Hello! I know I haven't made an instructable in a while, so I thought I'd make one on miniature school supplies! I will be showing you how to make:

-Pencils

-Composition notebooks

-Math textbooks

-Soft and hard cover reading books

-Folders

Step 1: Pencils

This is probably the easiest of them all, and even a 1st grader could make one!

You will need:

-toothpicks

-scissors or nail clippers

-(optional) sandpaper

-pink and yellow-golden markers

-mettallic silver sharpie or thin silver ribbon

-a real pencil

Here's how:

1. Cut off one side of the toothpick so that you have the desired length of your pencil. Sand the end if you like.

2. Take your real pencil and color part of the tip of your toothpick to make the "tip"

3. Leave some space, and when the tip stops slanting down and turns straight, begin coloring with the golden until you have a small amount left.

4. Color the rest of the toothpick pink.

5. Covering the line where the yellow and pink meet, glue down some ribbon around the toothpick or draw a ring around with a marker.

Congratulations! You're Done!

(tip:make sure you cover the top of the toothpick pink too!)

Step 2: Composition Notebooks

These are a bit harder, but still pretty easy. A 2nd grader could do them with asistance :D

You will need:

-black marker

-thin black pen

-prefferably college ruled notebook paper

-(optional) red pen

-thick white paper (not too thick! i just used construction paper)

-(optional) above printables

-pencil

-ruler

-scissors

-stapler

-black electrical tape or glue stick and black paper.

Here's how:

1. Start by cutting out 1.5x1" rectabgles from the lined part of your notebook paper. I cut out 7.

2. Fold them in half and stack them up.

3. Cut out one more 1.5x1" rectangle from your thick white paper and fold it in half.

4.Line up the notebook pages neatly and put them inside the fold of the white paper.

5. Staple down on the very edge of the book.

6. Now cover the staples with a piece of black electrical tape for the spine, or glue down some black paper.

7.On one side of the book's front cover, draw a rounded rectangle with your pencil and trace around it with your black marker.

8. Now try to immitate the pattern on the front of a real composition book by scribbling with the marker AROUND the rectangle. If you accidentally get it on there, just cover the whole thing and start over on the back side. When you're done with the front, repeat the same on the back without the rectangle.

9. Using the black pen, draw two thin lines in the rectangle on the cover.

10. Save the "useful information" printable to your computer and open up in microsoft word or pages. Then resize to .75x1" and print out. Cut it out and glue to the inside back cover of the notebook. Repeat the same with the other schedule one, except glue it into the inside front cover instead. :D

11. Now you can finally use the red pen and flip through every page, making a line on the left of each page.

Congratulations! You're done!

Step 3: Math Textbooks

You will need:

-liquid glue and water or mod podge

-construction paper

-cardstock

-printable

-glue stick

-scissors

1. Save the printable to your computer, then open it up in pages or microsoft word. print it out.

2. Cut out tons of .75x1" rectangles from the construction paper.

3. Glue them together in a stack. Make sure the width of the stack's spine matches the width of the spine in the cover.

4. Mix the liquid glue and water to make a mod podge substitute, or just use the real thing. take an old, cheap paintbrush you don't mind throwing away and cover all four sides of the stack with mod podge.

5. Wash the brush immediately after.

6. Add a second coat to the spine.

7. Cut out the printable and glue it to cardstock. Cut it out again with the cardstock.

8. Fold along the lines to make the cover.

9. Add a very strong glue to the spine of the cover and press down the spine on it.

10. (optional) You can glue down the flap covers if they bother you or to keep the book pages from flying out during rough use.

Congratulations! You're done!

IMPORTANT: sorry, but I don't have any pictures for this part yet. I will though ASAP!

tip: feel free to change the printable to your liking. I was trying to make it suitable for people with black and white printers too. You can color it in, though. Also, if cutting so many pages is too hard, just cut cardstock instead.

math printable.pages.zip
Download

Step 4: Hardcover Reading Books

These take a while. 4th graders could probably do them with some assistance. I made my first one in 5th grade.

You will need:

-cardstock or watercolor paper, any color

-construction paper or scrapbook paper, however you want your covers to look

-(optional) decorative stickers/embellishments)

-strong liquid glue (but it cannot be hot or superglue)

-tape

-gluestick

-paper you want your pages to be

-pencil and ruler

-scissors

Here's how:

1. Cut out a bunch of 75x1" rectangles on the paper you want your pages to be, or cut out the rectangles in the printable. Stack them up and choose one side to be your spine.

2. Take a squirt of liquid glue on your finger, then rub it in on the spine of the pages. Hot glue will burn you and superglue will stick your fingers together and damage your skin, so you can't use these. Let the layer dry and repeat two more times. When the last layer is almost dry, cut some clear tape so that it is less wide and lay it down on the spine, folding the excess over the edges. Trim off the top and bottom excess. (if you want, you can add extra hot or superglue to the tape. I did.)

3. Measure how tall your spine is. We'll call the height of your spine y. Draw a .75x1" rectangle on your cardstock/watercolor paper, then a yx1" rectangle right beside it, so that they share one line, and then another .75x1" rectangle right beside the yx1", so that they share sides again.

4. Cut it out and fold on the lines you drew.

5. Cover the thick paper with your scrapbook/construction paper, using a gluestick to attach the construction paper permanently. Alternatively, you could redraw the same template from the watercolor paper onto your scrapbook paper, replacing the .75x1" rectangles with 1.5x1" ones. Then fold around The thick base cover the make a removable and interchangable book jacket/cover.

6. Refold the covered base cover if needed.

7. Apply glue to the INSIDE of your cover, one long strip down the spine and a border around each of the .75x1" rectangles. Apply glue to the first and last page of your book, plus the spine, and then press the cover and pages together.

8. Apply embellishments and stickers on the cover as you desire.

Congratulations! You're done!

Step 5: Softcover Readingbooks

These are pretty easy. 2nd-3rd grade level. They don't look as good and require fewer pages. (amount of the composition book)

You will need:

-Construction paper you want your cover to be

-Glue stick

-Paper you wnat your pages to be

-Stapler

-Scissors

-(optional) embellishments or stickers for your cover

Here's how:

1. Cut out 12 .75x1" rectangles from the paper for your pages, or cut out the pages from the printable.

2. Staple them together.

3. Measure the height of your spine. We'll call this w.

4. Draw a .75x1" rectangle on your cover paper, a wx1" one next to it so that they share a line, and then another .75x1" rectangle, sharing a line with your wx1".

5. Cut the template out.

6. Apply glue to the whole inside of your template, then press the pages onto your cover.

7.Embellish the cover to your liking.

Congratulations! You're done!

Step 6: Folders

These are super easy! A first grader could make one.

You will need:

-scissors

-glue stick

-construction or scrapbook paper

-ruler and pencil

Here's how:

1. Draw a 3x2" rectangle on your paper. Under it, sharing a line, draw a .5x3" rectangle. Cut out the entire template.

2. Fold the template in half. Open it back up.

3. Cut on the crease that runs through the LOWER rectangle only.

4. You should now have two flaps on the bottom of your template. Apply glue to the shorter edges of your two flaps, then fold the flaps up and press down to create pockets for your folders.

Congratulations! You're done!