How to Make DIY Composition Notebook Covers
Do your kids like to decorate their notebooks for school? Do they like to add pictures and cute designs on all the covers? Today, Joy Hunt from The Café Scholar will be sharing how to make DIY Composition notebook covers. Joy has some great ideas that your kids will love and make their notebooks unique.
So, I have this thing with composition books. I think they are the ideal size of notebook, and they don’t have spirals that get squished and snagged, and I just love them.
I especially love them for 50 cents or 10 cents during Back to School sales.
Hello, my name is Joy, and it has been 30 days since I last shopped the clearance aisle at Staples.
The problem is, I end up buying way more than I use! Last month, I went through my notebooks and found 16 notebooks with lots of space (some I had started just one page for something…), and 20 brand new notebooks.
In my efforts to declutter, I separated out the “notebooks with space” on my bookshelf, and moved ALL the brand new ones to my box of gifts for birthdays, Christmas, etc. As I continued on my de-cluttering mission, I figured out what I could do to make those impulse-buy notebooks into special gifts: I could decorate them and personalize them for each recipient, and make something special!
I did this craft with composition books, but it would work with any kind of cheap plain notebook…even the spiral ones that I don’t like (ha!). I used more “big kid” decorations because all of the scholars in my house are in the 13+-year-old crowd, but this would work well with any age old enough to hold a crayon. They would also make great gifts…guess we know what my family is getting for back to school!
DIY Composition Notebook Covers
Supplies:
- plain notebooks of choice
- glue stick
- anything paper to decorate it with
Play Your Cards Write
I collect playing cards, and we play these big group games with them, but inevitably you will end up losing a few of the cards, especially if middle schoolers are involved. (Don’t even get me started on the 1000 card pickup when my brother was little and decided to mix them all up and sort by number!) What do you do with a partial deck of cards? Before you throw them away, use them to decorate a notebook!
This was probably the hardest of the three, because once I decided where I wanted the cards to go, I had to take them off to start on the bottom layer first. I also had a hard time making up my mind on how to arrange them without it looking too “busy” but you or your kids might not care). You could do them in any kind of pattern, and you could also flip the cards over, face down.
Marvel-ous
My sister is really into Marvel, and she has a collection of free sample comic books – they give you the first part of a bunch of different stories. When my sister is done with them, she saves them for crafts like this! You could also do this one with newspaper comics or any kind of magazine.
Choose a comic book cover or newspaper you like. It works best to put the glue on the notebook since you will likely need to trim your page to fit. Make sure that you have glue all the way up to the edges so they don’t come loose! Wrap the cover or newspaper around your composition notebook and firmly secure. Trim edges if needed to fit your notebook.
Pretty Pretty Neat
For this notebook, I used a page from one of those adult coloring books that someone gave me for Christmas. You could do it with any coloring book and have your munchkin pick out his favorite character to color and glue on. In case you wondered, the two different colors of purple on the dress are not some special artsy design.
My purple colored pencil kept breaking after sharpening (why DOES that happen?), and I didn’t have the box of better pencils with me.
So I borrowed some crayons from a toddler.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
I fancied up the spine with washi tape. And just now, when I tried to type “washi tape,” my laptop autocorrected first to “Washington” and then to “wash.”
Some more ideas:
- Construction Paper Cutouts
- Origami paper
- Fabric
- Wrapping Paper
- Motivating Quote or Scripture Verse
- Photos
- Puzzle pieces (either assembled as a puzzle or glued on loose)
What other ways could you decorate a plain notebook?
Love your ideas to decorate/personalize comp. books.
In my Kindergarten class, I always have lots of colorful duct tape. Each Kindergartner picks up to 4 to cover the front.
[Parent helpers cut and stuck the tape on the book. Then each student chose a label with fancy edges to mark it with their name. They loved their “personal” journals!
My creative daughter loved these ideas. I’m thinking it would be perfect use for all the cards I save (Christmas guards, note cards) ! Thanks!