Tutorial: Make a Cute Mini Notebook

I am a cheapskate and do not pay for school yearbooks.  My kids are in elementary school - yearbooks are just a stupid idea.

But on the last day of school I knew that kids would be passing those books around and wanting "signatures" (as if first graders have signatures- they scribble their name and are lucky to remember all the letters) and I didn't want my kids to feel left out.  So I made them these cute mini notebooks for their friends to sign and scribble in.

They were super easy to make.  See:



1- Gather your supplies.  You'll need some cutesy paper, some regular paper, some adhesive, some staples, a paper slicer, and some chipboard (or a stiff something or other).

2- Slice the regular papers (inside papers) in half the long way.  Then fold them in half.  You can make your notebook thicker or thinner depending on how many papers you use.  But don't get too many, because this is a mini notebook, and thicker notebooks need different steps (I know these things).

3-Cut your chipboard to be a smidgeon-ish longer than the inside papers so it will hang over when it's all put together.

4- Fold the chipboard in half.

5- Take some decorative or plain colored paper and cut it so that it will fit on the ridge of your book, then fold it in half so you can just glue it on later.

6- Tuck your folded regular papers into your chipboard cover.  Make sure they're centered and stuff.  Then whip our your stapler.

7- I put staples in through the front and the back of the book because I knew kids would be handling these and I didn't want things to fall apart.

8- Using adhesive, glue that piece you cut out in step 5 to cover the staples.

9- Decorate the front however you'd like.  Make it pretty.

And that's it.  I got two done in only one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because they are just that quick to make (and I probably could have finished them more quickly, except that Buffy is sort of distracting, what with all that vampire slayage and stuff).