Monday, June 18, 2018

Paint Chip Notebooks

I love this craft. 

These pocket-sized notebooks that are so cute, I can't stand it! They're also incredibly easy to make, which I will show you step-by-step, with glamorous photos.















First of all, did you know that paint chips look like this these days? At all the hardware stores I visited, the paint chips were short and wide, rather than long and skinny. If yours are different, you will need to measure your own pages, but I've done all the hard work for you, if you happen to have paint chips that look like these. 

In addition to your paint chips, you need: 
-Hot glue (recommended) or a stapler
-Copy paper
-A pen or pencil
-A ruler


Step One

Using the ruler, measure out pages for your notebook. In this case, the pages are 4 inches wide by 2.25 inches tall. I traced grid lines onto a sheet of copy paper, and cut several sheets at once. You could trace one page out and then photocopy it, which makes this simple craft even quicker. 


Step Two

Using your ruler again, measure from the corner of the long side of the paint chip. (Note: measure from the corner, not from the curvy part of the end.) Starting at the bottom end, measure out:
- 2 inches
- 1/4 inch
- 2 1/4 inches
- 1/4 inch

Measure from both sides, and draw the lines in with pen. This makes nice, sharp creases, which you want to fold along, thus making a cute little packet. 

Once you fold along the creases, it makes a box with open sides, much like a gum packet.



Step Three


Now: Have a stack of your little pages ready to go. 

See the pocket made by the end fold of the paint chip in the photo here? Put a stripe of hot glue all the way across the cardboard, and then place your pages in. Fold the end flap over, and hold it for a few seconds. It should hold in this position. If it doesn't, add a bit more glue - you want the end flap to stay bent over like this.




Why? Well! Because now you can tuck the other end underneath the flap, and it will hold itself closed like a matchbook. Isn't it gorgeous?

Please note that the adorable flap has a tiny little bear on it (because the brand is Behr), and the writing of the paint color are facing the right side up. That's because we carefully measured from the *bottom* of the paint chip. Well done, us!


And that's it! You're done! Do you love it so much?! I DO!





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