DIY Notebook Cover

I have a road trip coming up in 6 days and I’m excited to make a checklist. Although I always have a notebook where I jot down all of my notes and thoughts, mostly work-related, I want to have a separate tickler for travel.

I have tons of unused notebooks. Most of them pretty – sometimes too pretty. And since travel ticklers are bound to be tossed around and be overused, I was half-hearted about using the pretty ones. Being affiliated with a school, we get a lot of freebies from our publishers – from umbrellas to appliances, from desk calendars to, yes, notebooks!

Being promotional materials, they of course always have that year’s campaign material on the cover AND inside cover, plus several pages of marketing on the first few (many, actually) pages, and even some at the back. I just wanted to cover this up and for it suit me – have it in a design and size I like, but cheap enough to throw into my travel purse or backpack.

I ripped off all the pages with marketing material and then proceeded to covering it. You can use wrapping paper, burlap, maybe even an old map (perfect for traveling theme) or anything you like but I wanted the recycled vibe so I used the yellow pages from our directory.

I wanted to use spray adhesive but still couldn’t source one (I already tried National Bookstore and Ace Hardware) so I just used glue stick. I opt for glue stick over white glue because they give a nicer finish since glue tends to make paper crumple (kulubot is the better term). Just cover it like you would any other book. I just made sure to cover the inside cover as well since I want to conceal the marketing material printed on it too.

You’ll then have a completely covered flap. Just cut off excess paper (I cringed a little before I cut the yummy burger) then completely cover it.

And then tadaaaa, you’ll have a pretty covered notebook…NOT. The green at the side ruined it and crashed it to pieces. Okay, OA. Haha but I really didn't like it :(

Although it was going to be a tedious job, if there’s a will, there’s a way - I grabbed my trusty Sharpie and shaded away. I started by drawing a line to cover the division where the yellow paper ended, then filling all the “easy” gaps, then shaded under the actual rings. This isn’t the most convenient step of this project but it was the one thing bringing me to the end and it was worth it.

I know I’m showing the inside flap in the photos but it’s the same process anyway. Wasn’t able to capture the outside (hehe). And you guessed it right, you will do this process 4 times – 2 for the outside front and back, and another 2 for the inside.

And then you’ll have a brand new notebook! Yay! Here are before and after photos of the front and back:

Here's also the before and after of the inside covers. Notice that I removed the first and last pages with marketing material. And I really like that I was able to fully and neatly cover the whole inside flap.

Some details, and welcome to the brands/companies seen in the post (haha).

Now off to do my road trip checklist. I’m happy that I can bring this and not worry about keeping it pretty. It’s bound to be an all-around scratch or doodle paper anyway so I'm really happy that I didn't spend anything for this, just love haha :)