Turn old composition notebooks into decorative journals!

At the start of each new school year, composition notebooks appear on my children’s school supply lists. By June, the notebooks are rarely filled up. Many have just a handful of pages that have been written on. No wonder I’ve accumulated a stack of partially used notebooks I feel bad throwing away. The good news is that with some decorative paper or fabric and a little bit of glue, these notebooks can be transformed into useful journals or planners.

What you’ll need: In addition to the notebooks, you’ll need decorative fabric or paper (either gift wrap or individual sheets sold at art stores work well), scissors, school glue, ruler, pencil, and paintbrush.

Measure and cut around your notebook. Place the notebook in the center of your paper or fabric and cut around it so that the resulting shape is large enough to cover the front and back of the notebook with about two inches to spare around the edges.

Cut tabs to fold over the sides and tops of your covers. Cut the corners of your large piece of paper or fabric to create flaps that can be folded over to cover the inside edges of your notebook’s front and back cover. Also cut out a small section in the middle of the top and bottom edges of your paper or fabric to accommodate the spine.

Glue paper or fabric onto the notebook’s cover. Pour school glue into a small cup or bowl and use the paint brush to apply a very thin layer to one side of the notebook then lay it onto the paper or fabric. (You can start with either the front or back cover.) Open the notebook, paint another thin layer of glue around the inside edges of the cover and fold in the flaps to secure them in place. Once you’ve finished one cover, do the same with the other cover.

Cut extra pieces of paper or fabric to finish the interior. After you glue your flaps in place, there will be gaps where the original notebook interior shows through. Cut rectangular pieces of the same paper or fabric and glue them in place so the inside covers are one uniform pattern.

Should you remove the used pages or leave them as is? Before claiming the notebook as your own, you’ll have to decide whether you want to keep the used pages in place or cut them out. It’s up to you! If you want to start fresh, you can carefully tear out or cut the pages with scissors. However, you might find the used pages a sweet window into the past and decide to keep them in place. In that case, start your journal on the first empty page.

Share your designs with us! Send pictures of your journals to our editor at george@redhookstar.com.

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