: Step 3: Cover Structure

Glue!!! :

Make sure that your glue is strong enough to glue leather. Mark the middle on both items.

Glue cardboard in the middle of the leather piece
Fold edges of the leather material and
Glue them

Easy as bubblegum pie but you should be careful when gluing and make sure that you folded everything evenly.

Step 4: Step 4: Booklets

You can literally take any kind of paper that you want, if it suits the size of the cover and the other papers.

Paper 15 cm x 21cm is the perfect size for making an A5 journal but then again it's your choice because it's your journal.

In my journals that have printer paper only I usually have 5-6 booklets that have 10 A4 papers that I fold in half to make 20 pages, but if your making it from A5 pages make sure you line up the pages correctly when binding.

Step to create a booklet

The holes, where the string will go through should be 1 inch apart. I recommend making the holes before starting the sewing process because the booklet will be pretty thick. To do that just take a needle and lightly hit with a hard object (like a nail and hammer).
The string should be about 100cm = when folding in half about 50 This depend on how big your booklets are. Remember that you will have to sew from one end to the other and then repeat one time.
Take your needle and string. Pull the string through the needle till the middle to make the string thicker. So it should look like two strands.
Tie a knot at the end
Pull your needle and string through the first hole. The knot should be on the backside of the booklet.
Pull your needle through your marked spots/holes until you get till the end
When at the end just go back to the previous hole and repeat until you get to the beginning point
Tie a knot and your finished

Step 5: Step 5: Glue

Glue the booklets to the cardboard piece one by one making sure that they stick. I usually glue it on and then open the booklet to its middle to push there too, to make sure that it sticks properly. Then just continue gluing your booklets in side by side until you have them all glued in. Then just take the first page and last page and glue them onto the cover like shown in the 6th picture. To finish I usually bend my cardboard a bit to make it more flexible.

Step 6: Step 6: Almost Finished?

Your finished. If you want you can decorate

If you do you can

Make the pages look old/used
Tie a string around your journal
Put stickers on
Sew buttons on

There are many other things you can do to personalize your journal and I really recommend doing that to make it stand out more.