DIY Notebooks

I'm heading back to school in a few weeks.With this in mind I was window shopping at Staples the other day (I love office supplies) and they had some really cool notebooks. Different colors, quotes, great binding... and way out of my price range. It was looking like I would be settling for black and white checkers from Walmart when I thought "I could make that!"

You will need:

• A plane notebook (40 cents)
• Two pages of scrapbooking paper from your local craft store (20 cents each)
• Note: There are different thicknesses of paper, make sure you choose one that is thick enough not to show the original cover of the book through it.
• Tacky glue
• Construction paper ($1.99 for an 80 sheet book)
• Scissors
• Stickers (In my case $1.40)

 

Start by thinly spreading tacky glue on the cover of the notebook. Place a piece of scrapbook paper over the cover, right up against the spine.

 You'll have a lot of overhang on the right. Cut that in half and save the strip of paper.

Spread glue then fold the top and bottom over the inside cover

Do the same to the side flap

Use the extra strip of paper you cut earlier to complete your inside cover.

Glue a piece of construction paper in the center of the inside cover for a finished look. Repeat this process on the back cover as well. Use stickers to label or decorate.

And voila! You can, of course, customize yours in lots of different ways. I used construction paper and stickers to make a name plate. Each note book worked out to about $1.00 and took less than ten minutes to assemble, not including drying time. That's a lot less that getting the prefab $5 books at the store and kids can choose their own designs from a variety of papers. You could even make yourself a matching set! 

Try it out, it's easy.