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Nov 11 2020
By
EVPL Staff
Recycled notebooks are a great way to get creative while helping the environment. Not only are they easy to make, but they are also cheap, customizable, and help you reuse everyday household items. Plus, once you’ve made the notebook, you can write about how green you’re being!
Materials
- Cereal box (or similar type of cardboard box)
- Scrap paper
- Scissors
- Stapler (or needle and thread)
Instructions
- Break down your cardboard box to “open it up.” Take the box apart by cutting alongside the folds. Discard all pieces except the largest two (these should be the “front” and “back” of the box). Place one of the two aside.
- Using one of the two largest pieces, fold the long side of your piece in half (so that it becomes short, not long).
- Gather your scrap paper and trim unwanted edges (i.e. punched holes, margins that don’t match, etc.).
- Fold paper into quarters. Cut alongside the shorter fold and place half aside.
- Place folded paper inside folded cardboard and trim cardboard to match paper size.
- Choose your own adventure:
- With the book open, staple alongside the fold to bind it. If the stapler is too short to reach the fold, staple the closed book.
- Using a needle or awl, poke holes through the fold (both paper and cardboard) in the same places and sew together to bind.
- Cut a piece of duct tape approximately the size of the book’s fold. Fold and flatten duct tape along the outside. Trim any excess.
From there you should be ready to start writing!
We’d love to see your notebooks, so please send your pictures to us on Facebook (Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library), Twitter (@EVPLibrary), or Instagram (@evplibrary)!
