What people love about our books is they can hold all different types of paper items in the same book. Construction, copy, notebook, cardstock, laminate, even fabric. If it's paper (or paper "like") and flat, we can probably bind it. Yes, even that adorable paper plate turkey (although we don't recommend more than one or two in a book...they take up a lot of extra space).
The finished size of our books is 8.5 x 11, but we can get most larger or smaller items in there with just a little bit of extra time and attention. You can prepare the items yourself or we can do it for you.
If the page is 9 x 12 or thereabouts, most people opt to trim down to 8.5 x 11. This works especially well if the bulk of the artwork or writing is within margins, and you won't lose anything significant or meaningful after trimming. Below is a picture of a typical oversized piece, with our trimming overlay on top. The solid black line shows where we trim. The dotted line shows what may not be visible once it's bound into the book.
You can trim the pages yourself or we can do it for you. We take care to handle each oversized page individually, one by one. We don't stack five pieces of paper and trim them at the same time. We position the overlay on each piece to find the best place to trim, in order to preserve as much of the artwork or writing as possible. After we trim, we put the page back into the same spot where you had it in your stack. This one by one process takes time and attention, so we do charge extra after 5 pages. As a courtesy, we include up to 5 pages of trimming with the price of your book. If you have more than 5 pages that require trimming in order to fit in the book, we will email you an invoice after we receive your papers and have looked through your project.
Trim up to 5 pages: Included (per book)
Trim 6 or more pages: $15 flat fee billed separately after your papers arrive (per book)
Here are three examples that show how we position each trim template individually, to make sure we are keeping the bulk of the work.
Another popular option is to fold large pieces so they open like a card. It's very important, however, that the fold is done properly so that both edges aren't bound into the book. We've provided some instruction if you want to do your own folding, or we can do it for you for a reasonable fee.
Here is an example of a Z fold. Even after folding one time, this piece was still too wide for the book. So, after folding it in, we folded it back again, creating a Z fold. The entire piece after folding is maximum 8.5 inches wide.
When folding your page so it can open, it is important NOT to fold it evenly in half. If both edges are together, they will both be caught in the bind and the piece won't open. So, the side that is folded over should be at least 1/2 inch shorter than the side that bound into the book. If, after doing this, the folded piece is still wider than 8.5", everything needs to be adjusted.
Fold piece so it is no wider than 8.5 inches wide
If the top half is even with the bottom half, either trim the top half so it's at least 1/2 inch shorter OR fold it back again so it creates a z fold, as previously shown above.
If you would rather we do the folding for you, the prices are reasonable and you don't have to worry about getting the folds right. Up to 5 pages of folding (or folding and trimming) are included in the price of your book. More than 5 pages will be invoiced after we receive your papers and take a look at everything. It is not uncommon to have a few pieces that need folding plus some pages that need trimming. The complimentary folding or trimming is limited to five pages total.
Fold up to 5 pages: Included
Fold 6 or more pages: $15 flat fee billed after we receive your papers
DOUBLE FOLD: If your page is both wide and tall, meaning it's higher than 11 inches, you can both fold it in and then fold it down, so it opens up first, and then out.There are two folds in that case, but it only counts as one folded piece. We count by piece, not by the number of folds. Because it can be tricky figuring out how to keep things from getting caught in the binding area, it's probably best to let us fold those very large pieces.
You will likely need a combination of trimming and folding in your 4everBound Book, especially for the earlier childhood years like Preschool and Kindergarten. We will trim and/or fold up to five pieces complimentary, per book. You may have three pieces that need trimming, five pieces that need folding and four pieces that need trimming and folding. If you need both trimming or folding or both for more than five pieces, we charge $25 per book, instead of $15 for folding and $15 for trimming. It is a common extra service if you don't want to do the work yourself and you know you have more than 5 pages that need "something" done.
If you have something odd shaped like this owl or a half-page slip of paper, we can usually bind it right into the book the way it is, assuming it's roughly 1/2 page in size or larger. In this example, the owl wings still stick out, so we just fold those in for you. But here's what's great...we do not charge extra for this service. We love the way we can bind many odd shaped things into our books and it makes our product unlike any other keepsake option out there. So, we want you to let us do that for you!
If you have pieces that are smaller than 1/2 page, whether it's a Christmas tree cut out or a school photo, mounting is a great option. Many pages in the book are one-sided, so there is often a lot of extra room to glue some smaller things onto the backs of other pages.
Glue sticks will not hold long term and many tapes will yellow over time. Almost all types of liquid glue will wrinkle the paper. You don't want to use glues or tapes that aren't archival quality, nor do you want your pieces to fall out of the book ten years from now. We use an extremely strong, acid-free and lignin-free liquid paper glue that DOES NOT wrinkle the paper and holds like cement. We also use it reattach google eyes that have fallen off, etc. It's expensive glue, about $10 for just two ounces, and that's because it works amazingly well.
Mounting pieces takes extra time. Things need to be positioned well and we have to let the glue set just a minute or two before we can go on to the next page in your book, which slows down production on the book. For that reason, we must charge an extra service of $20 per book for mounting, up to 25 items. We will happily mount ONE piece as a courtesy but anything more than that we must charge for, both to cover the cost of the adhesive and the time.
Mount one small/odd shaped item or photo: Included
Mount more than one small/odd shaped item or photo: $15 for every 25 pieces
So, there are the options available to you to get oversized papers bound in your book. If we receive any page that isn't suitable for binding (macaroni, cotton balls, rice that falls off, beads in the binding area, etc.), we will return it to you with your finished book.
Let's recap our pricing for these services, which we will invoice after we receive your shipment of papers. You will be able to pay securely by credit card.
Pricing is PER BOOK and we invoice you after we receive your papers so we can evaluate the entire project. You will receive an invoice that you can pay securely online and then we will proceed with your project.
Complimentary trim and fold of 5 pieces maximum is included with the price of your book
Complimentary mount of one small or odd shaped item is included with the price of your book
Trim more than 5 pages: $15 flat fee per book
Fold more than 5 pages: $15 flat fee per book
Mix and match trimming and folding of more than 5 pages combined: $25 flat fee per book
Mounting: $20 for 2 - 25 pieces, $30 for 26-50 pieces, $75 for anything over 50 pieces, per book
Finally, our sole mission is to make you the most amazing book ever. If you don't see something on our website, do not ever hesitate to ask if we can do something for you. We will always try to figure out a solution. Just contact us anytime!
