DIY "Scout Books"

A week ago I posted my homemade book press and while I am still perfecting it, I managed to score a few good products this last weekend from Hobby Lobby (or as a friend's wife calls it "Hobby Robby", alas, it is the only local hobby store). Saturday morning I took the time to make my first prototype of my version of the Scout Book using materials I had around the house and the cardstock I picked up from the store. Above you can see the Scout Book on the left (with the image on it) and my version on the right. Both are nearly identical in size.

From a low angle. You can see here how they both lean a little on the open side, the Scout Book has 8 folded pages (for a total of 16) while mine has 11 folded pages (22 total). The cardstock they use is a tad higher weight and so it should stay a little open, mine sat in the press since yesterday morning, so perhaps that is not long enough or the extra paper inside could account for it. Not sure yet. The paper inside mine is plain typical copy paper, the Scout Book interior paper feels exactly the same.

In the above photo you can see a little more of the difference in the cardstock, there is much more 'busy' with flecks and such in it. I actually prefer this as it gives it a more homegrown feels where mine looks more finished. Since this was the closest I could find at the store at a reasonable price, this will have to do (50 of 8.5x11 pages with a 40% off sale off the original $4.99).

Here you can see the "binding", in both cases simple staples. Mine are a tad thicker than theirs (I used what I had in the garage) and theirs looks a little more locked in and aligned, no doubt some massive machine stamped those in there. I am looking to try a more classic stitching method for my final product but I wanted to produce a quick test product first so I went with the staples. Next time will likely try the saddle stitch style binding.

All in all I am pretty happy with this book. It really is simple and quick to make and will prevent me from buying them at $10 for a three pack directly from Scout Books. Next up (perhaps tomorrow) I will take a stab at the saddle stitch, and if that goes well the next step is to test printing a book and stitching it. 

If that all goes swimmingly well, I am toying with the idea of releasing my little zines or perhaps some adventures in this format. I think it would be pretty neat to carry one of these around for a quick adventure and the size would fit some of the small adventures that I like. Not sure if others do or if others would find these useful, but hey, if we ain't exploring we must be dead!