DIY Up-cycled sheet music notebooks

When I was sorting through my things while packing, I had two goals - reduce and reuse. I knew I could only take with me so much, but I also didn't want to just throw away things. So, after sorting through my pile of sheet music that I had collected over the last 3 years, I came up with an idea to use this cute card stock I had and the left-over sheet music to make some notebooks. I love a good notebook to scribble ideas in and I always carry one with me, so I knew this was the perfect solution.

You could use any paper waste you have for these, but the sheet music does add a little beauty, I think. Much prettier than looking at pages of, lets say, spread sheets or articles. Nevertheless, it's a great way to repurpose that waste and make it useful again.

 This is what you will need:

• Sheets of paper
• Card stock
• Double-sided tape and ribbon, or Washi tape
• Scissors or rotary cutter (and cutting mat)
• Ruler and pencil
• Thread
• Sewing machine

 STEP 1
Cut the card stock in the size you want your notebook to be. My card stock was the standard 8.5"x11", so just a little smaller than A4. I cut that in half.
Then, cut the paper in the corresponding size. For this standard size you need to cut your A4 size paper into two 13cm/5.5" pieces (the width stays the same). For each notebook, cut 10 sheet of paper, resulting in 20 sheets of pages total.

 STEP 2
Time to assemble the two page-books that go inside the notebook. Take 10 sheets of pre-cut paper, and fold them in half. Start stacking the sheer one at a time.

At the 3rd sheet, you'll notice that the edge becomes uneven. After every time you insert a new sheet of paper, trim the edge to be flush with the 1st sheet of paper.
Make 2 of these little notebook of 10 folded sheets.

 STEP 3
Lay one of the page-books on the cover so that the longer edge is flush with one of the shorter sides of the cover, and fold it. It's hard to explain, but you're creating the spine for the notebook. Since the card stock is a bit wider than the A4, we can create a slightly wider spine than a simple fold-in-half.
The take the other page-book, and do the same with the other side of the cover. See below for the finished result.

STEP 4
Open the page-book in the middle and use paper clips to secure it to the cover, so it stays flush with 3 edges of the cover on one side. Sew the page-book to the cover in the middle.
Repeat with the second page-book and the other end of the cover.

STEP 5
On my notebooks, the sewing wasn't that pretty on the outside. I guess sewing through 11 sheets of paper is not what my sewing machine was made for. What ever. So, I used ribbon and double-sided tape to cover the spine with pretty ribbon. Just apply the tape to the ribbon first, and the attach the ribbon to the spine of the notebook. I also covered the corners of the notebook with the ribbon, but that's totally optional. Also, I've noticed that the corner tend to come loose from the inside, but the spine hasn't. So, I suggest doing just the spine, or using washi tape for this step.

As you can see, I was so hooked, I made 4 notebooks in total. These would make great gifts as well. You could personalize them with name tags or title tags like "Hanna's Best Thoughts", "The Million-dollar Idea Book", or "The Big Book of Thought".

I've been using mine to write down my daily to-do lists, and I love it.

Happy crafting!
xo. Hanna