Blogmas 2018 - Day 3: Make your own small notebooks

Back in early November I spotted some 6” x 6” pads of Christmas paper in Poundland. I wasn’t sure what we’d do with them but knew they’d come in handy for some Christmas activities this month as both my children are obsessed with crafts, cutting and sticking. I ended up pinching a couple of pieces to make some little Christmas notebooks for the children which were delivered to them both by their elves on the first day of advent. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly creative myself but these were so simple to make, and you don’t need any fancy equipment, just paper, staples, scissors, a pencil, and something sharp like a needle or drawing pin.

N.B. This definitely isn’t my own technique. I read a few articles and watched a few YouTube videos, them improvised with what I had in the house!

Christmas scrapbook paper
I firstly chose which paper I wanted to make the covers with - I chose fun elf prints as the notebooks were for children. I folded the paper in half and used a ruler to really crease down the spine. If you want to change the size of the cover, this is the time to trim it down, but I left it as it was. If you want your notebook to be a bit sturdier you might be best using a piece of card or a heavier weight paper for the cover, but paper was ideal for me.  

Elf notebook covers

The next step was to choose paper for the inside. I chose a selection of white, green and red paper that we had hanging around the house, and used 5 pieces for each book (this will give you 20 pages). Again, these were folded using a ruler, and then trimmed to the same size as the cover. Might sound obvious, but if you’re using lined paper make sure you fold so that the lines are going the right way! I stacked the 5 pieces of paper inside each other.

Selection of festive paper

Now to fasten it together. If you have a long armed stapler this is easy peasy. Line up your stack of pages (also know as the signature) inside the cover, and staple the spine. My mini stapler didn’t reach as far as the spine of my notebook so this step took me a little more time. I stacked the inner pages inside the cover, lined everything up, and held all the pages and the cover together with clips. You could use paper clips or even hair grips to hold everything in place.

Holding notebook pages together
I flattened out the pages, and marked 1cm from the top and 1cm from the bottom of the fold (left hand arrows on the photo below). Using a staple as a guide I then marked a 2nd point below the top mark, and above the bottom mark the same length as a staple (right hand arrows on the photo below). All you need to do then is push a needle/drawing pin/sharp object through all the pages at these spots. You should now have 4 holes going through all the pages and the cover.

Marking staple points on notebook
Flip everything over so it is now cover up. Thread one staple through the top two holes, and one staple through the bottom two holes, and turn everything back over again. Using a ruler or a pair of scissors fold over the ends of the staples so they are flat against the spine.

Completed Christmas notebook
Voila! You now have your very own Christmas notebook.

Inside Christmas notebook

Make your own Christmas notebook




  

Comments