Paper Craft: Notebook Covers

I design and craft original covers for all my notebooks. I have been doing this for years and have amassed quite a collection. The following photos are of the covers I made for the notebook I use to scribble down what Mum does in the kitchen (I was a bit slack with the previous notebook and resorted to sticking wine labels on instead). When making a cover, I would normally put a lot of thought and time and effort into the planning, design and details, but made these covers quickly as I wanted something nicer to look at than the notebook makers name emblazoned on the cover. I used what equipment and papers I had to hand, and made this project into a recycling challenge, using recycled off-cut scraps of paper from other craft projects.

HEXAGONS – SPOTS:

This is on the front cover of my notebook and features white spotted hexagons in contrasting colours.

HEXAGONS – BLUE BACKING

This is on the front inside cover of my notebook.

COLOUR GRADED FLOWERS

This is on the back page of my notebook.

INVERSE OF THE COLOUR GRADED FLOWERS COVER (making use of the off-cuts and scraps):

This is on the inside of the back cover of my notebook.

This is backed with grey card and I used 3M spray-on-glue to apply the strips (I sprayed the glue onto the strips rather than the sheet of card, otherwise the flower-shaped gaps would be sticky and attract every piece of fluff in the vicinity).

EQUIPMENT TO MAKE HEXAGON COVERS:

I used the Fiskars brand hexagon easy-grip punch. This is the large size (approximately the equivalent of a 38 mm circle, or 1.5 inches)

You will also need a glue roller, scissors, craft knife, ruler, card for the backing, a cutting mat is also handy to work on, and I found that a pen-eraser (or the eraser on the end of a pencil) was the most handy tool for moving about the individual hexagons on the backing paper. It is much easier than using fingers, as the eraser grips the paper.

I did a mock-up of the layout to get the dimensions in order and to make sure the colour patterns looked good to the eye. When you are happy with the layout it pays to take a photo ‘just in case’ the layout of the pieces gets inadvertently bumped, or you have to pack up. Referring to a photo means you can recreate the pattern.

When happy with the layout, carefully remove a hexagon and place a piece of glue roller tape to the back of the hexagon, then affix back into place. Do this for all the hexagons. When finished glueing, trim the excess edges of the hexagons so they are flush with the backing card.

EQUIPMENT USED TO MAKE THE FLOWER COVERS:

Flower punch (the actual cut flower is 15 mm wide), coloured card stock, backing card, PVA glue. You will need a sharp craft knife, ruler, and cutting mat, to cut the backing card. As in the above description for the hexagons, the eraser was a great tool for moving the tiny flowers into place. I also took a photo of the layout before sticking everything down with a tiny dot of PVA glue.

TO FINISH:

I used 3M removable spray-on glue to affix my cover-art to the covers of the notebook. When in place I sealed all the covers with clear plastic contact.