Do you get that back-to-school feeling when you buy school supplies. It’s a dangerous feeling. I get it every time I go to an office supply store, which is why I have entirely too many paper products. I’m trying to help my children have that excitement about the beginning of school without tying it to buying.
I asked my children what supplies they need for school this year. We narrowed it down to 3-ring binders (which we have chosen from those we already had on the shelf), pencils (bought new), rulers (hard-edged metal rulers that will last a lifetime), and note paper. We write a lot of notes.
Rather than buy new notepads, I keep a pile of paper that is printed on one side to write notes. My son likes to write small notes to me, so we decided to make our own do-it-yourself re-used notepad.
Materials for DIY Notepad
- 40 sheets of paper
- paper cutter
- liquid glue (Elmer’s)
- newspaper
- Make sure all paper is blank on one side
- Cut paper into 4 or 6 pieces per sheet
- Tap paper to make one side very smooth
- Hold the paper tightly to keep that side smooth
- Spread out the newspaper
- Squeeze glue onto the smooth side
- Spread the glue evenly with your finger
- Fan the papers just a bit so the glue goes between the pages a bit
- Hold the papers for a couple of minutes until the glue stops running
- Set the notepad on the newspaper and let dry overnight
Now, we have a re-used notepad that keeps all of the scratch paper together in one pad. We’re still thinking about how to repurpose old supplies to make the rest.
