Home > Blog > Let’s Make An 8-Page Mini Zine! [Full Tutorial]
Introducing our ‘Let’s Make A Zine!’ series!! Detailed guides on how to make zines of various kinds!
This article will teach you how to create your very own 8-page mini zine. The pocket booklet. Pamphlet, if you will. This is the most basic zine method and a great starting point for beginners! We recommend starting here, as the other zine types can get confusing right out the gate.
How can we make an 8 page zine out of just ONE piece of normal printer paper? Let’s dive in! Video provided (now slowed down!) and written-out instructions included within this article. Enjoy!
SUPPLIES NEEDED TO MAKE A MINI ZINE:
- One sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ Printer Paper, any color
- A Pair of Scissors, any size
STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS ON HOW TO MAKE A MINI ZINE:
- Take a 8.5″ x 11″ single sheet of printer paper and FOLD it in half (1/2) LONG-EDGE to LONG-EDGE (otherwise known as “Hot Dog Style” depending on where you went to school)
- From SHORT-EDGE TO SHORT-EDGE – FOLD in half (1/2) (otherwise known as, “Hamburger Style” to some)
- Continue from the next SHORT-EDGE TO SHORT-EDGE and FOLD in half (1/2) one more time. It should start to resemble a “little book” but it won’t be working just yet.
- UNFOLD all that you have done until you have a flat sheet before you. It should feature 8 total “compartments” for your future pages.
- FOLD it in half (1/2) from SHORT-EDGE TO SHORT-EDGE (otherwise known as “Hamburger Style”)
- CUT only ONE COMPARTMENT’S WORTH of the center section on the FOLDED SIDE, along the fold line you previously created.
- A SECRET OPTIONAL TIP: CUT just 1/4th inch more inwards into the NEXT compartment! This betters your chances of corner edges not buckling upon folding the final booklet’s form. This is also optional, your zine will work without doing this. We learned this from other zinesters in the community! It really does work well!
- UNFOLD your page until it is a flat page with 8 total compartments. There will be a cut hole through the center of it laid out before you.
- FOLD it in half (1/2) again from LONG-EDGE TO LONG-EDGE (otherwise known as “Hot Dog Style”).
- Pinch the ends of your half-folded zine, and PROP OPEN the center-hole until it looks like a DIAMOND SHAPE.
- With the DIAMOND shape PROPPED OPEN, pinch at the outer corners gently and PUSH each CORNER INWARDS! This will “MAKE THEM KISS” and it should now resemble a “PINWHEEL” or “PLUS SIGN” shape.
- Find your front cover, and the paper now should easily fold around until it forms a booklet. The front cover on the outside and the back cover following suit.
Congratulations! You have now created your very first 8-PAGE MINI ZINE!
You are now capable of self-publishing! Get out there and make a zine today!
Related Questions & Answers
A zine (pronounced “zEEn”, derived from the end of the term ‘magazine’) is a self-published publication that features whatever the editor or creator wants for it. They are non-commercial and often traded or given away for free. Some zines are about poetry, some feature art, and some are political pamphlets. They have all been around since the invention of the printing press in 1440. People know information and have a desire to share it, with or without the traditional publishing houses that often would not platform marginalized peoples’ work to begin with. Zines have served as the literature created via cheap and easy methods that is distributed throughout the underground among and for the common folk, the working class.
We have an art and zine distro shop at www.ovaettr.gay if you would like to collect zines we have created ourselves and we recommend checking out our Libraries Page for more info on where you can read lots and lots of zines totally for free!
Yes, The Aloha Studios has an 8-page mini zine template free to download. I also have another video I highly recommend if my video was difficult to understand, or in case learning it from someone else helps it “click” into place in your mind on the construction of the 8-page mini. Learn even more about how to make zines at our Learn Zines page.
We hold monthly Zines 101 Workshops for beginners at the Denton Maker Center on the 2nd Monday of every month 6PM – 9PM with a $20 supply ticket that gets you 10 included scanned in copies made of your zine creation starting you on your journey with the same 8-page mini zine we worked on together in this article! Come get the in-person walkthrough with paper in-person and enjoy a smorgasbord of ephemera for glueing to your zine over the course of a 3-hour workshop! You can sign-up today at the Denton Maker Center’s upcoming workshops page.
