Ribbon Slots in Book Covers

We all like the Ribbon slots in upcycled book covers. It looks awesome, they provide structure, and just are all around a great look. It just adds a bit of snazziness to your home made journals.

But how do you put the slots to fit the ribbon into the book covers? I mean, most upcycled book covers can be kinda random. There are lots of different densities, consistencies, and materials. How do you do the perfect cover cut?

I’ve been a long fan of using chisels. However, it was very stressful and it isn’t that perfect 100% of the time.

I’ve had the Diamond-1 corner cutter for a while now. It’s great at cutting corners and very little maintenance. When I looked for a replacement blade, I was amazed to see that you could purchase a chisel blade that you could use in place of the corner cutting blade. Such a game changer!

This is what it looked like before I added the new blade.

Here are the two different blades.

Here is the cut corner with the corner guards still on.

Here is the slot cut in the cardboard after multiple cuts and removing some of the cardboard.

Overall, this was much easier than a chisel. I just had to line it up and do some careful cutting. Is there room for improvement? Yes, surface around the cutter could be more stable. I’ll probably be working on that some more.

Happy journal making!