Girl Scouts Book Artist Merit Badge Activity - Hosting Tips

April 28, 2026

You have the option for a few Flavors of this event. I will provide all the instructions necessary for your Troop to host a Book Arts bookbinding activity. You may choose to self-source your own materials or you may purchase them here.

Blank Journals or The Light Princess
1. Self-sourced materials
2. Purchased bulk kits
Alice in Wonderland 8.5” x 5.5” book
1. Self-sourced materials
Mini-book Earrings bonus activity

See Materials List if you are sourcing your own materials for Journals, Light Princess, or Alice in Wonderland

Girls will be able to personalize their creations by choosing the spine and paper combinations for their cover, decorating the cover with additional embellishments, and choosing whether they want to create a Blank Journal, or a bound copy of “The Light Princess”.

* ”The Light Princess” by George MacDonald tells the story of a princess afflicted by constant weightlessness, unable to get her feet on the ground, both literally and metaphorically.

Multiple Troops have used these Instructions and Hosting Best Practices to host other troops in a workshop to create their own handbound book and earn the Book Arts badge. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Hosting Best Practices

Get your tools & materials early
1. If you are self-sourcing, allow time for ALL materials to ship. Keep in mind that even having 99% of components may mean the book cannot be completed if you do not find a substitute
2. If you are ordering materials* from Bindery Library, do so at least 3 weeks in advance
  1. *Scissors not included, please have girls bring a pair or provide
  2. *Badges not included
Advertise!
Practice beforehand
1. Teach the Teachers. Choose the leaders from your Troop that will be leading the larger group, and have them follow the instructions (and/or watch the videos) to create their own books in the days/weeks prior to the event.
2. Once you’ve gone through the process from start to finish, the instructions are FAR less intimidating and you can lead with confidence
Organize your materials
1. Laying out all the tools and text block materials at each station beforehand is ideal. Passing them out at each step takes extra time
Designate helpers
1. Designate older girls that have practiced beforehand and/or parents to help at each table (groups of 4-6 work best)
2. Intervene early! Much better to catch “non-standard” sewing techniques early that to try to fix it on the 5th signature. Have the girls show each other their progress at each step to ensure they match.
Instructors
1. Have a materials of your own so that you can demonstrate live. For bonus points, have a finished text block and finished but unattached case (don’t worry, I’ll explain what those words mean in the instructions!) as visual aids.
2. Show and Tell. After giving instructions for each step at the front of the room, go around each table to give “close up” demonstration.
Clean up. This project can get pretty messy, but as my Scout Master always said, “Many hands make light work.” Involve the girls in the clean up phase.
Give yourself enough time (don’t try to “cram” an 3-hour event into a 2 hour time slot)
1. If you are not hosting other troops and want a leisurely pace, feel free to break the process up into 2 sessions.
  1. First session: Text Block
  2. Second session: Casing In
Start on Time. If you start behind, you’ll need to make that time up elsewhere
Keep Track of time
1. Aim for roughly
  1. 0:00 - 5:00 - Introduction
    0:05 - 1:20 - Text block creation
    1:20 - 2:20 - Case creation and Casing in
    2:20 - 2:45 - Personalization and Show and Tell
    2:45 - 3:00 - Clean up
2. Remember the two laws of time management
  1. Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
  2. Hofstadter's law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law.
3. Move ahead when most girls are ready. If you wait for every girl to be done with each step, you will not finish on time, rely on your helpers to get girls caught up.
4. Leave time for the personalization and customization step. It’s always a bit of a scramble at the end, but this part is the most fun and the one where each girl really makes the book their own.
Tie in the Book Artist merit badge requirements
1. Step 1: Explore the art of bookbinding.
  Step 2: Get familiar with the insides of a book.
  Step 3: Try out book artist techniques.
  Step 4: Focus on function.
  Step 5: Focus on style.
Consider a Theme or extra activity!
1. One Troop focused on turning their Blank Journals into Harry Potter inspired “Spell Books”
2. Another Troop asked girls to bring in books with interesting covers to “Show and Tell” and use as inspiration
3. Invite a librarian or author to talk about book care, writing, or design
Snacks! Everyone loves snacks.
Pictures. Designate someone to take pictures during the process and especially of the final results. It’s easy to forget and it’ll be too late to capture the chaos… I mean fun!