As a kid, I used to love making my own stationery and notepads. There used to be a printing press in the compound where I grew up, so I observed as they printed and gummed all the pages together. So, I started cutting up my own sheets of paper and stamped designs on each sheet. As soon as a printer turned up in our home, I started designing my own sheets digitally, then gummed the printed sheets together. Here’s how I used to make them!

I designed something simple using one of my newer fonts. You can download this printable if you want. I printed a total of a 100 sheets, and cut a sheet of kraft paper in the same size.

I found a piece of scrap wood to serve as a base for when I start the gluing process. I used a scrap piece of kraft paper to keep the messy glue from ruining the top sheet.

I used a couple phonebooks to weigh and press the sheets tightly together. Yes, this is one of the phone books my mom and I use for our pressed flowers. With a craft knife, make criss-cross slices all across the edge of the stack. You want to get some glue in those grooves to better keep the sheets in place.

I used some mod podge mixed with a couple drops of food coloring just for a burst of color. You can always keep the mod podge as is if you want the edge gumming to be clear.

With a brush, start with an thin even layer across the whole edge of the paper. Next, you can dab a more generous amount, especially into the grooves you sliced earlier. Before letting everything dry, make one stroke with your brush to even the mod podge out.

Let it dry completely before moving or touching. Afterwards, you can tear the scrap kraft paper you had as a first sheet. Your notepad is now all ready to use!

If you want the notepad to be used by your refrigerator, you can add magnetic strips on the back as well.

You can also add a strip of magnet to a pencil, making it handy when you need to make a list of things to buy!

I would love to see your DIY notepads! Tag @mikkomix on your own designs.