How to Make a Notebook Out of Scrap Paper and Junk Mail

Most of us have junk mail and scraps of paper sitting around at any given time. Most of us buy notebooks or blank books to make grocery lists, notes, or to sketch and record things in. By making your own notebook from the papers you have around your house you can save money by not having to purchase as many notebooks and you will help keep paper out of the landfill by giving overlooked scraps a second life.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper from multiple sources (junk mail, old envelopes, old books, postcards, greeting cards, stationary ... the possibilities are endless).
• A paper cutter or scissors.
• A hole punch or awl.
• An "O" ring or ribbon.
• A ruler.
• A pencil.
• A three hole punch (optional)
• Art supplies (optional)

1. Gather all of your materials.

2. Determine how large you want your note book to be. Postcard sized (4.25" x 6") is easy to work with, gives enough space to write or sketch on, and can easily be thrown into your bag and taken with you.

3. After you've determined the size of the notebook you want to make you need to start cutting down your pages to that size. A paper cutter makes this much faster but you can also use scissors if you don't have a paper cutter. If you do use scissors it is much easier to make a template to trace instead of measuring each individual page to the right size.

4. After you have your pages cut you need to decide on how many holes you want to punch for "binding" the notebook. For a 4.25" x 6" notebook you only need one hole in one corner. For a larger sized notebook you may want to consider more holes. Once you decide how many holes you want you need to figure out where to put them. You don't want them too close to the edges of the papers or they will tear when you turn the pages. After you decide where you want to put the hole or holes on your pages measure how far from the edges of the page it is. You will need to put your holes in the same place on every page. It makes it easier if you mark the proper place with a pencil on every page and then go back through and punch the holes.

5. Punch your holes. If the paper is thin you may be able to punch a couple of pages at one time (make sure to line them up properly) and for thicker pages you'll only be able to punch one at a time. At this time if you are using an "O" ring binding you can start putting your pages onto the ring(s) as you go. Or you can wait and organize them when you're all done before putting them on the ring(s).

6. When your papers are all punched you can put them together and bind them if you haven't already done so as you were punching. Pick two sturdy pages for the front and back covers. A postcard works well for this. Put the papers on the "O" ring(s) one at a time in the order you desire or thread the ribbon through the hole(s) in your pages one at a time. When your finished close the "O" ring or tie off your ribbon to finish binding your notebook.

7. Decorate your notebook covers as desired.

8. Now your notebook is ready to use!

Tips & Warnings

• You can use a awl in place of a hole punch but it will take longer.
• If making a standard size notebook use a three hole punch if possible to save time.
• Once you've used up all of your pages you can refill the notebook by repeating steps 3-6.
• Supervise children with this project while using scissors, hole punches, and awls.

[WolfTech]

on 2/11/2009 I never considered that junk mail could be useful in a way like this! :)