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One of my goals for the year is to do one quick sketch every day. Instead of buying a sketch book, I decide to make one out of things I had around the house. First thing I did was find some paper that was blank on one side and a thin cardboard box. We have plenty of both. I started by cutting the side of the box off. The side panel seemed like a good width so I just chopped along the seams. Next I cut the paper so that it would be slightly thinner than the width of the cardboard strip. In my case that ended up being 3.66" wide. ![]() By cutting those strips in half I was able to use the entire piece of paper with no waste. I ended up with a stack of paper all the same size. In my case the pages are 4.25" x 3.66" but you could make your pages any size you like. By cutting them this way I was able to get 6 pages per 8.5" x 11" piece of recycled paper. ![]() Next, I stapled my stack of paper to the center of the cardboard strip. I used the existing fold line since I knew I wanted to create a cover that would fold over the paper. I debated which side of the paper to staple but ended up going with parallel to the cut edge of the cardboard. I stapled 2 corners of the paper stack. I have a pretty strong stapler so I was able to go through all the sheets + the cover. ![]() Next, I knew I wanted to have a way to close the book so I decided to sew on a rubber band. Honestly, the hardest part of the project was picking what colored rubber band to use. As you can see I ended up opting for red. I simply used a needle and thread to sew the rubber band to the cardboard. Here it is finished and closed. I am happy to report that 4 months into the year and I am still doing a sketch most days. The size is small enough to fit in my back pocket and the cardboard cover keeps the pages from getting mangled as I tote it around. I love the way the organic label and text ended up on the cover. It was kismet.
You can make them as fancy or utilitarian as you like. Here are a few more photos of other more fancy recycled sketchbooks that my friend Nancy and I made. In these examples (below) instead of cutting and stapling we folded the paper and Nancy used a heavy needle and thread to hold the pages in. The possibilities are endless!
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Harmony Susalla
Founder of Harmony Art organic design. Archives
June 2022
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