Monopoly Board Game Diary

I loved my sisters board game note book and since I am starting secondary school, I decided to make my own board game diary to keep track of all my classes and homework dates. I love Monopoly so I used a vintage Monopoly board. And of course I had to make sure the Go To Jail square was on the front cover! I think my diary is awesome and it will be great to know that nobody else has the same diary as me!

• Board game you are willing to cut up (I used Monopoly)
• Stanley knife
• Ruler
• Diary
• Guillotine
• Binding machine (If you don't have one you can take your diary to a copy centre to be bound for you)
• Binding wire
• Side cutters to cut the binding wire

Use a stanley knife and cut the seam of the diary - there is a little gap where the inner cover is glued to the hard cover. If you cut through that, you will release the diary from its outer covers.Repeat both sides and you should separate the diary from its cover. You won't need the cover in this project but save it for another time, it is really useful!

Now, you need to cut the diary apart so that you end up with loose pages. You can do this with a guillotine or a knife and ruler. Try to cut away as little as possible, as if you cut too much away you will eat into important information like dates when you bind it!

Once you have cut the diary pages loose, measure them to get the size your covers should be. They need to be the same height as the diary pages, and about 1/8 inch wider. The little extra bit of width means the diary will not protrude from between the covers when it is bound.

Use a knife and ruler to cut the covers. Use a sharp blade and be gentle. It is better to do several shallow cuts than to try and do one big one!

Once you have done that, you need to bind your diary. If you don't have a binding machine you can take yours to a copy centre and they will bind it for you.

We do have a binding machine so I will show you how to bind your own. First, take the back cover and place it on the front, facing inwards. This is so that, once it is bound, you can flip the back cover back round and it will hid where the spine is.

Then, set up the binding machine and use according to manufacturer's instructions.

Once all of the holes are punched, cut the length of wire that you need using the side cutters. Put the wires through the punched holes then use the binding machine to squeeze the wires shut.

Now all you need to do is flip the back cover to its correct position and your diary is complete! I really like my diary, I think it looks great, I hope that you do too.