By Chrysta Naron
William Shakespeare once asked, “What’s in a name?” Letters! That’s what’s in a name. As children begin to read and write, they’re often eager to learn to write their own name. They love discovering what letter it begins with (and every letter that follows!). A name graph is a simple, yet brilliant, way to teach young kids to spell their names, and help them practice writing a variety of uppercase and lowercase letters at the same time.
This simple literacy idea breaks down a child’s name letter by letter, along with some other names with special meaning for them. A name graph even lends itself to math skills, like counting and the concepts of more than and less than. This tutorial walks you through an easy home lesson plan to teach reading and writing skills using a name graph.
To begin, you’ll set the stage by reading a book together—kids love storytime and it brings another dimension to the activity. I use Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal, about a little girl who was given a very long name by her father. With each of her names, a story unwinds, and Alma learns to love all of her many monikers. Alma and How She Got Her Name centers Latinx culture, showcases a female author of color, and makes your bookshelf all the more inclusive. This book is fun, culturally representative, and a great jumping off point for creating a name graph.
Materials Needed:
- Paper
- Marker
- Ruler
- How Alma Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal (or another book about names)
Cost: About $10 if you buy the book. Free, if you can check out the book from your local library, or use one of the read-alouds available for no cost online.
Step 1: Using the ruler to guide you, create a grid 13 squares across and 9 squares down on a sheet of paper. Optional: You can also create this on the computer and print it out to use.
Step 2: Write the name Alma on the first line of the graph, one letter per square. If you like, you can write all of Alma’s names in the graph, one name per line.
Step 3: Cozy up with your child and read Alma and How She Got Her Name together. Alternatives: If you can’t find a copy, The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi or Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes are good alternatives.
Step 4: Grab the name graph, and help your child read each letter in Alma’s name out loud. Point out the uppercase and lowercase letters.
Step 5: On the line beneath, help your child write their name, again one letter in each box. Teach them that their name begins with an uppercase letter (because they are so super special!) and help them use lowercase for all the other letters. You can help them by spelling their name aloud or by writing the letters and letting your child trace them, depending on their knowledge level.
Step 6: Help your child fill in the rest of the chart with more names. They may wish to write their middle and last names. Your child can also ask other family members, friends, or neighbors how to spell their names, or you can help them write the names of significant people in their lives.
Step 7: When the sheet is full, sit together and reflect on all the names written down. Who has the longest name? The shortest? Do any of the names start with the same letter? What letters do they share?
You know what else is great about using Alma and How She Got Her Name with the name graph? It’s an excellent opportunity to connect and let your child learn about their family. You can tell your child the origin of their name and teach them the names of relatives, too. Every moment spent learning together is a moment of bonding and is a way to pass down knowledge from past generations.
So, what’s in a name? A whole lot!
By Laila Weir
There are so many reasons to encourage a kid to pick up a new book. Maybe you have an emerging reader who needs to build skills and confidence. Maybe you have a reluctant reader or one who’s stuck in a rut (how many times can they read Harry Potter?). Or maybe you want to keep your kid gainfully employed on weekends or vacations—without screens. Just as kids are more likely to try new foods when they are presented appealingly, an appetizing literary “spread” can get kids to try new books. Creating an enticing book grab basket can help your child choose to read more.
The goal here is simple—getting your child to read more or more widely—but your presentation can be as one-of-a-kind as you like. If you customize your grab basket for your little reader’s personality and interests, they won’t be able to resist digging in!
Materials:
- Books
- Basket (or other receptacle)
- Decorations (anything you like, from ribbon or stickers to balloons, feathers, and more!)
- Optional: Bookmarks
Cost: This activity costs as little or as much as you care to spend. Tempt your young reader for free or next to nothing with a basket, bowl, or gift bag you already have and books from the library. Or you can go all-out on a cute container and brand-new reads from your local bookshop.
Step 1: Gather your books. Pick up a stack of tempting titles from the library or your local independent bookstore. Thrift stores can be great sources if your reader is open to a variety of subject areas and genres.
Choose books you’d like them to read, but make their level and preference your guideposts. The cutest basket in the world won’t tempt a hesitant reader to pick up a 1,000-page epic or a fantasy-obsessed kid to embrace an encyclopedia set. Sticking to your kid’s comfort zone in terms of length or difficulty can pay big dividends, as can capitalizing on their current interests. From there, you can stretch them little by little
The staff of independent bookstores can point you to titles that fit your child’s level or interests (or your reading goals for them), as can children’s librarians. In fact, some libraries will even provide grab bags with a curated selection of books for a particular age or reading level! Make sure that the chosen books have eye-catching covers and/or intriguing titles likely to make your child want to take a peek inside.
Step 2: Customize your basket. Select a bowl or basket (or make your own by supersizing our mini-basket tutorial with large-format paper). The key is to choose something wide enough that you can fan out the books to pique interest, and portable enough that your kid can cart it to a cozy reading corner.
Next, dress it up. Ribbon tied on and curled is a quick and easy way to make any basket attractive; a colorful balloon or two would seal the deal, especially for younger kids. A few well-chosen embellishments can go a long way, but you can also get as detailed as you like.
Not sure how to get started? Think themes: add soccer ball stickers for a sports-obsessed reader, horse pictures for animal lovers, and feathers or flowers for your nature child. Consider adding book-page pencil pinwheels or origami book-page butterflies to tie in a writing theme.
For a reluctant reader, a special occasion, or a long car trip, you might choose to include a few reading snacks or a small new toy or collectible in the basket. But beware of relying too much on food or toys, since the goal is to tempt them with books, not schwag.
Step 3: Assemble your grab basket. Add the books to your basket and fan them out to display the most tantalizing covers. Consider adding an eye-catching bookmark, which gives a child one more reason to explore the books. Libraries and bookstores usually give away bookmarks, but you could also make your own. What kid could resist these adorable kitty bookmarks peeking out over the pages of a new book? Kids also love our tasseled bookmarks and fruit slice corner markers.
Step 4: Let the reading begin! When you’re ready, surprise your child with the basket or leave it in a place where it will catch their attention … and then let their curiosity do the rest.
Sit back and enjoy the silence as your child sinks into their next great read. Or, better yet, grab a book and curl up next to them. After all, the dishes can wait, and making reading social is among the best ways to encourage children’s literacy. Happy reading!
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By Kelsey Nickerson
Raising little readers and writers means providing plenty of reading and writing material, which in turn can mean a whole lot of pencils and pens trailing around your home. But never fear! With just a little glam, you can upcycle a plastic container into the perfect storage container for pencils, markers, and even crayons!
This craft is quite simple and can be used for so many different things. Do your kids have writing utensils floating around their backpacks? Give them a fun way to store them by using a container with a lid! Or if you have markers all over the house, you can make multiple containers to organize your craft corner in a unique and eco-friendly way. Not to mention that there always seem to be car trips or travel around the corner, what with holidays or vacation looming. So why not have a convenient to-go box of coloring materials all set?
There are so many different plastic containers for food that are the perfect size to repurpose into a pencil holder. I had a roasted peanut jar that I was about to recycle when I realized it was just right for this craft. This is a fun, easy, and environmentally responsible project to do with your kids, with just a few simple steps!
Materials:
- Recycled plastic container (make sure it’s long enough to fit pencils!)
- Mod podge
- Paint brush
- Scissors
- Decorative paper
Pro Tip: Mod Podge can be a little messy! Don’t worry, it’s water based and can easily be cleaned up, but make sure you have a work surface set up. I used an old piece of cardboard.
Cost: This craft is a fun upcycle project that requires few materials! You can find modge podge at most craft stores or online for under $10. And remember, if you don’t have decorative paper, you can always color your own or use those kids’ drawings that so many of us have lying around.
Step 1: The first step is to simply remove whatever plastic is on your container and clean out the inside. (Give it a few good scrubs if it held something with a strong odor!)
Step 2: Before you get to the Mod Podge, it’s best to measure out the paper you need to cover the container. You have a few options here! You can use just one piece to cover the whole thing, or create a collage look by cutting up scraps of paper. Because my container was round with some variations, it would be really tricky to use one piece of paper, so I went the collage route. If your container is a box that is flat on all 4 sides, though, a single piece of paper will be really easy to wrap around and apply.
Step 3: Now you’re ready to apply the paper! If going for a collage style, paint Mod Podge on the container (in even strokes!) and then on the back of your first strips of paper, then place the strips onto the container and smooth into place. Keep doing this until the entire container is covered. If you’re applying one piece of paper, simply coat the entire box and back of the paper and stick it right on. This is also the time to add any extras, like glitter or other accents.
Step 4: The final step is to just apply an outer layer of Mod Podge and allow it to fully dry. You just want a nice even layer here, and it should dry completely in about 15 minutes.
And that’s it, as simple as that! We’d love to hear what you upcycle for your new pencil holder. Have fun!
By Chrysta Naron
Playing Sound Search is a delightful way for kids to learn letters and their sounds. Plus, this fun alphabet game engages children during days cooped up inside. They’ll crawl, climb, run, and spin looking for just the right items to match their letters.
Reading letters and practicing their corresponding sounds can sometimes feel a little abstract for kids. They can make the right sound when shown a letter on its own, but learning to isolate that same letter sound in a word—that’s tough. When children go around looking for something that starts with a specific sound, they have to really focus and break down the sounds in a word.
This easy at-home literacy activity gets kids to connect letter sounds to words, all while having the fun of solving a tiny mystery. What’s in your house that starts with B? Books, bottles, beds? How about looking for things that start with L? Lamps, legs, Legos? The list goes on!
Materials Needed:
- Sticky notes
- Pen
Cost: ~$4 for sticky notes
Step 1: Choose a single letter at a time. I recommend choosing letters commonly found at the beginning of words, such as A, B, T or S.
Step 2: Write the letter on five sticky notes. Or better yet, help your child write it. For maximum learning, write the letter in different ways—capital and lower-case, even cursive if you want. This will help kids connect all the different letter shapes to its sound.
Step 3: Review the sound the letter makes. For vowels, you can review just the short vowel sound (e.g., A as in “apple”) or, if your child is ready for it, go over both sounds the vowel can make.
Step 4: Explore the house with your child to find items that begin with that sound. When they find one, they get to stick a sticky note on it!
Step 5: When all five sticky notes are gone, go back to the pad and start again with a brand new letter!
When playing Sound Search, it’s fine to guide or give clues to your kids, but try not to give away the answers. They’ll develop stronger auditory skills and you’ll both enjoy a lot of laughter and surprises. The last time I played this game, my five-year-old playmate stuck the letter T on her little sister, because “she has toes”—and who can argue with that?
Need to keep kids entertained on the go? This simple DIY activity kit is perfect for road trips or plane trips, for restaurants, or for anywhere kids need some distraction while they wait. (Think instant entertainment on the sidelines of big sister’s soccer game or big brother’s cello practice!) Help your child follow this simple tutorial to make their activity book, and then let them personalize it with their own decorations and favorite activities. Or stuff it for them as a fun surprise to have in your bag of tricks!
Keep your child’s activity book stocked with crayons or markers, stickers, and index cards (or paper cut to the book’s size), so they always have entertainment at hand. You can also create mini worksheets for some extra fun and even some early literacy and math learning. For example, draw an alpha-bingo game board on one of your index cards to include in the kit. You could also make some of our word-family flowers to keep in a zip-close bag or envelope in the kit. And any coloring image, traceable letters/numbers, etc. that can print on a 3” x 5” piece of paper will also fit in your DIY activity book.
Materials:
- Three pieces of 6” x 9” colored craft foam
- Glue dots
- Scissors
- Ribbon
To fill your activity kit:
- Crayons, markers, pencils, etc.
- 3” x 5” index cards (or cardstock/paper to cut into pieces)
- Stickers, etc.
Cost: The materials you might need to purchase are the craft foam and glue dots. You can find them at a local craft store, or we’ve linked the materials to buy online. Craft foam is a fun addition to your craft closet, so you can’t go wrong with purchasing a multi-color pack (around $10), and glue dots (around $4) are a great way to make a no-mess project, especially for little ones!
Step 1: Decide which piece of craft foam you’ll use for each part of your book. One will be for the cover, one will be for the inside pockets, and one will be an accent for decorations! Take the craft foam piece that you will use for the inside pocket and cut it in half lengthwise
Step 2: Apply glue dots along the bottom long edge and the two short edges of one of the pieces. Next, place your cover piece of craft foam horizontally (so that it’s wider than it is tall). Then attach the pocket piece to your cover piece by simply flipping it over and lining the bottom and edges up with the cover.
Step 3: Now gently pull out the middle of the pocket and place a few extra glue dots in a line down the center of the pocket, to separate it into two pockets.
Step 4: Fold the book in half. Cut a piece of ribbon that is long enough to wrap around the outside. Secure the ribbon around the front and back of your book cover, with a few glue dots. Once in place, you will be able to use the loose ends of the ribbon to tie the book closed.
Step 5: Using the last piece of colored foam and the extra piece from what you used for the pocket (or more if you have it!), cut out small shapes to decorate the cover of your activity book by attaching them with glue dots. (You can also add further decorations with glue dots and write or draw on the craft foam with permanent markers. Just beware kids with Sharpies!)
And there you go! Your DIY activity kit is ready to hit the road. The glue dots make this craft so easy, and cleaning up is a breeze. Now all that’s left is to stuff your sweet new activity book with supplies to keep your little one busy. Index cards (3” x 5”) will fit in perfectly, or you can cut cardstock or paper to the right size.
Have any creative ideas of what to fill your book with? We’d love to hear from you!
Let’s face it, letter names and letter sounds don’t always match up in a way that makes sense. Judging by their names, C should sound like /s/ and G should sound like /j/. Meanwhile, when X starts a word, it makes the same /z/ sound as the letter Z. This can be very confusing for early readers. They need constant reinforcement to internalize these nuances.
Rather than sitting down and drilling letters every day—endlessly drawing lines from the letter C to a clip-art cat—why not help kids match letters and sounds in the world around them? And a fun way to do that is neighborhood alpha-bingo. In this simple literacy game, you and your child will make real-world connections to the letters they’re practicing, all while exploring your neighborhood together. It’s a great way to get kids moving and learning at the same time.
Follow the tips below to make your own DIY alpha-bingo card, or enter your email and we’ll send you a set of printable bingo cards all ready to go.
Materials Needed:
- Paper
- Marker
- Ruler
Optional Materials:
- Printer
- Stamp and stamp pad
- Stickers
Cost: Free, if you have these basic materials on hand!
Step 1: Using the ruler to guide you, create a grid of four squares by four squares on a sheet of paper.
Step 2: In each square, write a single letter. Choose letters that are commonly found at the beginning of words, like T, N, S, P, and H. (It can be hard to get Bingo looking for words that begin with Q or X!) If your child is learning how to write, encourage them to write some of the letters themselves. Tip: If you have more than one player, make each player their own sheet with slightly different letters than the others.
Bonus: If you have a laminator or sheet protector, you can turn the sheets into a dry-erase board to use again and again (just be sure to mark it with dry-erase markers).
Step 3: Together, review each letter name found on the bingo sheet and its corresponding sound. For letters than can make more than one sound: Use short vowel sounds (e.g., the way “a” sounds in “hat”) and, for consonants that can be pronounced more than one way, use their “hard” sounds (the way “g” sounds in “goat” and “c” sounds in “car”).
Step 4: Give your child their bingo sheet and a marker, stamp, or stickers, then go explore the neighborhood searching for sounds. Every time your child sees something that begins with a letter sound on their sheet, have them mark it with the marker, stamp, or stickers. Four in a row wins the game!
What I truly love about Alpha-bingo is how much of the world feels new to me when I’m with a child. I always expect them to match C with car or H with house, but their little eyes find things I never noticed, and make connections I completely missed. So, while they’re the ones learning to read, I’m the one learning to see.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s b-i-n-GO!
Meow! These playful DIY bookmarks are perfect for the animal-loving bookworms in your life. This is a fun craft for all ages, though younger children will need some help, especially with the cutting. Making their own bookmarks is always motivating to young readers, and who wouldn’t want to dive into a good book when they see this cute kitty peeking out over the pages? They’re also an appealing way to dress up a book gift with a personal touch.
We used bright cardstock to make a rainbow of colorful and vibrant kitties. If you don’t have colored cardstock on hand, though, it would also be really cute to color and decorate your own from plain cardstock. (Upcycle alert: chance to reuse an old notebook cover!) This bookish craft requires only a few materials and, best of all, just a few simple steps before your purr-fect new bookmark is ready. Note that you will need a craft knife to cut out the arms, so it’s a good idea to supervise kids of any age.
Materials:
- Colored cardstock (or paint or color plain cardstock)
- Craft knife
- Scissors
- Piece of cardboard to cut on (or if you have a nice cutting mat, use that!)
- Permanent markers
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Ruler
Cost: There are no out-of-the-ordinary materials required, so this cute craft could cost you nothing! If you don’t have colored cardstock, you can color some plain heavy-weight paper. The weight of the paper makes for a nice sturdy bookmark, so just make sure whatever you use is thicker than regular computer paper. (An old notebook cover can be a good source of cardstock.) If you don’t have a craft knife, you can find options starting at just a few dollars.
Step 1: The first step is to outline and cut out your bookmark. With your ruler, trace a 2” x 6” rectangle on your cardstack and then cut it out. After you have cut it out, erase any leftover pencil marks that you can still see to make your bookmark nice and neat!
Step 2: Using your pencil first, draw the shape of a cat onto your bookmark. Start with the ears, then add its cute little face, and lastly the arms. Pro tip: Make sure you draw the arms long enough that they’ll hold onto your page. I would recommend at least 1.5 inches. After tracing in pencil, go over your lines with a permanent marker and then erase any pencil marks you can still see. If you have a pink marker too, you can add some cute accents like in the picture.
Step 3: Last step! Now take your scissors and cut out your cat’s ears. Next, you will use your craft knife (younger kids will need help here!) to cut around your cat’s arms. Go slowly —you can retrace your lines a few times until you have a clean cut around the arms. Once you have cut all the way through the paper, carefully pop out the arms.
Ta-da! That was simple, right? Your new bookmark is all set to use, unless you want to add some personal flair and dress up your kitty! After doing this craft, you could use this same method to make all sorts of animal bookmarks. I can already see dog, horse, lion, and monkey bookmarks dancing around in my head!
Also, be sure to check out our other bookmark tutorials, because they are each fun and unique in their own way. We have the Paper Punch Bookmark, the Chunky Tassel Bookmark, the Fruit Slice Corner Bookmarks. You can never have too many bookmarks, so let us know which one is your favorite so far.
By Chrysta Naron
Word families, sets of rhyming words that share the same ending spelling and pronunciation, are great tools for helping kids recognize patterns and build awareness of the sound structure of words. For example, the “at” word family includes words like “cat,” “hat,” “sat,” and so on.
Word families are wonderful because they teach two skills at once. First, children learn to connect certain letter combinations with particular ending sound chunks or rimes. This can help them learn new words by analogy. Second, word families prompt great rhyming practice—and who doesn’t love that?
In this home-literacy activity, you and your child will create word-family flowers. This craft is a cute way to physically show how changing the first letter in a word family creates new words. Kids can manipulate the petals themselves to spell words, so they can return to this activity later to review and experiment on their own. I even use this as a tabletop activity for my preschool and kindergarten students!
Materials Needed:
- Marker
- Scissors
- Craft foam sheets, cardstock, or construction paper of two different colors
Optional:
- Green cardstock or paper
- Glue
Cost: If you want to use craft foam, you can generally get 80-100 sheets for about $15.
Step 1: Pick one of the colors of craft foam/paper for the center of your flower. Using a marker, draw a medium-sized circle on the sheet. (I trace around the lid of a mason jar to guide me.) Draw as many circles as the number of word families you want to create. (See photos below for suggestions of word families to start with, or come up with your own.)
Step 2: Cut out the circles.
Step 3: In the center of each circle, write the middle and last letter of the words in your chosen word families. Quick start: Use the three in the photo below, or come up with your own word families.
Step 4: For each circle, cut out six or so small rectangles from the second color of craft foam/paper. These will be the petals of your flowers.
Step 5: On every petal, write a letter. Choose several letters that can create words for your word families, plus some letters that won’t make words for your word family. Quick start: If you’re using the word families above, and you want to make the petals interchangeable, here is a selection of letters that will work: b, c, h, m, p, r, s, f, t, l, d, g, n, w, x, y, z, j.
Step 6: Give your child the center of the flower. Help them sound out the letters written inside.
Step 7: Next, show them some of the petals with the letters. Ask, “If you put this petal on the flower, does it make a word?” Guide your child in sounding out the letters. If that letter makes an actual word, the petal stays on. If not, the petal gets “picked.” Tip: To keep it from being overwhelming, only show kids about six letters for each family, including many that make words. If they’re ready, you can push them by showing more letters all at once.
Step 8: After trying every letter, the petals that remain are your flower word family! Keep the pieces loose to make word families any time you like. Optional: Help your child glue your flower family centers to green paper and add a stem, creating a fun display to experiment with adding various petals.
Feel free to keep going and make as many different flowers as there are word families. Here’s a link to a word family list to get you started.
You can create a garden of words to visit again and again. And along the way, your little ones will blossom into readers and writers!
This accordion book craft is a great one to do with kids. Not only is it easy to make a pretty little book, it’s also a fun way to encourage children to write—they’ll be eager to fill these cute pages. Plus they can wrap the covers with an original drawing or painting, a great way to give kid creations a second life.
Younger kids will just need a little help with the assembly, but then they can let their imaginations take over as they illustrate the cover and put the pages to use. For a sweet home-literacy activity, invite children to write their own stories inside their DIY accordion book. Older kids can create a comic strip or illustrated story. For younger kids, consider helping them make an alphabet book with a couple of letters per page, plus drawings of items whose names start with those letters. Once their masterpieces are ready, they can stand them up and put them on display!
Materials:
- 2 pieces of 8.5” x 11” cardstock (or heavier-weight paper)
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Glue (hot glue gun, white glue, or glue dots could work)
- Cardboard big enough to cut out two squares, 3” x 4.5” each (cereal boxes work great!)
- Scrapbook paper, construction paper, or original artwork to cover the book
Cost: If you have a few craft staples around, this should not cost you anything!
Step 1: To start, take one of your 8.5” x 11” pieces of cardstock and crease it in half lengthwise, then cut down the crease to make two long, skinny rectangles.
Step 2: Now fold each of your two pieces of cardstock in half widthwise.
Step 3: Next, fold just the top flap in half again, aligning the bottom edge to the top, and crease it.
Step 4: Flip the cardstock over and do the exact same fold to the other side. Once you do this, each of the strips of cardstock should resemble a W.
Step 5: Repeat steps 1 through 4 with another sheet of cardstock, so you now have four W’s total.
Step 6: Now you are going to glue your W’s together to make an accordion. Put glue on the ends of the W’s to stick all four together in a row. You’ll need to put glue on both ends of two W’s and on one end only of the other two W’s. Tip: If you are using white glue, you will probably want to press the accordion under something heavy (like another book) for a bit so it can dry. I decided to use a hot glue gun so I wouldn’t need to wait for the glue to set. Glue dots would work the same.
Step 7: Now that your pages are ready, you are going to make the cover of your book. Take your cardboard pieces and cut out two 3” x 4.5” squares.
Step 8: Lay the cardboard onto the scrapbook paper, construction paper, or artwork you’re using to cover the book, and cut out two pieces a little larger than the cardboard. I used brown wrapping paper and drew flowers with a white paint pen. There are so many fun ways to decorate your cover! If your kids have old art projects around that you just can’t bring yourself to toss, this is the perfect way to upcycle them!
Step 9: Next, glue the cardboard cutouts into the center of the pieces that you just cut out.
Step 10: Carefully snip off the corners of your scrapbook paper. Cut all the way to the corner of cardboard (this makes it look neat when you fold over the edges!).
Step 11: Once you’ve cut the corners, fold over the flaps of excess paper and glue them into place on the back of the cardboard.
Step 12: You can also add other embellishments that wrap around the cover at this point. I added a ribbon to mine for a pop of color. You can add more decorations at the end, but before gluing your covers down, you will want to add any decorations that will wrap over the edge, so it has a nice clean finish!
Step 13: The last step is to fully assemble your book. To do so, glue the covers to each end of the paper accordion. Again, if using white glue, I recommend placing your book under a heavy book while the glue sets and dries.
Voila! Now you have a beautiful book that you can decorate with anything or everything from your craft drawer—rhinestones, glitter, markers, ribbon, or anything else you can think of. It’s your book, so have fun adding your own personal flair! You can use these adorable books as notebooks, help kids create their own storybooks inside them as described above, or give them as gifts or party favors.
There’s nothing quite like a new notebook for inviting possibility, its crisp pages tantalizing us with speculation about what’s to come. And personalizing a notebook is the perfect way to channel that sense of possibility and really make it our own. So why not kick off a new school year, a new project, or a new diary with this DIY book-page decoupage notebook?
This easy collage project is appropriate for all ages, and letting kids customize their notebooks is a fun way to get their buy-in for new learning adventures. This craft also makes unique gifts or party favors—we love it as a make-your-own-favor activity for kids’ parties. (Hint: It also works to give old notebooks new life and keep all those mostly empty pages out of the trash. Just tear out the used pages, jazz up the covers with decoupage, and voila! Younger siblings will never know the difference, but the planet will thank you.)
Materials:
- Patterned paper (or old book pages, magazines, wrapping paper, etc.)
- Notebook
- Mod Podge
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Sponge brush
- Pencil
Cost:
You can find a basic notebook or composition book for a few dollars at just about any grocery or corner store, or maybe you already have one around the house you’re looking to upgrade. Mod Podge can be purchased at any craft store for around $5-$10. You can pick up a foam brush at the same time for under a dollar.
Step 1: Start by taking your choice of paper and tracing an outline of your notebook cover, front and back (make sure you are tracing on the back of your paper). If your paper already has a straight edge, use that for the edge that will go up against the spine of the notebook. You could also give your notebook a fun collage look by cutting up your paper into several pieces and applying it that way!
Step 2: Next you will cut this out but you will want to leave about ½ inch extra around top, bottom and one edge of the piece that you will wrap around the inside of the notebook so don’t worry about keeping it perfect straight. The other edge will go against the spine of your notebook so keep that nice and straight, or use the straight edge of your paper like I did and you won’t need to touch it! Do this for both your front and back pieces.
Step 3: Once you have your pieces cut out, you are ready to start pasting them onto your notebook. Make sure you are working on a surface that is ok to get some Mod Podge on—it can get a little sticky and messy! With your foam brush, put Mod Podge both on the back of your paper and on your notebook. Then stick the piece directly onto the notebook.
Step 4: For the corners, take your scissor and snip the very corner, this will let you fold the paper over the edges. Add a little more Mod Podge to the back of the paper, and fold the three edges over and secure them to the inside flap of your notebook.
Step 5: Once you fold the three edges over, take your scissors and carefully snip any extra paper around the very corner. This will make the edges look nice and finished.
Step 6: Now is the time to add a little accent if you want. I decided to add a “K” to the front of my notebook and a decorative stripe down the middle to the back. Have fun with this step! You could add cut-out shapes, polka dots, letters, etc. Tip: This is a great way to reuse old wrapping paper scraps!
Step 7: Once you are done with your embellishments, seal the notebook with one final coat of Mod Podge over the front and back of your notebook. Pro tip: Use enough Mod Podge to cover everything, but don’t clump it on. Just paint a nice smooth layer. This will help with drying time, too!
Once the Mod Podge is fully dry (usually takes about 15-20 minutes), your new notebook is ready to go! Not only is this craft simple and inexpensive, it can make really cute customized gifts. There are so many unique ways to decorate your notebook. Let us know what you’ll be using your new personalized notebook for!
