I think these would be great for craft fairs…I bought my small composition books in a set of three from the Dollar Tree link: ttps://tinyurl.com/2nyn5p2c
I used napkin that I bought at the Christmas Tree Store last spring and removed the back layers by using a piece of washi tape on the back of the napkin edge, and pulling the front of the napkin away from the backing. Then I glued the napkin to a piece of copier paper with Tombow Aqua Glue, but any glue will work. I only glued the copy paper onto the napkin so the paper would block the color on the front of the composition book, but you could also just paint the notepad cover so you don’t need to do this step. After the napkin is adhered to the copy paper, you’ll want to trim the napkin that overlaps the edges.
I used a matte laminating pouch that I bought from Amazon, link: https://tinyurl.com/4zabwpjd. And put a second piece of copy paper behind the one with the napkin glued to it before putting it into the laminating pouch. Make sure the napkin front is face up inside the laminating pouch, then run it through your laminator. If you don’t think the napkin is well sealed to the laminating pouch, run it through the laminator a second time.
You’ll want to cut the edges off of the laminated napkin so you can separate the back of the laminating pouch that you won’t use, as well as the second sheet of copy paper that is attached to the back of the pouch.
The measurements of the composition book are 3 1/4″ wide by 4 1/2″ tall and the spine is 1/8″ thick. Each composition book is a little bit off of these measurements, so make sure you measure yours before cutting the laminated napkin. I ended up laying the composition book onto the napkin (for height) and gave myself about 1/8″ extra at the bottom then cut it straight across with my guillotine paper trimmer link: https://tinyurl.com/smd9wdaf. Trim the width to 7 3/4″ wide, and it will work no matter what your composition book’s measurements are.
To glue the napkin to the composition book, I covered my entire notebook with tear tape, link: https://tinyurl.com/47j9dm2w and then using the right edge of the napkin, I adhered it to the right side of the front of the notebook and then making sure there are no creases, continued to wrap the napkin around the notebook. You may need to trim the edges, and I did this with my Hay Phi scissors. You should end up with about 1 1/4″ of extra napkin on the right side. You’ll want to add a piece of cardstock that matches the back of the napkin (measure the extra piece of napkin and subtract 1/8″ from the total). You’ll need a strip of cardstock that is as tall as the napkin and is 1/8″ narrower than the napkin and you’ll use tear tape to adhere this paper strip to the underside of the napkin on the right edge of the napkin. This is what will become the flap that will allow you to add a snap to close the front of your notebook.
I also made a pocket for inside the front cover with some of the leftover laminated napkin. It is 3 1/4″ wide by 2″ tall. I added tear tape to the bottom edge and the right edge. You might want to trim this a little bit so it fits perfectly into the right side cover of the notebook and make sure you do this before putting it inside the notebook.
I took my snap making tool link: https://tinyurl.com/yj3y8sey to add a snap to the front cover. You’ll need two pieces that look like a thumbtack and a piece that looks like an innie, and one piece that looks like an outie. You’ll need to poke holes in the front cover and in the flap that wraps around the notebook. Make sure you don’t poke the holes any further than 3/4″ away from the edge, as the snap tool won’t work for more than 3/4″.
After you’ve poked the holes (making sure that the front flap hole lays directly over the hole you’ve poked on the front cover of the notebook), put a thumbtack piece through the flap with the top of the thumbtack on the top of the flap (so it’s on the face of the napkin) and then put either an innie or an outie piece through the bottom of the thumbtack and then using the tool squeeze it in place. Note: You’ll want to flip the tool over from the way I describe it in the video, or it won’t work right. Then put another thumbtack under the front cover of the notebook so the point of the thumbtack is facing up through the cover and add the other piece (innie or outie, whichever you didn’t use on the flap) and then squeeze it so it’s attached.
I ended up rounding the front cover by using my corner rounder that wouldn’t go through the thickness involved, but did give me a good line to follow with my scissors..