"Simple craft to add ribbon page markers to any rulebook" Topic

On another forum, someone posted on their gaming books falling apart. I took some steps, back in 1980, to ensure my 1e AD&D rulebooks would last as long as I could make them: I covered them in Clear Contact Paper (self-adhesive, translucent vinyl shelf liner). Around 10 years ago, I added non-permanent book markers. I thought I would share these tools with you.

To start off, here are some photos taken, today, of my RPG rulebooks, all purchased in 1980, all covered in Contact Paper, in 1980: front covers, back covers, ‌inside cover showing the Contact Paper seams covered with Scotch Tape. Note that neither the Contact Paper, nor the Scotch Tape, has yellowed, after 44 years… Neither have they peeled off the inside covers. The Scotch Tape may be overkill, but I wanted to make it difficult for the vinyl to peel away from the covers.

The spine joints have cracked on several of my books. This is to be expected, after years of flexing in use. Note that those spine joints which have cracked vinyl, the vinyl has not peeled away from the rest of the spines, nor from the covers themselves.

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Another craft project for your rulebooks, or any books you want/need page markers for, is to use ribbon strips. I originally used strips of cut cloth, and those frayed, badly, over a period of a few years. I replaced the cloth page markers with ribbon strips, which won't fray as quickly, nor as easily.

To make the ribbon page markers:

Cut as many ribbon strips, of whatever colors desired, making them all the same length;
Neatly glue the ribbon ends (one end only) on top of a small rectangle of 20# paper, cut to size (small enough to fit into the spine of the desired book), using PH-Neutral PVA Glue (regular PVA Glues/Wood Glues tend to be acidic, and they will damage the paper pages of the book over time, turning them yellow, brittle, and the yellowed paper will crumble… order PH-neutral PVA Glue off of Amazon, or other supplier);
Apply PH-Neutral PVA Glue to the ribbon ends, applying them to the piece of 20# paper, pressing them down with your fingertip, to ensure they dry adhered to the paper, in a flat, non-overlapping manner;
If you use multiple ribbons (2/4/6), you may need to fold the paper over, gluing it, to stack the ribbons, to allow the paper tab to fit into the spine of the book you wish to add them to;
Let it dry overnight.

Once dried, apply a small amount of PH-neutral PVA Glue to one side only, of the paper tab;
Open the covers of the book to allow the glued, bound pages to pull away from the cover spine, exposing a gap;
Insert the tab, glue side towards the bound pages;
Close the covers, and press you thumb against the cover spine, to press the glue-side of the tab against the bound pages;
Let it dry overnight.

You will then have ribbon page markers to insert into the pages you wish to reference.

This can be done for softcover books, as well:

Glue the ribbon tab paper to one side of either a blank page between the cover and the content pages, or glue it directly to the inside of the soft cover (only put PH-neutal PVA Glue on one side of the tab -- you do not want to glue the cover to an inside page!

Here is a link to a photo album showing one RPG rulebook example, up close. There is also a picture of three POD hardcover books, each with a ribbon page marker tab glued into their spines.

I expect that the ribbon tabs I glued into my books will be intact, and still functioning, 20+ years from today; if I ever need to pry them out, they will separate easily from the spine of the bound pages. If they ever fall out on their own, they will be very easy to re-glue. I have installed and glued six ribbon tabs in six hardcover rulebooks, thus far. I plan to add them to the remainder of my rulebooks (both hard- and softcover) over the next two weeks.

Some of my rulebooks came with a single ribbon page marker from the publisher. I found these really useful, but they only gave me one ribbon marker. I found that 3-4 ribbon page markers would have been much more useful. Now I can add as many as I want, for very little money, and no damage to the books, themselves. ;-) Cheers!

Excellent ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Excellent tip about the ribbon markers; I may do that.

someone posted on their gaming books falling apart.

I have learned to glue my books' bindings back together. I find the gap where the folios are separating, slip folded wax paper in on each side, then squirt glue in through the gap, and fold the book shut. The wax paper keeps the pages from sticking where they aren't supposed to.

The glue I use is a PH-balanced PVA sold for bookbinding.

I went into production, this weekend, making 4-ribbon page markers. I glued them into around 27 hardcover books, and counting. I discovered that my 1e PHB and MM (printed/purchased in 1980!) are too tight in their bindings to allow me to insert page marker ribbons. I left them alone. My 1e DMG worked beautifully.

I glued my first test ribbon-page-marker into a softcover POD book, as well. I need to check on it, later this week, to make sure it functions properly and well enough, before I build another 30, or so, ribbon markers for the stack of softcover RPG books I have: probably 1/3 of them are POD copies, while 2/3's are old, original books from the TSR era.

I learned some things doing a batch of 20+ ribbon markers:

+Put down some freezer paper (plastic coated on one side), to work on top of, to protect your table surface.

+Mark off a 1-inch grid pattern on your sheet of paper, then cut out your paper ribbon bases.

+Keep two paper towels at hand one wet, to wipe off your glue-covered fingers, so you don't make a mess getting glue where you don't want it; and a second dry paper towel to dry your hands with, so you don't get things wet you don't want to get wet -- like the pages of the book you are working on!

+Rub the PVA Glue with your fingertip, to get an even, thin coat, as you don't need a heavy coating to adhere paper to paper!

+Fold the paper square over onto itself, to make it smaller, stacking the ribbons on top of one another, so the finished tab will easily fit into smaller book spines (glued into the spine).

+Use the wet paper towel to mop up glue from the freezer paper, to avoid getting glue onto your books and other things you don't want glue on! Wipe the plastic surface of the freezer paper with the dry towel, so you start the next one with a clean, dry surface.

+Eventually you will learn to do them in a certain, speedy way, creating an assembly-line style of production, becoming quite efficient at it, and you will make more than you realized…

+Put the ribbon lengths inside the book's cover or pages, for storage, as otherwise they will make a mess on your shelves, and the exposed ribbons will become dust magnets, getting dirty, and worn.

+NEVER use metallic ribbons: they are expensive, scratchy, and inflexible. They look nice, but they're terrible in use…

+PVA Glue takes 12+ hours to fully cure, and even then, it is a slightly tacky; if you dry it in a Slow Cooker/Crock Pot, it will still be slightly tacky to the touch, even though it is fully cured (baked at 200 F, for 30 minutes).

It was a fun project. I also learned that I need to shorten the ribbons, as 18" is too long. I ran out of some colors (most came in 10 yard rolls!). If I leave a reasonable 4" length of ribbon hanging below the pages, they will still be plenty long enough, and I will get more books out of each 10-yard roll of ribbon. It is not so much about the cost of the ribbon rolls ($0.47 each), it is the time, and effort, to go get more rolls of ribbon, when I run out! Cheers!