DIY Midori Style Traveler's Notebook

Hello my beautiful friends! For those of you who are new to my blog, welcome and enjoy! Hope you are all well. I was sick last week, but I`m feeling a little better today, so I wanted to share my new baby. 

As I mentioned in my last post (find it here) I`m planning to organize my life better this year. A DIY Midori style traveler's notebook is a great project for organizing and it's simple to make. You can use whatever material you have on hand, leather, faux leather, fabric or even a placemat. I love the flexibility of this Midory system, and the fact that you can keep several different books within one cover. In this tutorial I'm going to go over making the cover. I already made my white leather one, so I`m going to show you how to make one using a simple, regular placemat.

You'll need:
Leather or material of your choice

Ruler
Cutter - Scissors
Small hole puncher
Elastic band
Marking pencils
Small ruler

Tutorial: 

Firs chose your material and lay it flat. Now, measure out and cut the leather - I made mine 21 cm x 15 cm. I'm using a scissors, bur you could also use a regular razor blade. Because my placemat have a scalloped design, I need to make a straight line on top.

Then measure 21 cm from the top and make another straight line on the bottom and cut.

I wanted to make a pockets on each side, so I didn`t cut the sides, but you can cut it to 30 (15x2) or 26 (13x2) cm, depending on size you like (A5 size is 15 x 21 cm or 6" x 8,25"; Full size is 13x21 or 5"x8,5"). Making pockets with this material is really easy, just measure your placemat, then subtract 30 or 26 (15x2 or 13x2), divide the rest in two and fold inside. I used just regular double sided tape to fix it in place. If you make it with leather, then you must sew it, but it was to much trouble to me, so I didn`t make pockets on my leather one.

Next, fold the material in half, and mark out places for the holes, right in the middle. In total I made five holes. 

Measure 1 cm (or 5 mm) from the top...

and 1 cm on the left and right from the center.

Using a hole punch will ensure the holes are cleaner.

Make one hole in the middle, fold your material in half and make a half punch. When you open it, it will make one hole - you need it to thread elastic band for the closure. 

First fold the band in half and insert elastic band in the middle of the book, leaving a loop on the other side long enough to close the book. 

If you like, you can add a little charm to make it more beautiful (before you insert elastic into a book, of course).

To secure the elastic inside (prevent it to slide thought the hole), make small piece of material with two holes. Insert elastic bands into a holes and make a knot. 

Then I pull the elastic through the holes like so. Then insert a book and tie it tight. Of course this is easy to adjust to make it tighter or looser.

And your DIY Midori Style Traveler's Notebook (Fauxdori) is finished! 

I`m currently using mine for budget tracking, meal planning, zone cleaning, grocery lists and notes, but it`s great for many other things like journaling, dairy, planning, drawing, doodling etc. I also made a laminated dashboard for my sticky notes ( I need them all the time).

You can find many inserts online for the Midori TN, but I used regular booklets, trim them to size and make cute covers (just glue scrapbook paper on existing covers) to go nicely with my theme. You can fit up to 7 or 8 inserts, but if you like them to fit nicely inside and not to overhang, then add about 3 to 4, depending of book thickness. I have only 2 right now, but I`m planning to make more for journaling and sketching. Maybe I will order Midori TN inserts later, but for now it`s just fine this way. I`m not going to use it as a planner, because I ordered my new planner already, along with some new pens, paper clips and washi (maybe I'll do a little haul when everything arrives). 

I`m really loving it so far, system is great, easy to use and you can customize it however you want. So, what do you think about my faux Midori?