Saturday 14 September 2013

How to make a credit card insert for your notebook cover

If you own a Midori Traveler's Notebook or a similar notebook cover (perhaps, like me, you have made your own) you might like to carry credit cards or membership cards with your notebook. It's pretty easy to make your own insert.


This tutorial will show you how to make such an insert in Field Notes size, but the principles apply to any size.

Start with a piece of thin card, and mark it out ready to cut:


Your piece will be 140mm high, the same as a Field Notes booklet. Each of the two main panels (the front and back cover, if you like) will be 90mm wide, again to match the notebook. Also, allow a 5mm spine, because this insert will sit between the notebook cover and the notebooks and will need to accommodate all teh notebooks in your cover when closed. If you have a particularly stuffed cover, you might want to expand this spine accordingly to - say - 10 or 12mm.

Cut out the piece, and gently score and then fold along the two lines of the spine. You'll have a piece now that looks like this:


If you want, you can now round the four corners to match the Field Notes profile.

Next, you'll need some self-adhesive, side opening business card pockets, like these ones from Amazon:

Check that the dimension of the pockets matches those of a credit card. Credit cards measure 86mm x 54mm, so these pockets, which measure 95mm x 60mm offer a good, tight fit.

Peel the backing away and stick two pockets on the insert, one above the other with the open edge facing outward. At the inward edge, make sure the closed edge of the pockets sit right up against the spine.


You'll notice that the open edge of the pockets protrudes beyond the edge of the insert. Trim this off with a sharp knife.

Next, you can cut out the little half-moon finger gaps that allow you to grip the cards. You can use a knife for this, too, but if you have a circular punch, this works very effectively.


You are cutting through both the front and back or the pocket as well as the card layer.


Here is what the finished piece looks like, with credit cards in place:


And here it is tucked into the notebook cover.


If you add pockets to all four of the insert's main surfaces (front and back of the front cover, front and back of the back cover) you can accommodate eight cards. With a full-size Midori cover you'll be able to get three on each surface, or twelve in all.

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