Behold! The triumphant (ish) return of Waste Not Wednesday! Last week I found myself without a notebook and decided that rather than buy a new one, I'd use some of my existing stash! Go me!
All you'll need to replicate my efforts are some scrap papers, a hole punch and an old spiral bound notebook or photograph album (like the one I've used.)
1. Start by taking apart the remains of your old notebook by opening up the covers and gently prising apart the spiral binding and remove the notebook's covers. You'll notice that you'll need to remove the back cover, then the front cover and finally any remaining pages. 
2. Prepare your notebook pages.
Tip - I had a stack of 4 x 6 scraps already cut for scrapbooking and used these as my pages, but you can cut your scraps to size using your covers as a template or opt for a more loose-leaf style with pages of different shapes and sizes.
3. Use one of your covers as a guide for punching holes into your new notebook pages. Do this by stacking the cover onto your page and punching through the exisiting holes. Check your first page against the wire spiral to check the holes are in roughly the right places, then continue punching through the remaining pages.
Tip - If the holes in your notebook covers are square, simply use a pencil to mark the position of the holes, like I've done, then punch the holes into your first piece of paper. You can then use this a template to punch the remaining pages.
5. Once you've punched through all of your pages, put your notebook together again - reversing the process you used to dismantle the old notebook. First place all of the new pages onto the wire spiral, then add the front cover of the notebook - making sure that the front faces upwards. Now add the back cover of the notebook onto the spiral - making sure that the inside of the cover faces upwards. 
6. Gently pinch the wire spiral back together again and voila! 
This project is perfect for reusing notebooks that have such great designs that you don't want to throw them away, but since I used a plain, old photograph album I'll be decorating mine over the next few days. So, do pop back and have a peek at the weekend, eh?
1. Start by taking apart the remains of your old notebook by opening up the covers and gently prising apart the spiral binding and remove the notebook's covers. You'll notice that you'll need to remove the back cover, then the front cover and finally any remaining pages. 
2. Prepare your notebook pages.Tip - I had a stack of 4 x 6 scraps already cut for scrapbooking and used these as my pages, but you can cut your scraps to size using your covers as a template or opt for a more loose-leaf style with pages of different shapes and sizes.
3. Use one of your covers as a guide for punching holes into your new notebook pages. Do this by stacking the cover onto your page and punching through the exisiting holes. Check your first page against the wire spiral to check the holes are in roughly the right places, then continue punching through the remaining pages.Tip - If the holes in your notebook covers are square, simply use a pencil to mark the position of the holes, like I've done, then punch the holes into your first piece of paper. You can then use this a template to punch the remaining pages.
5. Once you've punched through all of your pages, put your notebook together again - reversing the process you used to dismantle the old notebook. First place all of the new pages onto the wire spiral, then add the front cover of the notebook - making sure that the front faces upwards. Now add the back cover of the notebook onto the spiral - making sure that the inside of the cover faces upwards. 
6. Gently pinch the wire spiral back together again and voila! 
This project is perfect for reusing notebooks that have such great designs that you don't want to throw them away, but since I used a plain, old photograph album I'll be decorating mine over the next few days. So, do pop back and have a peek at the weekend, eh? 
You are most clever indeed :-) I love making my own notebooks, I shall add this method to the repertoire! xx
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! I'm always loathed to throw those binders away but can never be bothered makin gthe effort to give them a new lease of life! You're such a good example!
ReplyDeleteAnd it's perfect for those of us without a Bind-it-All.
Bravo! Jxx
What a great idea! I never would have thought to do this!
ReplyDeleteyou blow me away! now if I only had the patience necessary to pull this off!
ReplyDeleteThat's a good recycling tip. I have thought about this myself, but been too lazy to do anything about it!! Now I don't think I have any excuse...
ReplyDeleteNice tutorial and very cute notebook! I love using 4x6 scraps for stuff like this! :o)
ReplyDeleteI make my own notebooks as well - this is another great idea to add to the repetoire!
ReplyDeleteCool idea :)
ReplyDeleteWow - very cool idea! Thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea Clair and a brilliant tutorial! I was just about to throw out an old notebook with hard covers and just one page left (been using it for my shopping lists!) but I think I'll keep hold of it and have a go at this :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea, I love the way all the different kinds of paper look together!
ReplyDeleteyay great idea will come in handy for my studies x
ReplyDeleteWhat a great frugal idea!!!
ReplyDeleteNow that is a great idea!
ReplyDelete