Customized Hard Cover Tear-away Refillable Notepad

So, after following Instructables for a handful of years or more, I am finally uploading my very first contribution. Here it goes.

I got this request from a lab friend for me to make her a notepad with the following features: hard cover, detachable pages, A5 size, re-usable (so that she can only replace the body and keep the neat cover).

And here's the result

Hard cover (new or recycled from old planner)
Blade
Felt (the hard ones used for applying vynil adhesives)
Your pile of pages
Ruler
Vynil adhesive or wathever you want to wrap the cover with
Eyelet punch and setter
Scrap leather

Cut the covers 15mm taller and 10mm wider than the pages of the notepad (regardless of the size of pages)

The vinyl was cut so that it was 15mm longer than the hard cover on each one of the 4 sides. Then I've centered it on the liner side and marked 3 sides in order to easily center it again after peeling part of the liner. Using a clean surface as a substrate so the adhesive doesn't get dirty and unsticky (a sheet of glass is always my choice) slide the felt up and down over the vinyl as you pull the liner out.

For the inner part of the cover, pull the leftover corners of vinyl towards the center of the cover and pull up all the lenght of the leftover sides before sticking it so that the edges are well finished.

Cut another piece of vynil, a couple of millimeters smaller than the cover to finish the inner side.

I chose to fix the leather strip on the inside of the notepad. To measure the cut size, I used the 15 extra millimters of the cover (times two), plus the 10mm thickness of the 100 pages, the width being the same one as the cover. Lining the two covers on a ruler, put a 10mm gap between them and line the leather in the proper position. Tape the leather down and mark the place for the eyelets, if you have rivets (not my case) you oculd use them. I've set 3 eyelets on each cover.

This notepad's pages are held together by a red glue proper for notepads. While it is a perfect tear, it is also easy to fall apart if not firmly secured.

For that I used some thick paper and made a sort of envelope, fixing it with double sided tape on the counter-cover. This envelope is just for the last pages (10, give or take a few) of the notepad to fit snugly. The closest the envelope is to the glue-side of the notepad, the better.

Since I have a cutting plotter, that was my method of choice for customizing the cover. Better not to put very fine details, they might peel off inside a purse or backpack.

There it goes, she liked it and I hope you did too.