hey! people seem to really like the notebooks i posted pics of on my blog, so i thought why not make a masterpost on how to do them so u can all have cute notebooks without having to spend lots of money on them!
any notebook[s] that you want to use
white paint + brush [optional]
printer + white paper for the quotes
if your notebook isn’t spiral bound, like mine were, + you can glue things on the borders you can skip this step
if you do have a spiral bound notebook but it’s a neutral colour, or the colour matches the design you want, feel free to skip too!
my notebooks had a combination of colours that didn’t really go with the designs, + i couldn’t glue things because of the spirals, so i had to fix that
i just grabbed some white paint, a paintbrush, + carefully painted the borders white!
you may have to clean the spirals a little afterwards because (for me) it’s basically impossible not to get any paint on them – for the first notebook i did, i used a damp cloth, but for the second one i was too lazy and just left the dry paint there lmao
get some magazines, get comfy, and start going through them! tear out any pages where u see something cute or that you can potentially use somehow. don’t worry about the design yet
when u feel like u have enough, cut them and start putting them together until u like what u have! don’t glue them just yet, just lay them on the notebook so you can be sure u like the final result
i did two notebooks two different ways:
for the first one [left], i had some newspaper-ish paper with text in columns that i used as a background, i glued it to all of the front + back covers, then on top of that i glued a couple pics
for the second one [right], i glued all of the pics on top of the notebook itself
if you end up with empty spaces u can fill them with parts of magazines that have no text/design, just plain colours, or with parts of articles
i didn’t print any images cause my printer’s crap with colours, but u can do that if u want!
tip: make sure your pics are big enough that you can fold them over the borders of the notebook and stick them on the other side! the finished look is better + it’s more durable
this is the messy part, or the fun part if you’re not a perfectionist like me lmao
i haven’t figured out the best way to glue them so that u don’t get those crinkley parts, but don’t be afraid to mess up! in the end it won’t rlly matter and it may even look cool
you can put glue either on your notebook or the back of the pictures, then carefully place them, smoothing them out as much as you can – but again, don’t worry if it’s not perfect
you may want to be careful and wash your hands in between making them so that u don’t ruin any of the paper/pics bc u have glue in ur hands
look at your notebooks: do they look finished? great! do they look like there’s something missing/something you could add? i have the answer for you!
look for some short quotes that you like – from a book, something a famous person said, part of a poem, song lyrics, motivational quotes, something you came up with, etc etc
i only used one on each notebook. in one i put it on the front and on the other on the back. it really doesn’t matter tbh
i used the font ‘archivo black’, italicized, in a very dark grey on mine
i printed them in the size i wanted, cut them like u can see on the pics, and glued them once the other pics i glued were dry – it isn’t necessary to wait, i did it just in case lmao
diy school supplies by @gracelearns
diy school supplies part 2 by @gracelearns
diy masterpost by @studiyng
diy school supplies by @iworkandistudy
diy map composition book cover by @thestudiousstudent
diy school supplies by @kimberlystudies
ultimate diy masterpost by @mermaidyke
i hope u can make gr8 notebooks and that i was any help! if u end up making any please @ me or tag me with #heysofi bc i’d love to see them all <3 [also, english is not my native language so there may be some mistakes bc of literal translations from spanish lmao]
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