cereal box notebooks

My friend Sonia and I share a love for anything and everything DIY. So when I stumbled upon these little notebooks from Creme De La Craft, I couldn't resist gathering all the materials then and there. And when I say materials, I really mean grabbing the cereal box from above the fridge and dumping its contents onto the counter. Did I mention I was really excited for this project? Oops. 

So here Sonia and I were, sitting at the dining table at midnight with high hopes for these adorable, mini notebooks. How hard could it be? The instructions are pretty basic, but measuring and cutting the cereal box paper and all the inside papers was a huge struggle. One and a half hours later, we came out with two notebooks of different sizes, uneven edges, and an explosion of craft supplies on the table.

I gave the notebooks a second try a week later, and it was so much faster and easier the second time. 

*Creme De La Craft is recognized for the originality of this project. I just tweaked the measurements and instructions to make it a bit easier to follow. 

What you'll need:

>> 1 sheet of scrapbook paper
>> glue stick 

>> scissors (and ruler) or a paper cutter

>> cereal box or any other thin cardboard material

>> 10-15 pieces of paper, lined or printer paper

>> needle and thread

>> pretty string 

>> some sort of embellishment (I used my hello stamp here)

FOR SMALL JOURNALS

1. Cut out a 7 x 5.5in size piece of cardboard. (A small cereal box should yield 2 small journals). Fold in half and set aside. 

2. Using your sheet of scrapbook paper, cut out a 5.5 x 3in strip. This will be your journal binding. Glue the strip onto the fold of the cardboard piece. 

3. Start trimming your lined or printed paper. The thickness of your journal is based on your preference, but if you want a fairly thin journal use 8-10 sheets. If you want a thicker journal, use more sheets. Trim your pages to 6.75 x 5.25in *If your cardboard piece isn't exactly 7 x 5in (as was the case with mine because I can't cut straight), just trim your paper to be 1/4in less than your cardboard piece. 

4. Line up the paper on top of the cardboard piece, and carefully using a needle and thread, sew the binding straight up the middle. When I first made mine, I only punctured two holes on the top and bottom and threaded some string through. The journal remained pretty sturdy, but if you know how to sew, I would recommend threading the needle all the way up. 

5. To embellish your notebook, you can add a brad and some string to make your notebook secure and closed. I also added a stamp on mine to give it a little more pop. See the first picture in this post for my example. 

Once you get the hang of it, it is such a fun and easy project. The first picture in the post was my second time making it, after I bought this baby (which seriously changed my life forever). See how straight the notebooks are compared to this picture of Sonia and I with our notebooks? Paper trimmers, man. I'm planning on keeping these notebooks in my bag to use for lists and such. Definitely planning on making a bunch more to hand out to friends and family.

Enjoy!