Cheap, quick and easy to do, Moleskine-like notebook with Clairefontaine paper

How to turn a basic Clairefontaine notebook into a good looking notebook with cool features like a Moleskine but with a good paper such as Clairefontaine's.

Step 1: Get the right tools

You will need:

Materials:
- a Clairefontaine clothbound notebook (or whatever brand you like)
- sturdy, good looking paper (I bought a blue fabric paper for this)
- (optional) good looking paper, for the inside panels
- elastic band (8mm wide, I got it at the supermarket, where you find thread, buttons, and other sewing tools and materials.)

Tools:
- superglue, or other strong glue
- paper glue (optional, you can use the superglue for everything)
- scissors (**if you're not old enough to use a bladed tool safely, ask an adult to use the scissors for you**)
- good knife (should cut cleanly, don't use kitchen knives...) (**same disclaimer than for the scissors. Depends on your maturity, some 7-year-old kids behave responsibly with a knife, some 40-year-old people don't**)

Comments

[josefu0]

OMG is that a balisong?

[choubbi]

Yup, a mini balisong with brass handles, made by Armand Palacio (Philippines). I love it !

[josefu0]

im glade u said so. they are awsome. filipino made one's are the best. like mine. my model is the JC08. i make mai own since mai parents wont allow me to buy one. cheap, durable, and long lasing.

[shostakovich]

good idea...

[reticledc]

I guess that Moleskine just put out there what some people already needed and or wanted and put a bit of coolness factor into it. They are sharp to say the least. Well I guess that could be construed as a matter of opinion.

[choubbi]

Thanks I guess the cool factor of the Moleskine is responsible for that. Their notebooks are very classy looking, their marketing is quite effective (on me at least), and I love their City notebooks, full of features of which you'll only need 1/4. I wouldn't have looked at a notebook thinking "wow that's cool" before Moleskine, I think. To make your own Moleskine notebook is the way to have all the features you'll use without the ones you don't care for.

[Patrik]

What is up with all these Moleskin instructables anyway? You'd think that nobody had ever thought about making a notebook before Moleskin came around.

Is this just a fad, or is there something I'm missing here?

Oh, and: "nice instructable!" ;-)