Decorate Your Notebook

You don't have to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful notebook that will have everyone asking, "Where did you get that?" To decorate your own notebook, all you need is a few basic craft materials, some time, and the willingness to flex your creativity muscle. If you want to know how to decorate your notebook and have your friends and classmates wish they could have done the same, just follow these simple steps.

Steps

Pictures and Stickers

1. Write your name on a piece of paper. Choose a paper that is shaped like a small rectangle that fits the size of your notebook, and reinforce it with cardboard for durability. You can write not only your name, but the subject of your class, and your roll number, or any other relevant information. Once you've filled out the card, you can glue the paper to the front of the notebook -- ordinary glue or a glue-stick will do. Also use sticky notes for easy notebook organisation. Just write the subject and stick the sticky note on the side of the book. Do this to all your books. Now it looks so much more organised and fancier!
   • After you glue down the paper, smooth it down to avoid any bumps. If it's too bumpy, then react quickly and take the paper off before it sticks down properly and re-glue it.
2. Glue fun pictures to the cover of your notebook. You can use pictures of animals, pictures from comic strips, or even pictures of your favorite celebrities. You can cover as much of the notebook as you like, as long as you don't cover the card with your name on it. This is all about personalizing the notebook -- choose the pictures that appeal to you.
3. Add stickers to the front of your notebook. Place the stickers in any empty parts of your notebook. You can also partially cover the pictures you've glued onto the notebook, if you like, for a layered effect. 3D stickers also make it look really awesome-but don't use them if you don't want to. Just don't cover the index card with the stickers. You can also Make Stickers Using Clear Tape and put them on your notebook.
4. Glue fabric around the index card. Find a lacy, beautiful fabric and and glue it around the border of the index card. This will give your notebook a more elegant look. Some stronger glue will be best for this purpose, such as craft bond tacky glue, or craft bond fabric and paper glue. You can even decorate the fabric with glitter.
5. Doodle around any free spaces in your notebook. If you haven't covered your notebook completely, you can use the same color marker you used for the index card to draw small designs on the notebook, such as hearts, stars, lips, or flowers. And if you get bored with your new notebook, you can always add more layers to it.

Glitter Stripes

1. Brush one 2" (5 cm) horizontal stripe of Mod Podge onto your notebook. This type of glue and sealer is perfect for securing glitter to your notebook. To cover your notebook in glittered horizontal stripes, you'll need to brush on the Mod Podge for one stripe, cover it with your desired color, and then do the process again for another color. If you brush all of it on at once, the glitter won't stay within the confines of the stripes and will spill everywhere. Use a sponge brush to apply the Mod Podge.
   • You can adjust the size of the stripe to the size of your notebook. You should have at least five stripes on the notebook, so you can make them a bit thicker or thinner so they cover the notebook evenly.
2. Cover this stripe with one color of glitter. Choose one color of glitter and sprinkle it on to the stripe. You can smooth down the glitter with your fingers, and shake off any excess glitter. For best results, wait a minute or two for this layer to dry.
3. Brush another 2" (5 cm) horizontal stripe of Mod Podge underneath the first stripe. Once you've created the first glittery stripe, make another stripe of glue below it.
4. Cover this stripe with a different color of glitter. Do exactly what you did with the first color of glitter, except use a new color that will nicely contrast with the first. For example, you can use blue and yellow, green and red, or silver and gold.
5. Repeat these steps until you've covered the notebook with glitter. Continue adding a stripe of Mod Podge followed by a stripe of glitter to the notebook until you've covered the notebook with colors of alternating glittery stripes.
6. Add a second layer of Mod Podge and glitter to the notebook. Once you've covered your notebook with the stripes, brush another layer of Mod Podge over the first stripe, cover it in glitter, and then repeat this process with each stripe until you've covered the whole notebook with a second layer of stripes. This will make the glitter stick to the notebook even more.
7. Add white paint to make the stripes stand out more. To emphasize the contrasting stripes, use a thin brush to add a layer of white paint around the stripes. This will make the colors "pop" more and will complete your original glittery notebook. If you've chosen very light colors, like yellow and baby blue, you can think about using a Gray or darker color to emphasize them instead of white.

T-Shirt Cover

1. This will not work with spiral notebooks- the best you can do with them is cut out two pieces- one for the back and one for the front and stick the two on. Find an old t-shirt with a fun design or logo. You will cover your notebook with this shirt, so pick something that is fun, eye-catching, and a shirt that you don't wear any more but can't bring yourself to throw out-just make sure that the design is small enough to fit on your notebook and not too big so that you can't see it, and not to small so that it looks tiny on the notebook.http:
2. Place the opened notebook on the T-shirt. Put it over the logo or design you'd like to put on the cover of the notebook. Open the notebook so that the pages are facing you.
3. Mark the outline of the notebook with chalk, leaving a 2" (5 cm) border. This will help you know where to cut the t-shirt. If you cut it too close to the size of the notebook, it may end up being too small.
4. Cut along the outline of the t-shirt. Now use scissors to cut the outline of the t-shirt. This t-shirt will cover the front and back of the notebook.
5. Place the t-shirt cover face down. This will prepare you for sticking the t-shirt fabric onto the front of the notebook.
6. Apply tacky glue all over the front cover of the book. Use a Popsicle stick to spread the glue all over the front cover of the notebook. Make sure to reach the edges of the notebook with the glue without covering any of the pages. You can also use a sponge brush to apply the glue. Tacky glue will work best for adhering the t-shirt to the cover of the notebook.
7. Press the t-shirt fabric into the glue. Gently glide along the t-shirt with your hand and make sure that it sticks evenly to the glue, avoiding any bumps. The part of the shirt that you'll be using for the back cover will remain untouched.
8. Flip the notebook and spread glue across the back cover. Do the same thing you did to cover the front with the tacky glue.
9. Place the remaining t-shirt fabric over the back cover. Do what you did to the front side -- just take the second half of the t-shirt and press it into the back of the notebook. Then, you should wait for the notebook to dry. You can even press it between heavy books or boxes to keep it flat and to avoid any bumps that could appear under the t-shirt.
10. Trim the fabric around the book cover. Since you left extra room when you cut the fabric of the t-shirt, you'll have some extra fabric left over. Just cut the extra fabric with a thin and sharp pair of scissors, and touch up any parts of the t-shirt that may not have stuck to the notebook evenly with glue.

Tips

• You can always draw on strips of paper and glue them on later if you're unsure of your drawing skills.
• Sometimes just doodling is the way to go.
• You don't have to cut a rectangle. For a cool look you can make a star, bubble or a flower
• All of these ways to decorate are the more-complicated version. It might just be easier to buy a pre-designed notebook or even just sharpie design on the cover of a plainer notebook.
• If the glitter keeps falling off, add a top layer of mod podge to seal it off. Now glitter shouldn't fall off anymore!

Warnings

• If you decide to do the fabric or glitter thing, make sure it's not too gaudy or over the top.

Things You'll Need

Pictures and Stickers Method

• Glue
• Tape (any kind)
• Markers, crayons etc.
• Pictures from magazines, books, etc.
• Stickers
• Ribbon or strips of any fabric
• Index card (any color)
• Glitter (optional)
• notebook

Glitter Stripes Method

• Two colors of glitter
• Mod Podge
• Sponge brush
• White or dark paint
• Thin paintbrush
• notebook

T-Shirt Cover Method

• An old t-shirt
• Scissors
• Tacky Glue
• notebook
• chalk

Sources and Citations

See also

• Organize Your Binder for School
• Decorate Your School Binder
• Keep Your Binder Clean and Organized
• Create a Paper Bag Book Cover
• Make a Cover Page for a Notebook
• Organize Your Middle School Binder
• Make a Duct Tape Book Cover
• Cover a Textbook

What links here

• Make a Notebook