SCRAP PAPER CALENDARS

Scratch Paper, Booklets, Calendars

There are a lot of things to do with scrap paper. Way before the computer and the mounds of paper from junk mail I was reusing scrap paper bound together as tablets of paper. This method can also be used to “bind” a number of projects. Kids can make little books, or you might want to print out your favorite poems and bind them for little gifts. I am sure you will come up with a lots of ideas.

This week end I decided to make a few calendars for the house. (For some reason I am not getting any in the mail from business as we did years ago.

You will need:

Paper cutter (optional, but handy)
Several wooden sticks or small wooden slats (this was small, so I used to paint sticks.)
Clamps: Paper binders, C clamps, Rubber Bands etc
White Glue
Scrap paper cut to the same size

Straighten the paper edges and put between the two wooden sticks.

Leave about 1/8 sticking above the wood. Clamp the ends so the paper is tightly squished between the wooden sticks. Apply a thin layer of white glue to the top edges where you want the “binding” and spread out with your finger. Put another clamp on the middle if needed. Allow the glue to dry, then reapply 4-5 times leaving time for it to dry between coats. Take the pad of paper out and you have a tablet, or in this case a bound calendar you can tear the pages off.

These calendars were done using MSWord clipart to make a nice background, then glued the “tablet” of calendar pages on. The calendar pages were done in Excel, which took a bit of arranging and rearranging of pages to get the sizes I wanted. If you use the print preview feature you can get a good idea of the size you are making. There are sites you can download calendar pages.

If the backing is not heavy enough you can glue it onto poster board. I used card stock and some fancy paper for a few of the calendars. You could also put them in a frame to give them more importance.

If you come up with more ideas leave a comment!