What people love about 4everBound books is they can hold all different types of paper and paper items in the same book. Construction, copy, notebook, cardstock, greeting cards, laminate, even fabric. We even do books that hold racing bibs for people who competitively bike or run. 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 paper plates in a book...they take up a lot of extra space).
We can also bind different sizes and shapes, including larger pieces, smaller pieces, odd shaped pieces and have a variety of ways to get your items in your book, making a truly one of kind keepsake not available anywhere else.
STANDARD PAGE SIZE: The finished size of our books is 8.5 x 11, but we can still 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. Let's talk about the larger pieces first.
It's quite common for papers from early childhood to be larger than 8.5 x 11, particularly construction paper, which is often 9 x 12. Trimming and folding are great options for pages bigger than 8.5 x 11.
TRIM PAGES
If the page is 9 x 12 or thereabouts, most people opt to trim down to 8.5 x 11. In most cases, you won't lose anything significant or meaningful after trimming, unless they wrote very sentimental things in the margin. In that case, you may prefer to fold it. Below is a picture of a typical 9 x 12 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. If you trim yourself, it's very important the edges are straight and the angles are right angles, or the page might be crooked when it is bound. We recommend you use a desktop paper cutter instead of scissors. When we trim, 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 paper stack. This one by one process takes time and attention, so we do charge extra after 5 pages of trimming or folding. 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 per book billed separately after your papers arrive
Here are three examples that show how we position each trim template individually, to make sure we are keeping the bulk of the work.
FOLD PAGES: 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.
Step One: Fold piece so it is no wider than 8.5 inches wide
Step Two: 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.
TRIM and FOLD: If you're making a 4everBound book for earlier childhood years, you will likely need a combination of trimming and folding, especially for grades like Preschool and Kindergarten. 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. We will look over your entire project after you send your papers and email you an invoice to pay securely online.
If you have pieces that are smaller than 1/3 page, whether it's a heart or a banana 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 space to glue some smaller things onto the backs of other pages. Or, it can be glued to its own nice piece of paper.
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.
In addition to the cost of the adhesive, 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 $15 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
Finally, if we receive any page that just 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. Googly eyes and foam cutouts are usually okay if they're not in the binding area.
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 and conveniently online by credit card.
Pricing is PER BOOK and we invoice you after we receive your papers so we can evaluate the entire project. These services are not listed on the website at checkout because eople don't know what they need until they gather their papers together. After we review your project, we will email you an invoice that you can pay securely online.
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: $15 for 2 - 25 pieces, $30 for 26-50 pieces, $75 for anything over 50 pieces, per book. Most people don't need more than 25 pieces mounted, but occasionally we have somebody that has a lot of photos they want in their book.
Scanning Service: After providing some scanning services for our customers over the last year, we have determined that it is more cost effective for you to have your item scanned/printed locally at a kinkos/fedex/office depot/staples near you. In addition to our price to scan, sending us your large originals will require larger packaging, which will likely increase your postage, not to mention if you want us to return the original to you. If something is really unique and difficult to scan, you may want to just take a picture of it and have it printed out, then just put that in your book where you want it.
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!
