Recycle Paper and Card to Make Cute Little Notebooks

This weekend, after my dramas at the dentist, I was looking for a quick and easy craft project to lift my spirits. I decided to follow this Paint Sample Notebook Tutorial to make a couple of cute little notebooks.

As I didn't have any paint sample cards, I used a piece of blue card that had been part of a mailing I received during the week and piece of pink card left over from another craft project.

The tutorial was very easy to follow. I used pieces of scrap paper that were blank on both sides. The most time-consuming part of the creation process was cutting the pieces of paper down to the correct size. Once I had one piece of paper of the correct size, I used it as a template for cutting out the other pieces of paper.

The tutorial suggests using 20 sheets of paper in each notebook, but I used only 10, as I don't have a heavy duty stapler. My normal stapler coped with stapling 10 sheets to the card but I don't think it would have coped with 20.

I decorated the notebook with a few bits and pieces hanging around in my craft box. I cut out a frangipani flower from a piece of paper and stuck on a string of pink flowers at the bottom. As a finishing touch, I added the word 'notes' in stickers.

My daughter decorated the pink notebook, adding fairy stickers and her name and age! She then practiced her writing inside and challenged me to a few games of noughts and crosses!

I love the notebooks we made. They would be very useful to tuck inside your handbag (purse). I'm going to make some more and give them as extra gifts for birthdays and Christmas.

This is such a quick and easy craft project - anyone can do it! And, you don't need to buy any materials - just use up paper, card and decorations that you have lying around. You are recycling whilst creating something beautiful and useful!