Buttoned notebooks

ITALIAN VERSION HERE

Hello everybody!

Today I’m going to show you how to make yourself some little notebooks, using just what you have at home. Well, I first saw something very similar on Pinterest, and I had to try asap 🙂

While thinking about how to personalize my booklets, I encountered a tutorial exchange with Lots of Buttons, an enormous online store that sells hundreds of beautiful buttons. I used some of the biggest and most colorful ones to decorate (and close) my notebooks.

My recycled notebooks are kinda girly, and they are machine sewn: obviously you could make then anyhow you like them, and even children can make some, provided some help from adults!

I made several differnt notebooks: one has a watercolor on the cover: it was made by a small child from where I work (luckily I hardly throw away their paintings or drawings). Another notebook is painted with chalkboard paint ( I loooove it). All of them have a hardcover made of salvaged cardboard: cereal, pasta, yoghurt, rice boxes. Plus colorful and funny buttons, some from Lots of Buttons (thank you again guys!)

You will need:

salvaged cardboard (cereal, pasta, rice, chotolate boxes… etc..)

white paper

needle, thread and a sewing machine

beautiful and quite big button

ribbon or thread

scissors, pencil and paperclips

Lets start:

1 – First, cut a rectangle of cardboard. Then cut several rectangles of white paper, 3 or 4 mmm smaller than the cardboard one.

2 – Fold in half the cardboard cover, whit the colored part inside. Form the notebook:

3 – Clip the white paper pages to the cardboard cover with long paperclips:

4 – … sew in the central line with a sewing machine. You may also hand stitch, but the thruth is, the machine makes it soooo fast!! 🙂

5 – Attach the button on the hardcover:

6 – Then knot a matching ribbon around the button. If you wrap the ribbon around the notebook, then wrap it around the button again, the notebook will stay closed even in the messiest tote bag.

Some of my booklets: 

You see: I chose a dessert cardboard, I love to see that yellow pudding when I open my notebook. 🙂 I also love the wooden flower button that matches perfectly with the wotercolor design of the other notebook cover (for that, I just glued the painting to the salvaged cardboard)

As you can see, you can modify this activity as you prefer, and following your kids needs/passions/abilities. I’d also decorate the notebooks with leaves, dryed flowers, or maybe magazine cut-outs. Or I’d stamp it with potato stamps… and there are millions of possibilities!

See you soon with another tutorial!! 🙂

Kisses

Cecilia

ps: Thank you againg to Lots of Buttons for the opportunity to experiment with your buttons! 🙂
Linking to: