DIY Notebook Covers with DecoArt
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It’s hard to believe that the school year is almost here, or already here for some people! Summer has just flown by. We recently had a pretty major life event happen in July. We came home from camping and found our main floor flooded along with our basement being completely soaked. Oh yes. It was a nightmare. Long story short: a hose on the toilet sprayed water for days while we were gone and we have been out of our house since mid-July.
All that to say that this post comes to you from my interim studio in our rental! With the craziness of our massive home reno happening, it was a welcome break to spend some time to create these fun DIY notebook covers. My two oldest are headed to grade 1 and junior kindergarten next month, and everyone is really excited about it! It also means it’s some for a fun back to school DIY!
This back to school DIY is really fun to make. With some paint and some stencils these DIY notebook covers are easy to create and are a fun way to customize some cheap spiral notebooks. You just need a few of DecoArt’s Reusable Stencils and Multisurface Satin Paint.
Let’s jump into how to make your own DIY notebook covers!
Supplies:
- cheap spiral notebooks
- DecoArt Reusable Stencils:
- DecoArt Americana Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Paint in:
- painter’s tape
- cosmetic sponges
How To Create DIY Notebook Covers
Step One:
So, please ignore the paint on the journal here because I did these first two steps out of order! The first thing you want to do is take the spiral wire out of the notebook so you can take the cover off. This step makes it so much easier to paint your notebook covers!
Step Two:
Once you have your notebook covers off you can use a large brush to paint 2-3 coats of the Cottonball Multisurface paint. Because my notebooks were black, it took me about 4 coats to get an even white base. Make sure to let the paint dry in between coats as well.
Step Three:
Tape a diagonal line across the notebook covers from one corner to the opposite one. Then paint one half of the notebook with a color of your choice. I did my notebook covers with Multisurface Satin in Waterfront, Lavender Fields (both of these shades mixed with some Cottonball to get a pastel shade) and Ballerina. I recommend at least 2 coats to get nice even opaque coverage.
Step Four:
Now onto stenciling! I started off by stenciling a pot from the Aloe Vera stencil on the bottom of the page with the color Waterfront. Use a cosmetic sponge for the stenciling to get a crisp edge! Appy 2 coats again to ensure an opaque finish. Remove the stencil, and then place the cacti stencil on top and stencil a cute cactus! The best part of these stick-on stencils is that they create super crisp edges! There is almost no bleeding and I love it. It makes these DIY notebook covers look great with no effort.
And then repeat this on the other two journals. Mix & match as you like!
Step Five:
Once our DIY notebook covers are dry, re-attach them to the notebooks with the coil. And ta-da! You’re done! Some super cute and fun notebooks to start the school year off right! This back-to-school DIY is great for all ages and a great to put your mark on your notebooks.
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