Upcylced Box Notebooks

upcylced notebooks

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The other day I was looking around on some crafty mama blogs and I found this tutorial for homemade notebooks that I immediately pinned, and almost immediately crafted. It was probably the fastest pin to made ever, at least for me.

Here’s how I did it.

What You’ll Need

handmade book supplies
Trust me, you have everything you need to make these easy books.
  • Paperboard boxes (I happened to have a butter box and a fruit bite box that I’d just put into recycling earlier that day)
  • small stack of white paper (I think I ended up with seven pages, just by randomly pulling some out of my printer)
  • pencil, scissors, stapler

What You’ll Do

  1. Cut your paperboard into a book-like shape. I just trimmed my butter box until there were just two sides left.

    handmade book cover
    Mmm...butter book
  2. Use your cover as a template and trace the shape on the paper. Cut the paper to size.

    handmade notebook pages
    The pages cut down to size.
  3. Put the paper inside the cover. Fold. Staple. I used three staples, and stapled from the inside out, but you could go either way.

    finished upcycled notebook
    The notebook all put together.
  4. Repeat. I made four little books of various sizes with one stack of paper and two boxes.
    upcylced notebooks
    A few minutes' work nets a bunch of little notebooks.

    What to do with your stash of notebooks? I’m a big list maker, so I’ll probably use them for notes and lists, but the real use for them is little drawing tablets for the Bit to use when we’re out and about. For a cute, Valentine’s themed way to store notebooks and crayons, try this little felt heart-shaped crayon caddy.


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3 Comments

  1. This is a great idea!

    I am off to make some for my toddler and myself. Although if I can’t locate the stapler (my teenager is always taking my office supplies) I’ll use yarn to bind the paper to the carton.

    Thanks!

  2. Oh, yeah, Kit, you can totally do that. Or just sewing thread, whatever. I’m actually planning to do some more “grown up” ones that involve scrapbook paper and sewing instead of stapling. Thanks!

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