Monday Made It: Chevron Notebook Covers

Hi everyone, I'm back for another Monday Made It. This week I am sharing a project that is near and dear to my heart. 

Let me introduce you to my Kinder Kids journals. This is something new I am trying this year. I decided wanted my students to have something to do as they sat on the carpet during our whole group meeting time and so I will try having them work in here as I work on the easel.

They didn't always look so adorable. As a matter a fact I didn't like them at all when we started. I had every intention of getting already cute notebooks and cutting them in half, but life got in the way and I did not want to put that much effort into it. So here is where I began.

I know they aren't that bad but I really had my heart set on some of those chevron shorty notebooks, I just refused to pay THAT much for them. They were 3x the price of a full one. I knew I could do better.

 Step 1 is to print your cover page. I cut the left sides of off mine so that the page would be centered. However I wanted the top, bottom and right side left on so that I could fold over.

Step 2 is to mix your glue, regular white glue with water. I did not measure, I just, very slowly added water until it was the consistency I wanted, like honey. If it is too thin, add more glue, too thick add more water.

 I put it in a wide lip cup and used a paintbrush to mix and apply.

Step 3, I cleared my surface and applied a coat of the water glue to the cover of the composition notebook.

Once a layer was on the cover I placed the sheet on top just where I wanted it and moved on to the next notebook. I had 25 of these to do.

I left the top, bottom and sides out on purpose. I wanted the font cover to dry before I applied more wet glue to the back. I was afraid of having a soggy mess. So this is what my floor looked like.

I turned them upside down to ensure that the cover would dry flat and not curve due to the moisture. I then left them to dry over night.

Day 2.

For this side I placed a pice of large construction paper under my notebook to ensure that could glue all the way to the edge without fear of making a mess of my table. First, I opened my front cover.

 Next, I applied a layer of glue on the just the outer flaps of the cover and folded the corners in.

 Then I folded the top and bottom flaps in.

 Last, I folded the right side of the flap in.

 This time I stacked them up to add weight as they dried. Again dry over night.

So what do you think? I'm kind of in love with how they look.

I liked it so much I repeated the process with my First graders spiral notebooks. Though I did not fold the flaps over. I cut all 4 sides and clipped the edges with my corner cutter.

Final product.

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