I love to doodle. Doodling helps me quiet my heed and focus my thoughts. Information technology also inspires me to be artistic. I come up up with my best ideas while I am doodling.

I prefer to doodle on dissimilar types of graph newspaper. And I brand my ain pads of paper out of graph paper that I create and print using Inkscape. In this post, I will share how I padded the paper to create my own notepads. And I don't use whatever special gum or equipment. I but use a few items that I already had around the house.

If you lot want to see how I used Inkscape to pattern and print the paper, encounter this mail.

Starting time, you take to trim your paper downwards to size. I wanted my notepads to be 5.five″ x 8.5″,  which is a half canvas of viii.5″ x 11″ letter size paper. And so that mode I simply had ane cutting. That is function laziness, and part logic. Each canvass of newspaper then would have iii prissy mill edges. I used a paper trimmer, which if yous have access to one I would highly recommend to go on the cuts straight and foursquare.

For the backing I used medium chipboard that I purchased from Amazon. But I have also used items salvaged from my recycling bin such as packaging materials, and cereal boxes. If there is something printed on it, either I will put that side in, or cover it with pretty newspaper.

Doing ii pads at one time!

Then I neatly stacked the paper on the chip board, and used two pieces of woods, and ii clamps to tightly clamp the paper and chip board together.

The Gum

At that place is a special glue for padding newspaper. But I just employ the white schoolhouse gum. And not even the brand name. Information technology was just extra glue that i of the kids had brought home at the terminate of the schoolhouse twelvemonth. I don't call back most people would know the difference, but if I were making these for gifts, or to sell, I would probably purchase the padding glue. Information technology'due south more flexible when it dries, and tears off a bit easier. But these are for me, so the white school gum is fine.

To apply the gum, I stand the pads upwards and close them in my desk drawer. Then apply a sparse line and use my finger to spread it over the cease of the pad.

So I make clean up whatsoever that I got on the wood. I go out it dry for a few hours, and then utilize another glaze. I repeat this until the elevation is nice and smooth, normally iii or 4 coats.

That is basically it! Once the last coat of glue dries, I simply advisedly remove the clamp and the pieces of forest. If I am not careful when I apply the glue, the wood volition be "padded" with the newspaper, and I will utilize an exacto pocketknife to run between the wood and the pad.

The Price

If I factor in the price of press if I use a laser printer, information technology's virtually $3.00 per pad. It may non be the cheapest per pad, just if yous merely want a couple pads here and at that place, it'due south the best way to go. If y'all just use scraps of paper, and don't print on them you could make them for next to zero.

An extra tip…Use this method to pad your business cards together. There'due south nothing worse than having your business organisation cards scattered all over the place. Information technology keeps them all together, and helps to keep them from getting aptitude.

Finished notepads!