Skip to main content

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go:

1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each).


2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush.

3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some.

3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on).

4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper.

5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges.

6. Fold them over and press down. Then repeat this process on the back cover.

7. After your front and back covers are nicely *papered*, choose some paper to cover the inside of the covers. Use the same process for the insides of the covers: cut the paper, coat both the paper and inside cover with glue.

8. See, doesn't that look nice?! Make sure you cover the entire inside cover paper with the Mod Podge for a nice finished look.

9. Now I cut a contrasting paper to cover the binding, using the same glue process.

10. After using some stickers to decorate the outside covers of the notebooks, I gave the front and back covers a nice covering coat of Mod Podge to seal it all.


A finished front cover



A finished back cover


More finished shots

This was one of the most enjoyable crafts that I've done in a while. Now that I have the hang of it, I'm looking forward to being even more creative with it the next time around.

The best part: the only $$ I spent was for the notebooks. I already had enough scrapbook paper and stickers and even the glue that I didn't need to buy a single other thing.

Comments

Michelle M. said…
I was just thinking today that I need to start a journal this year. This craft would be a perfect, frugal way to do it! Thanks :)
Betsy Brock said…
What wonderful Christmas gifts those would make! Love, love it!
Yes, Betsy! I personalized a couple of them for Christmas gifts.
Kayren said…
I've seen these before, but many of them were much more complicated. I like what you did. I definitely think I will try this now.
Kayren~
You can make these as simple or as fancy-shmancy as you would like:)
Valerie said…
You are so incredibly creative! You should teach some classes. :)
No, Valerie, I just *copy* other peoples' ideas:))
Anonymous said…
Walmart has these notebooks for 50 cent at the start of the school year! I use them for journaling... Now I will make them "manly looking" and give them out to guys at church!! Thanks for sharing!
Unknown said…
I love this idea and have done a couple notebooks as well. However the corners of the notebook start rolling up! What can I do to prevent this from happening?
Craftydar said…
Maybe you could use a small amount of hot glue on each corner before you smooth out the paper.Hot glue can be used over the mod podge.Good luck
Anonymous said…
This is a wonderful and quick way to create a personalized journal. ONE TIP: LIGHTLY sand the surface of the journal before starting the glue application. This gives the surface “toothe” for the glue to adhere to. Your paper will stick better. Happy crafting!
Unknown said…
Readers are always admiring informational blogs, and this is truly one of them. You did a great job. If you want to enhance writing skills, Sourceessay.com based assignment writer is the best solution for you. Online Assignment help Dubai
Romero said…
The title of this blog post is something I've never heard of in blogs I've read. It's good to read your blog posts about the checklist for blogger containers. Do you know about CPS calculator. In CPS calculator can practice numerous times to become a pro in the game. This is a real post I share with you where you can read. Please refer to the article.

Popular posts from this blog

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat

1st Day Back to {home}School, Among Other Things

We did it! We finally got unpacked enough and got our new learning room organized enough to start back to school! Frankly, I was starting to get worried...ha Today went very well though. So far I am extremely pleased with our new curriculum choices for math and language arts. Now, if I could just actually get some lesson planning done... And get the finishing touches done in the learning room, so I can blog it! In other news, it has been a bit of a traumatic week...pet-wise. Last weekend a sweet friend (who had asked my permission beforehand) brought the kiddos their very own little fish tank with two goldfish. Well, on Sunday we noticed that The Princess' fish was pretty lethargic...dead, actually. She was sad, but she handled it fairly well. And we went to the store that evening and let her pick out a new goldfish. Well, today during our school time~the fish tank is in our learning room~we noticed Mr. B's fish was acting funny. And then he was dead. It was a

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while.  It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it.  However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it.  Plus it's a little bulky.   When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it!  It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make.   I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course.  They  have these little wooden door hangers for .79.  I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each.  I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing.   I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had).  Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will clip on the right direction.   The left