Hand-Created Mini Notepads bound with OOAK pour paint atcs!

Paper & Vinyl Crafts Completed Projects
#1

I remember seeing @Bunny1kenobi send hand-designed notepads in several swaps, which gave me this idea! I’ve been doing a lot of paint pouring. I’ll pick up the excess on atc blanks. I have a bunch of cardboard pieces from cat food boxes, and dedided to make my own notepads! Each has 20 pages of paper and they are 3.5" by 5".

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I have made 13 or so today! I have some teacher friends who are gonna tag team watch my cat when I’m on vacay, so I think I’ll pick up some cool pens and give them a pad as part of their thank you.

So, first, I get my supplies. I cut my notebook paper to size, cardboard to size, and go one by one using double sided tape to adhere the pages together.

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I put the tape on the edge of the side of my pour painting atc blanks that will be front and fold it in. Then, I use 2-3 strips of tape each side to hold my piece on.

Ta da!

Super pretty and functional notepads. These are addictive! And, would look cool with masterboards or any patterned paper!

Watch out STS! Someone say stocking stuffer?!

Here are close ups of some I really like.

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You may notice I don’t have the same width on each painted part.

Oh well. Character!

Thanks for looking!

12 Likes
#2

What a great gift. I always need small thank yous and favors and this is ideal!

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#3

Kewl!
Did you know they make pad glue, designed to be applied to the page edges to stick them together?

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#4

Those look great; what fabulous gifts! I’ll second the recommendation for the padding compound… it works very well to create notepads with tear-off sheets.

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#5

Love this idea, what a great little stash to have for instant gifts when you need one to give.

I have also used a sewing machine to create perforated pages.

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#6

Using the ATC blanks is a great way to mitigate some of the waste of paint pouring projects! And this is a fun way to use those no-longer-blanks.

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#7

These would make great stocking stuffers!

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#8

@steiconi @endymion I did not, but figured there is something! I am currently happy just using my stash. However, if I keep making these, I may invest!

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#9

These are great little projects to use up that stash and make something unique, useful, and fun!

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#10

These turned out really cute! Great idea, excellent stocking stuffers! What an awesome way to use up some stash!! I love it!

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#11

I used up the rest of my pour paint atc blanks!

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#12

I remember seeing @Bunny1kenobi making these as well and bookmarked them! What a fabulous idea to use up those small leftovers!

I am always looking for small notebooks for my crazy list making and have tons of paper to recycle.

@steiconi – what is this glue you talk about? I don’t have double sided tape so I need to buy something anyway to put the pages together. FOUND ANSWER.

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#13

I looked it up on Amazon and found a bunch, but how does it work?

#14

how to use

It is the rubbery stuff that you find on the book pages to hold them together…guess you can use binder clips and glue the edges…for a small notepad, it might be more work…

video

#15

@AIMR @Lynx2Lancer I’m wondering whether that’s the same stuff @kittykill used for her notepad feature on Craftster? If so, she might also have some tips? (Might as well end every sentence with a question mark?)

#16

I used padding compound for the notepads I made.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005N9J97S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3 Likes
#17

These are beautiful!

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#18

When I used padding compound, it was the same brand as @kittykill linked—“Chica and Jo”. I made notepads, also. Held the pages together with binder clips and painted a fairly thick layer on the edge to be bound. It worked great!

#19

Cool idea to use up extra paint! I hate the waste from paint pours even though they do look cool.

I agree that the padding compound would make them 1000x better because then you could take out pages you used more easily. Plus, I’m sure it would be a lot less work than adding the double sided tape!

#20

I think you’ve all talked me into trying that padding glue out. It’s in my Amazon cart, but I’ll be on vacation next week, so it’ll be a bit. For now, I’m content with my double sided tape. I know it doesn’t tear as easily, but I did tear a page out today and it was okay. And, for 20 page mini pads, double sided tape isn’t a big deal. But, I’m always up for trying something new.

I have like 20 books made and 14 ready for atc blanks to dress them up. I have about 20 more pieces of cardboard atm.