I’ve been thoroughly lacking in creative energy the last couple of months. I got myself over-committed to something I didn’t really want to do in the first place, which ended up being incredibly stressful and taking much more time than I had available. That finished a couple of weeks ago, and as I recovered, I’ve only been able to contemplate calming admin work for Little Conkers, rather than anything requiring a creative effort. However, I know I must be on the mend now because – as well as my OH accusing me of singing around the house again – my “Slicing Day” today turned into something more creative. I ended up making myself a proper scrap paper notebook, using up some of the paper that would otherwise have gone into the recycling.
Slicing Day is a day I give over to papery activities based around the guillotine. I make the ball bands I use on my mini yarn skeins, the little slips that go in my kits listing the packaging materials, and my business cards which I cut from cereal packets. As well as these items for my business, I also use the opportunity to slice up scrap paper for the household.
Between my business, home education resources, being secretary to a local committee and occasionally stage managing for a local am dram group, I produce a lot of paper materials! Inevitably there’s waste that comes out of that – misprints, papers that are only printed on one side, etc. Any paper that is only printed on one side, or at one end, is kept for sketching, design work or sliced up into smaller notepaper.
Today I found that many pages of the prompt book from my last production, which I created with lines down the side of every other page, had little enough writing on that they make perfect list paper when sliced vertically. The other half of the paper was cut in two to make A6 note paper.
But as I say, my creative mojo was back today, and I for some reason decided to make myself an actual notebook / journal out of some of this half-used paper.
Making my Scrap Paper Notebook
Firstly, I over-printed some of the pages that already had printing on one side, where I wouldn’t be able to write on those sides anyway. I just did this with PowerPoint.
On other pages, I printed lines or squares on both sides.
I also have some already-lined pages I could re-use. I cut off any holes/staples.
I gathered these sheets together into five ‘signatures’, each with roughly the same number of lined, squared and graphic pages.
Then I folded them all in half and stacked them in an order that felt evenly distributed. I gave all this an untypical lack of thought! I didn’t worry as to which way to fold the sheets, which way up to orient them, or whether all five signatures should be identically laid out (they aren’t).
I even got excited enough to add a squirrel to each signature!
This wonderful hand-carved squirrel stamp was made by the incredibly talented Anna Bilyk. Do check out her website for beautiful prints, collages and of course stamps.
Then came the process of binding, something I have never done before. This was only possible because I found this brilliant tutorial by Natasa of Treasure Books. Nine times out of ten I prefer written instructions to learning from a video, but Natasa’s videos are the rare combination of clear, detailed and friendly that makes them an absolute pleasure to watch. Even if I am never going to attempt to dye paper with avocado skins, I still watched her whole video on the subject, just because it was enjoyable.
So I poked four holes in each signature (I just used a tapestry needle and determination).
I cut two covers from a cereal packet. I haven’t thrown away a cereal packet in decades. The rest of the packet went to make some more needle cards for my crochet kits. I poked the corresponding holes in the covers too.
Then I bound them with some ancient crochet thread. It came from my Great Aunt, so it’s probably over 100 years old. Wonderful to find something to use it for.
I enjoyed the repetitive pattern of stitching involved in this binding technique. I can see how it could become quite addictive. The result is maybe a little on the floppy side – that’s something I’m sure that comes with experience: knowing how tight is tight enough but not too tight.
And now I have an actual, functional notepad! For someone like me who needs to write daily for their sanity, and who also perversely hates to ‘spoil’ notebooks by writing in them, this is a wondrous thing!
And guess what – it works perfectly with my up-cycled pen holder too!
Some of the sheets of paper in this journal relate to The Bad Thing I didn’t enjoy doing, and I feel that this process has been a way of taking back what I lost, striking it out and making it into something positive.
I’ve learnt a whole new technique that is so much more effective than the stapling or hole-punching and treasury tag attempts at scrap notebooks I’ve made in the past. And I did this whole thing in two hours, without any measuring or fussing! Definitely something I will be doing again when the scrap paper pile starts to mount up.
Find recycled paper notepads that you can personalise with the message of your choice on the front in my shop:
