Make Your Own Custom Notepads

Because I work for a commercial printer, sometimes I’m torn between asking for a work favor or figuring out how to do something by myself, on a smaller scale at home.

Notepads are a good example of this quandary. We make them at work, just about every day – we have a large jig set up and it holds everything at just the right angle to assemble THOUSANDS of them in just minutes.

But when I decided I wanted some custom “To Do” notepads, I really didn’t want to have them mass produced for two reasons – 1) I don’t need thousands of them, just two or so should last me the year; and 2) I really like to do things myself. “Stubbornly Independent” is what one of my co-workers calls me, and it’s true. Of course I take that as a compliment, and I’m not so sure that’s what he means 🙂 .

Seriously, though, notepads are super easy to do at home. And you only need 5 things (and I bet you have them in your house right now).

1. Plain or printed sheets.

2. A chipboard backer (a cereal box will work just fine).

3. White Glue (good old Elmer’s – no need for fancy PVC book binding glue since archival acid free glue isn’t worth the expense for a project like this)

4. Clamps (binder clips are my tool of choose)

5. Something heavy to weigh the pads down while they dry.

The neat thing about making your own notepads is there are no real rules. If you want to mix up your sheets to have different artwork or different colors, it’s no problem. I do recommend keeping everything the same weight of paper so that it binds up neater, but if you aren’t picky, then throw out that rule, too.

I like to make smaller notepads so they fit on my already overcrowded desk. I set up my artwork on a sheet so that I get four up when I turn the sheet sideways. That trick also lets me print fewer sheets to make a pad – 10 sheets of printed paper this way gives you one pad with 40 sheets in it. 

A little math tells me that I’ll just need to use my handy paper trimmer to cut them all to 2.75” wide. This part is important – you need the sheets to be really, really close to the same size so that the pads looks professional when it is done. Doing this with scissors will probably not yield high quality results.

Trim the chipboard/cereal box back to the same size as the sheets. Stack the pad so the sheets are all face up on top of the backer, and spend some time jogging them into position. Banging them on the work table to get everything lined up is fun or annoying, depending on whether you are the one crafting or the one trying to watch TV in the next room (or so I’m told 🙂 ).

Clamp the sheets very close to the top edge on both sides, being careful not to let the sheets shift while you clamp. It’s worth starting over at this point if they get misaligned, because you really can’t put them back together once you get glue on that edge.

Once you have them clamped, squeeze out a healthy but not overwhelming strip of glue on the edge, and use your finger to smooth it out and to get edge to edge coverage. Try not to allow glue to get on the backer – if it does, a damp paper towel should allow you to swipe it off. Getting a little glue over the first sheet is not a deal breaker for me; I don’t mind peeling that first one off and tossing it. 

I usually leave the clamps on for about 15-20 minutes, and then carefully remove them and set a heavy bottle on the pad to help it dry flat. I usually leave them overnight, and then in the morning, remove the bottle, and then check to see if the first page is usable or trash. If a little glue did make it to the backer, you can either ignore it, or a little strip of Washi tape will cover that up and make it look like you had always intended to add a decorative back border.

Pin this so when you are ready to make your own notepads you’ll have a plan.

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