Recycle around your house for a cute notebook.

Materials used here: Cocoa Daisy Feb kit and Cosmo Cricket mini album Jack.

Step 1: Obtain an album cover. You can do this many ways. You can use all or part of a mini album you currently possess. No mini album? No worries. Get a template of any kind (old Jenni bowlin button packaging or Prima packaging is a good start, or another mini album you have but completed already!). Next find some cardboard/chipboard. Even cereal boxes are fair game. You can cover them with cardstock to re-create this look.

Step 2: Add some patterned paper that you have on your desk that you love. You don’t need much, just a scrap will do. Embellish with anything you like, I decided that a button and a circle punch out of a sticker scrap was just enough. I did the “Notes” via the computer, ala printer ink. But you can use letter stickers, dimensional alphas, rub-ons, or your own handwriting, whatever you have on hand.

Step 3: Find the filler paper. We all have extra paper around, be it notebook paper, printer paper, graph paper, even extra patterned paper is fair game. (It’s your notebook!) I seem to have an abundance of ruled, lined school paper laying around. So I traced the template for the album and starting cutting it while watching cartoons with my son in the evening. Best thing, when I run out of pages, I can make more!

Step 4: Embellish the inside any way you like. I decided the little bird rub-on from the Feb  Cocoa Daisy kit was the perfect touch, not for every page, just a few.

Step 5: You will need a single hole punch. Punch holes in the album cover (front and back) and your filler paper. You can add a jump ring to finish it or tie with ribbon.

Hope the next time the urge hits to go by a notebook, you decide to recycle around your home on the cheap first! I’d love to see what you come up with so please leave a link if you decide to make one.