How To Make a Chocolate Diary

First eat the chocolate

I don’t know how to make a chocolate diary yet, but I’ve wanted to for a while. In fact, I have a manila folder called “Chocolate Diaries” that contains 5 packaging papers to make into little notebooks.

Here’s a detail of one of the wrappers I saved.

Below are the front panels of the other 4 wrappers in the folder. Bouchard intrigues me for it’s blocky shape and elegant colors. But I also like the holes in Velvet Truffles where a backing paper or even beads could show through. And of course the rhinoceros is irresistible. But I’ll make my first diary out of Ghirardelli’s Twilight Delight, on the left.

Incidentally, (I can’t seem to get away from the chocolate itself), I also saved the “Truffle Flavor Key” from our visit years ago to the Chocolate Fetish in Asheville.

Left: 2-3/4” wide by 3-3/8” high, leaflet unfolds into 4 panels. Right: Their current Valentine special!

But to pull myself back to making my first Chocolate Diary. Impromptu instructions follow. Flatten the package. This one is lightweight cardboard, nice for covers.

Cut it apart like this and keep the two large parts:

Lay the back cover next to the spine.

Glue it so you have a back cover, a spine and a front cover. Round off the corners.

For backing paper, I was going to use a light brown one with gold flecks, but then found a hot pink piece that would be much more energizing for a diary writer. Cut it slightly larger than the cover and glue it on the back side. I’m using water-thinned Elmer’s glue.

Let it dry under a weight, for example 3 volumes of the 1990 edition of Collier’s Encyclopedia from a library sale. When dry, trim the paper to fit the cover.

Fold along the two long spine edges. This spine is 1/4” wide.

For the pages I cut 12 pieces of cream colored paper 6-1/2” wide by 7” high. Fold each page in half vertically and press the crease flat with a bone folder or the clean handle of a paintbrush. Open the pages and stack them neatly onto the inside of the cover. Mark the dots shown below with a pencil.

I punched 2 small holes for 4” strings at the front cover edges because a firmly tied bow makes the privacy statement that a diary should have.

Here’s the finished Chocolate Diary, an idea made real.

I write on page one:

I know of a woman whose birthday guests each year bring her chocolate. So one year I did the same, adding requests for handmade bookmarks, and it was wonderful. I want this diary to be about friendship and shared gifts.

Even if you don’t make this little book, I hope you enjoyed thinking about chocolate!

The Chocolate Fetish in Asheville

Handmade book and diagrams by Deda Edney