Making School Supplies your Own

There's something so special about going out to buy school supplies.

When I was growing up, we got pencils, crayons, paper and new ruler. In the 50's that was a big deal! These days, each class has a very specific list of supplies that they have to have for the school year.Add to that list a new backpack, a new lunch box, a water bottle, scissors, tape, markers, kleenax and cha ching!!!! It's easy to spend $75

When you have 2 or 3 kids that adds up pretty quickly so when you go out to shop, you often have to end up with the plain notebook instead of the really cool ones with the fun graphics.

A great end of summer project that I like to do with my now 10 year old charge, involves personalizing some of her school supplies.I sometimes just turn her loose in my office and let her scavenge through my craft stuff for what she wants. She likes to use my Cricut cutting machine and my Xyron sticker maker but for the sake of simplicity I am going to show you how anyone can do this project.
You can find scrapbook paper and wonderful stickers at Dollar Tree. I usually go to Dollar Tree every few months and just see what they have. When I see something I like I usually tuck it away in my sticker file so that I have it when I need it.They have lots of letter stickers in fun colors that are perfect for this project.

All you need is a ruler, a plain binder with the insert in the front and a little imagination. The notebook I am doing today is going to be very simple just to give you an idea of what you can do. You can make these as elaborate as you want and you can also change them out if you get tired of them.

Just take 2 pieces of paper and measure them to fit the front of your notebook opening. You want them about 1/4-1/2 inch smaller than the opening so that you can slide it in easily.

For my notebook, after I measured the paper for the front insert I cut one corner off and then used it for my pattern to cut the other corners off.

Then I laid the paper with the corners cut off on top of the other sheet and proceeded to add my stickers. I used a sticker on each corner and that also helps to hold the 2 sheets of paper together.

I did both sides of notebook and still had stickers left over. I don't usually put names on my kids belongings unless it is required by the school but I do use their initials. After the paper is decorated the way you want it, you simply slide it into the inside cover of the notebook.

You can also decorate a smaller notebook by tracing around the front of it and cutting where you traced. Remember to leave space for the spiral or the holes. I used scraps from the corner pieces and another sticker, or another variation would be to add their initial. You can simply put this on with double stick tape. A small 5" inch Xyron machine also works great for these projects.

There really is no limit to what you and your kids can do with paper, stickers, scissors and a little imagination but one thing is for sure, their school supplies will be fun and unique and the best part is that they can say "I did it myself!"