Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » diy project: eco-friendly notebooks

this fun, eco-friendly project comes from meghan mcclain and jill thomas of potbelly sandwich works. meghan and jill got a green committee going at their office (fantastic!) and decided to celebrate their inaugural meeting today with a fun project. the girls created these lovely notebooks by reusing office paper found around the company and scraps of vintage wallpaper and chipboard for covers. so rather than letting paper (that’s been printed on one side) go to waste, they found a way to reuse it and create something new and beautiful. meghan and jill kindly shared their full project steps and materials with us so click here to view the full post and instructions, or just click “read more” below. thanks so much for meghan and jill for sharing- best of luck with your green committee!

Meghan and Jill’s DIY Recycled Paper Notebooks:

What You’ll Need:

1. Used 8.5 x 11 paper with one clean side. (Try keeping a box under your desk for a few weeks to store used paper…it stacks up fast!)
2. Cardstock, cardboard or whatever other rigid materials you may have laying around for the cover
3. Scrap wallpaper, wrapping paper or even newspaper to mount on the covers for decoration
4. Spray Mount (3M Super 77) or glue
5. Exacto knife
6. Binding materials: spiral or whatever you’ve got!
7. Ruler
8. Hole punch or binding machine

How to:

1. Fold your paper in half (french-fold) so the white/clean side is out and the printed side is hidden in the middle! (If you use 8.5×11 paper, your notebook size will be 5.5” x 8.5”). We found that about 40 sheets of paper made for a nice notebook thickness.

2. Trim your cover pieces to 5.625” x 8.625”. That extra 1/8” will help keep the paper from sticking out beyond the cover.
3. Spray Super 77 onto one side of both cover pieces. Then lay gluey side down onto non-printed side of your wallpaper or wrapping paper. Make sure they are really stuck on there!
4. Use your ruler and exacto knife to trim out the cover pieces so the wallpaper is flush with the edges.
5. Punch holes! You want to bind along the non-folded edge of the paper, so be sure to punch the holes on the correct side. If you don’t have access to a handy-dandy office binding machine, you can use a hand hole-punch and just punch a hole at the top and bottom.
6. Bind ‘em up! Again, you can always do this by hand, whether with spiral binding materials, or even some ribbon, string or other materials you have laying around.
7. Enjoy!

these are so easy and very pretty!
my friend and designer Pam Dover has a post on her blog creating something similar using recycled paper grocery bags and discarded paper; check it out: http://inspirationturndesign.blogspot.com/2008/09/diy-paper-bag-note-cards.html

I did something of the sort for my first university notebooks back in ‘94. I don’t know if I was really thinking about the environment back then, but I thought why throw the paper away when I could reuse it. I hope more people keep in mind that it only takes a bit of creativity to make the old new again. Thanks for sharing!

CUTE idea! Sadly, I took a bookbinding class and never thought to do this myself… My binding probably won’t look as nice as this, but I think these WOULD be good stocking stuffers, as someone suggested!

p.s. also try using a sewing machine with a heavy jeans needle and quilting thread.
Use the sewing machine’s longest stitches, sew about 1/2″ from the cut edge.
Prep: You will need to score the cardboard about 1/4 ” from the sewing line so the cover opens along that fold (use a thinner cardboard for this method, and score before covering with paper or fabric)

with my used office paper i will cut it into 4ths and staple one corner (used side face down) and keep it on the desk by the phone for those quick jot-downs. i will deff try this D*S diy for my used materials at home!

Lovely books! I have been doing this for a while and they are great gifts with great message. Reuse! However, might I suggest using wheat paste instead of super 77. A product with respiratory and nervous system warnings doesn’t exactly denote “eco-friendly” :/

This is a beautiful idea. I just got done making a little notebook from recycled paper to use in my car to write down business mileage. I tied the pages with leftover copper wire and threaded an old polymer clay bead on that.

what a lovely way to reuse paper and to give lovely wallpaper scraps (or other patterned paper) a new use. wonderful client gifts! it leaves lots of room for personalization & creativity. thanks for sharing the “how to.”

I like using the cardboard from empty cereal boxes for the covers of little notebooks. One could always cover the boxes with a more design-friendly paper– or the boxes themselves might be a funky option. I love this project but am far more likely to have leftovers from food-packaging than such beautiful wallpaper!

I just realized: you can also hole punch in a few places and then use metal binder rings ( http://www.b3.net/files/images/small/t_599.jpg ) instead of string or ribbon. This will allow easier page turning.

I was experimenting with using old file folders for cover material (you know, the folders where the body of the folder is fine, but the tab has taken its last beating :-) They’re a little thin for fabric wrapping, but perfect for stamping or painting.

I’m using a bunch of old red folders and leftover lime green pipecleaners to put together Christmas notepads for gifts.

I am getting ready to move this week and while cleaning off my desk I ran into a goldmine of printouts from this semester. After a few hours work I have four lovely notebooks for next semester’s notes! Thanks for the tip- and the excuse to stop cleaning for one afternoon.

Write a Comment:

Design*Sponge reserves the right to restrict comments that do not contribute constructively to the conversation at hand, contain profanity, personal attacks or seek to promote a personal or unrelated business.