Writer's Notebooks

Every year I make these fun notebooks. I took the idea from a coworker some time back and modified it slightly. I love the end result, but they are super time consuming to make and pretty expensive because of the fabric. 

I have been asked how to make them from several people over the years, so here it goes.

Materials 

Composition books

Fabric

Spray adhesive 

Tacky glue

Thin black ribbon

Colored cardstock

Duct tape 

Buy composition books. Make sure they aren't the ones with the flimsy covers.  I got these for 50 cents each at Staples, but I try to get them cheaper at Target after the school year has started. 

Then, you need fabric. A quarter yard makes two notebooks. But, you have to watch the way the fabric faces. Sometimes you need a third of a yard or it looks sideways in the end. I don't like any of my students to have the same fabric on their notebooks, so it takes a lot of different fabric. Luckily, my mom and I split out fabric every year :). I also make a lot of extras so the students have a lot of choice and don't feel stuck with a design. 

Quarter yard fabric 

Cut your quarter yard of fabric in half. 

Then, use spray adhesive to adhere the fabric to the front and back of the notebook. 

Make sure not to cover the spine of the composition book. Duct tape will go here. It should hang over on all sides except the spine. 

Open up the book and use tacky glue to glue the fabric to the inside of the notebooks. 

 Use colored cardstock that coordinates with the fabric. Cut to size to cover the inside of the book. 

Then, cut thin black ribbon to size to be used as a bookmark. 

Choose duct tape to coordinate with the fabric. 

Cut duct tape to the size of the book. Put your cut piece on the spine of the book covering only one side of the book. Put the ribbon on the other side so it sticks. 

Fold duct tape in and put the book mark inside the book. 

And that's all :). Repeat, until you have all you need. 

For students, I typically add a label on the inside that says their name. 

Here are my books from last year :)

Hope that was easy to follow. If not, let me know. 

Kelly