Stenciled Notebook

Quick project I whipped up. Enjoy!

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

For this tutorial you're going to need the following things:

1. Composition Notebook
2. Brown craft paper
3. Fabric for the spine and covers
4. Fabric paint
5. Freezer paper stencil
6. Pencil
7. Scissors
8. Paintbrush
9. Glue
10. Something to paint on (I used a piece of cardboard covered in plastic)

This looks like a lot of stuff but this is a really easy project. Great for the kids for back to school or just anyone who needs a nice personalized notebook.

Step 2: Grab Your Book

Take your notebook and lay it on one of the fabric pieces. Open the cover on top of it, making sure it's just the front cover and trace around it. This helps you center your stencil later. Flip the fabric over and fold it around the cover. Repeat this for the back cover. The purpose of folding it over is so you can see how it'll look when you're done.

Step 3: Grab Your Gluestick

Grab your gluestick and your brown paper. Cut two pieces and glue them to the covers. Place something heavyish on top of it so it will dry flat and not get warped. While that's drying, grab your spine fabric and cut a piece big enough to fit your spine. Make sure it's long enough to fold over on each end (this cuts down on fraying). I like to test the fabric length on the spine of a book I'm not currently decorating. Iron the ends, then glue them down. You can 'hem' the long sides of the spine fabric if you like but I don't because my paper is going to cover them.

Step 4: Stencil Time!

Take your stencil and iron it on to your cover pieces. For this tutorial I used a sunflower, but you can use anything you like-just make sure it's not something too intricate or it'll take forever to iron on all the little pieces. You can also use any color you like. Paint your stencil and let dry.

Pro Tip: Don't use too many layers of paint or your design will be stiff. ;)

Step 5: Finishing Up!

Peel the stencil off carefully and stick something between the book cover and the pages so nothing gets glued together. Slather glue on your cover and stick the cover on. Open it up and glue the overhang down and let dry. Some people like to cut the overhang off but I've found that if I don't fold it over, then my covers fall off. So folding it and gluing it prevents that. Outline your design (front and back) and let dry, then enjoy your snazzy notebook! :)

Have a safe Memorial Weekend, everyone! :)