Midori Style Note Book with Pockets

I discovered that Japanese travellers carry with them Midori note book to record their trips.  Midori Traveler's Notebook is a leather-bound notebook.  Travellers can write down their thoughts and memories and also attached things of sentimental value that they have collected during their trips.  They can also customized their Midori note book by adding the following:

-inserts or sleeves

-different types of paper, such as, grid paper, plain paper, and colored paper.

-decorations, such as, stickers, trinkets and charms.

-string or beaded bookmarks.

These books also come with elastic bands to hold everything in place.  It can be a costly hobby to maintain if you are someone who is sentimental and enjoys recording everything in your life.   

This instructional video I found on YouTube, will give you an idea what a Midori note book is about. If you like what you see, you can consider making your own if you are not willing to buy one.

I like the concept and it inspired me to create my own note book as I have been trying to find ways to make use of old exercise books and papers that my children no longer use.

Here is what I used in this project:

1) Legal size printing paper (stained yellow over time).
2) old CD cover.
3) rubber band or thread and needle to sew.

I measure the the height and width from the inside of one side of the CD cover.

The width the paper is good enough for this project.   I marked on the paper the height that I would like my note book to be so that it sits neatly inside the CD cover.  For this CD cover, a height of 11.5cm is just right.  After marking the height, I folded the paper (horizontally) so that I have two sections of the same height.

There is a portion remaining which I was not willing to cut out.

As I did not want to waste that section, I decided to make sleeves or pockets out of them which I can use for inserting souvenirs.  To make it, I fold its corners at right angles to touch the edge of the 11.5cm section of the paper.

I then fold the pointed end by about 2.5cm so that its edge meet neatly in the centre as shown below.

Now I am ready to cut out one side of the 11.5cm section, as shown.  What I have now is a separate piece 11.5cm in height while the other piece has the angled flap to create the pocket.

Once I folded the angled flap towards the 11.5cm section of the paper, I will have 2 pieces of paper in the same height.

Once I folded the width of both sections in half, they should l00k like this.

I opened them up and arrange the pages, one on top of the other.  The first page is plain and I alternate it with the ones with pocket.

This is how the pages should look like with a rubber band in the middle to hold the booklet together.  I can now place the booklet in the CD cover.

If you staple or sew the pages together, you can add another set of booklet in the CD cover. However, it will not be a good idea to have too many of them in the cover as you will be sticking "flash cards" or souvenirs into the pockets.

I decided to make a cover for the CD cover since I have a cardboard on hand which is larger in size than the CD cover.  I glued both side of the CD cover to the cardboard.

I then wrapped the cardboard with leftover wrapping paper.  This is how my note book looks like with my flash cards.

You can check my earlier posting if you would like to know how you can make use of such a note book.