transform your boring notebooks into adorable snacks // DIY

Fall is coming! NaNoWriMo approaches, it’s almost sweater time, and a new school year is dawning…

But my favorite thing?

Notebooks. 

Spiral-bound, 25 cent, blank beauties.

(Am I the only one with an office-supplies obsession, or are they seriously the happiest back-to-school sale? xD ) 

My sisters and I enjoy making each notebook unique by re-covering them!

Re-covering notebooks is easy and fun, and you can get really creative!

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Here is a step-by step tutorial of how you can do it too. 🙂

 

You Need:

Spiral-bound notebook (ugly or beat-up notebooks are perfect to upcycle. 😉 )

Scrapbooking paper (look for sales at Joannes, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc)

Decorations (washi tape, letter stamps, ribbon, stickers, etc.)

Pliers (needle-nose work best), glue stick, scissors, sewing pin

1. Use the pliers to unbend both ends of the notebook spiral so it’s curved like the rest of the spiral.

2. Roll the spiral to “unscrew” it from the holes. Be very gentle, you don’t want to stretch out the spiral’s spring-shape.

3. Put a twist tie through a middle hole when the spiral is half-way out. This is to hold the pages and back cover together. (Make sure to do this under the front cover to keep it free from the pages.)

At this point, you should have a stack of pages + back cover, a spiral, and your front cover.

4. Spread a generous coat of glue on the front cover. Make sure to especially glue the corners and over the holes.

5. Flip the gluey cover onto your scrapbooking paper, pressing it down and smoothing it out. Corners and holes might not stick well, glue more if necessary. Then cut around the cover.

6. Poke through the center of each original notebook hole with the sewing pin. This is the fun part! 😛

If you want to scrapbook the cover, now is the time! 

(other embellishments i.e. stickers can be later)

 

7. Reverse what you did to take the spiral off. It’s going to need some coaxing as you punch it through the holes made by the sewing pin, so go slow and stay gentle. 🙂

 

8. Bend both ends inward and under the spiral, so it looks like it did originally!

And… Tada! That’s it.

 

Get creative! Decorate your notebook however you want!

For a fun variation, we’ve added a page divider (give it holes and slip it into the stack of pages before you put it all back together). Our sister used lace paper as a divider in one of her notebooks below. Cute, right?

Another idea is to scrapbook the inside of the front  cover too! (Especially if you made the same mistake I did and put glue on the wrong side of the cover. lol)

You could glue in an envelope as a pocket or fold your own from pretty paper like I did!

 

These notebooks cost us only 25 cents each (not including glue or decoration), and it was a cool craft to do with my little sisters.

Anna and I are going to use the small notebook with the blue ribbon for Latte blog post ideas!

Great for gifts, school work, story notes…

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This post was inspired by our sister Kate’s tutorial. Check that out and give her a follow for an early-Christmas present! 😉 Her blog is awesome! (and I’m not biased at all…)

If you have any questions or something was unclear, please comment. As always, thanks for reading, dudes. 😀

Which re-covered notebook is your fave? Should we do more DIY posts?

 

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