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Summer Project: Upcycle School Art by making a Beautiful Notebook
Published 06.11.2009 | Permanent Link | Comments (9)
By Cindy Hopper
Here is a great way to recycle a child's artwork into beautiful notebooks in minutes! These notebooks make great gifts or super cool journals to keep kids writing over summer vacation.
You will need spray adhesive, a composition notebook, child's artwork the size of the notebook cover, colored duct tape and a sharp utility knife.
If you don't already have a selection of artwork that you can use have your favorite artist get busy.
Make a color photo copy of the picture. We found copying the artwork gave the journal cover a smooth finish. If you don't mind the waxy feel of the crayons or your picture was made with markers, this step can be omitted.
Spray the back of the picture with spray adhesive.
Place picture on the top of the notebook and then trim around the edge with a knife.
The artwork is trimmed to the edge of the notebook cover.
Place a piece of colored duct tape on the bound edge of the notebook. Allow half of the width for the front and half to wrap around to the back.
Trim edges of the duct tape even with the notebook.
Ta Da!
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About this column
This is a year-round Holiday column. Kids love Holidays. As parents we have come to appreciate how Holidays seem to help structure our lives. Plus, any excuse to have fun sounds good to us!
We'll admit it, now that we're parents, we secretly look for Holidays to celebrate and between National, Secular, Unofficial and Bizarre Holidays, we think there are enough days out there to keep us inspired every week.
This column will be a place where you can get inspiration for how to enjoy time with your kids. Crafting projects and ideas will be posted on Thursdays by our brilliant contributors (see below). Other fun ideas will be posted here throughout the week as the inspiration hits us!
About our Craft Contributors
Ellen Luckett Baker is the author of the long thread, a blog about handmade goods. She has always enjoyed making things, but the flexibility of staying at home with her two daughters along with the creative inspiration they provide has led her to craft on a daily basis. Combining her love of graphic design and sewing, she has created an Etsy shop selling machine embroidery designs and sewing patterns.
Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master's of Public Administration with a focus in Non-Profit Management.
Cindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts. This background led to a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education. With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills on to her three children. Cindy's family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects. Cindy's personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties. Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.
Marie LeBaron is a 30 something stay at home mom in Utah. Before life as a mother, she graduated with a teaching degree in Early Childhood & Elementary Education, after which she taught four years of Kindergarten. After her first child was born, she decided to read books and sing silly songs at home. She misses the classroom, but she now gets to bring the fun and learning into her home and ours. You’ll see her kids a lot in these projects as they are her guinea pigs and for whom she's creative. You can follow more of her projects at her personal blog Make and Takes.
Brenda Ponnay is a stealthy secret agent who juggles parenthood to her adorable daughter by day and freelance graphic design by night. Whether it's painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card board boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has finally discovered (at the ripe old age of thirty-six) that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.
Brenda lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, three cats and thirty-seven pet birds. You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.
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This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.
Comments (9):
Connie said:
tooo sweet!! I love this! I would also suggest either clear contact paper or 3" clear tape across the cover to protect the masterpiece... I know that this will definitely encourage my daughter to write!! Thanks for the great idea!!
Posted on June 12, 2009 11:49
Denene@MyBrownBaby said:
What a FANTASTIC idea! My girls will LOVE this...
Posted on June 12, 2009 11:52
Rebecca said:
Would mod podge over the top also protect? If so, and would work over crayon, can skip the color copy part.
Posted on June 12, 2009 19:04
Kathy Bigler said:
We did this tonight and it was a huge hit!!! My daughter made a prayer journal for the summer. The only thing I would suggest is that no background be left white, as we could see the actual print of the composition book. Thanks for a great idea!!! :o)
_______________
Editor: Thank you so much for letting us know. We love to hear reports back on how our projects went. Whee!
Posted on June 12, 2009 22:49
Toddler Craft Onna said:
I love this idea!! Simple, fun and useful!! What's better then that. I have bags of art work that I am looking to use!! I'll be creating this project!! Thanks!!
Posted on June 12, 2009 23:38
SoBella Creations said:
What a fantastic idea!
Posted on June 13, 2009 18:45
Sherry Artemenko said:
Great idea! Also, how about making a scrapbook of all the artwork for the year? Snap a photo of all sizes of artwork and paste the pictures in the notebook with plenty of room to write about them. The artwork may be a starting point for a wonderful fiction piece, encouraging language.
I am a speech language pathologist with lots of ideas on how to talk, read and play with your child to encourage language. Summer is a great time to do this!
http://www.playonwords.com
Posted on June 14, 2009 19:40
Noreen said:
Micheals' has art notebooks for $1 this week, well my local one does at least
Posted on June 15, 2009 02:06
Erinn said:
I have used modge podge for the entire project before, and covering the finished product with it is a great idea although it does curl the cover a bit. To make this more an adult's style, I have used scrapbook paper for the cover.
Posted on July 7, 2009 01:01