How to Easily Customize Plain Folders and Note Books for School.

In this instructable I will give some easy ideas for customizing plain, boring note books and folders although the process can be used on almost any school supplies.

Step 1: Gathering Materials

You will need plain school supplies to customize as well as items to customize them with.
My Materials-
-Plain black folder (9 cents at Walgreens)
- Plain black single subject note book (25 cents at Walmart)
- Thin Printed Cotton Material (Mine were recycled curtains from my parents camper.)
- Glue sticks (washable preferable so you can wipe up messes with damp paper towel)
- Clear adhesive plastic
- A print out of a cartoon character, photo, or logo from a band/celebrity you like)
- Scissors
- Glitter, paint, markers, crayons, little foam stickers (all option things you can use to make your supplies unique)

Step 2: Customizing Your School Supplies

These are just some easy ways to customize your supplies. Keep in mind the person they are for and what they like. I made my stuff for my 16 year old sister in law. She has fallen in love with my Parents' rock band SIXXKILLER. So I printed off one of their logs from online. Also she is a huge skull and pirate fan.

SIXXKILLER Note Book-
I printed out the Sixxkiller logo and then cut it out. Then I placed the clear plastic sheet with the paper side still on and cut out the plastic to be slightly larger than the image I chose. I then determined where to place it on the plain black note book. I then neatly glued down the image with a glue stick. Next I carefully pulled the paper backing off my clear plastic sheet and even more carefully placed it on top of the glued down Sixxkiller Logo. I opened up the note book and used a piece of the paper backing from the plastic sheet to make a "pocket" to place note cards in. I then glued the "pocket" down and used some extra pieces of clear plastic to seal the bottom three edges leaving the top open for cards. I also traced a guitar pick multiple times onto the inside cover of the notebook and then colored them in with sharpies. You can decorate the inside and outside however you like.

Skull Pirate Folder And Matching Note Book-

These were even easier to make than the Sixxkiller note book because I didn't have to deal with the plastic sheet. I simply cut out the Pirate Skulls with scissors being careful not to cut through pieces and glued each piece down on the cover with a glue stick. I did the same thing for note book and folder.

These are really simple/cheap ways to customize school supplies and you could really go crazy and make matching pencils/pens, notebooks, folders, stationary, binders, and just about any other school supplies using the same methods. I also like the idea of using crayola air dry clay to customize pens and mechanical pencils, with little skull heads to match the motif I went with.