Matchbook Notebook Tutorial Weekend Project

Ok, here it is. The Matchbook Notebook tutorial you asked for. I don't have a video camera and personally I prefer to see the photos in a post than I do to listen and watch. Especially on something that isn't tricky or difficult.

You will need the following items:
Scratchpad (cardboard backed)
card stock 12" x 12"
Sticky Strip tape or glue

Not much to making it. It's after it's all made that you need the major supplies!!! It's all in how much you want to embellish it! I'll leave that part up to you! My tutorial here is to show you how to make your scratchpad into a matchbook notebook.

I will be giving you measurements but you may need to adjust them for the thickness of your scratchpad. Not all scratchpads are the same thickness. I have even gotten some that are cut a bit crooked too. They are a scratchpad and the companies that make them know they don't need to be perfect. Though they should because we stampers pick and choose our items by quality!!

You can click here to see the original matchbook notebook that we are going to be duplicating here.

First lets start with a piece of card stock. For mine I'm using Perfect Plum card stock. All materials used here for this project are Stampin' Up! products.

Lay your scratchpad on top of your card stock. Line the side of the scratchpad along the long side of the card stock and the bottom of the pad on the short side. Let the card stock show just a hair on that long side. You want to leave just a little extra width there to compensate any for the cutter and for the scratchpad being a bit off. Mark the card stock and cut that long strip. Mine measured just a bit over 3" so I actually cut mine at 3-1/8". If I don't like what I see when I get it all scored I will trim it up before I tape it together.

Your strip will be 12" long and it is too long for your project but you don't want to cut it off until you are close to being done. You want to make sure it will be long enough. SO be patient and work with the long strip.

At the bottom of the strip score and fold the card stock up 3/4". Score and fold again another 3/4". This is the part on my original one that you see the words. You can make this piece bigger if you want but not too much bigger or it will look out of place. But if you need it a touch bigger for what you want to put there then do so. Once they two spots are scored you will fold them. With your card stock laying on your work surface, fold the first score up and then the next score fold up. You are folding both away from you. Don't tape them together yet. You want to do all of the scoring and folding first. It is for the bottom part of the matchbook.

Your next score will be the thickness of your scratch pad. I like to just take a piece of copier paper and wrap it around my scratchpad to make a pattern of the thickness of your scratchpad. You will use this pattern twice. Once here and once again at the top of the matchbook. Mark that patter piece thickness on your card stock and score and fold it.

Next measure the length of your scratchpad, mark and score your card stock for the length. Take your pattern piece again and mark for the thickness of the pad. You are probably wondering if your card stock is going to be long enough for this matchbook. Mine just barely fit. If your scratchpad is longer you can always add a piece to the front and have it wrap around to the back. Cut it off so only 3/4" is folded over on the back.

Now that all your lines are scored and folded you can begin taping the card stock. I prefer glue because I know once it is dry the matchbook will stay together. The Sticky Strip is very sticky but tape will pull apart and personally I don't want to take any chances. SO I first glued the 3/4" piece I first scored to the next 3/4" scored piece. Next you will glue or tape the scratchpad in. The scratch pad will be placed in the matchbook upside down. The original one has the pages perforated to they rip off. To compensate for that you may want to use your Crop-a-dial and punch a couple of holes in it and tie it together with a ribbon to hold the paper in place. I just glued the 3/4" folded and glued pieces to the scratchpad. But I only glued it 1/4" from the inside bottom so the cover can be tucked in. To rip off a piece of paper the edge of that folded 3/4" piece will act as an edge. When you glue the scratchpad front to the 3/4" piece you will also be gluing the bound end and the cardboard back all at the same time. Once the glue is set you can test out the cover to see if it tucks in to the front piece nicely or if it's too long. If it's too long you will need to trim it. If it's too short you will need to add that piece I talked about in the previous paragraph.

Now I just glued mine and the glue has set up. I am not liking what I am seeing. The top sheet of the scratchpad is stuck to the matchbook front piece (which is what I want) but the page is also sticking up. I will need to make holes in the notebook so I can run some ribbon, hemp or twine through them to hold this part down. My scratchpad is too thick to use the Crop-a-dial. Bummer. My other alternative is to just tie a ribbon around that bottom part and omit the wording there. I am planning on going that route. (oh, I'm typing this as I am making my matchbook if you couldn't tell already!! lol)

After I tied my ribbon I decorated the front. It's a pretty easy project to do except for that paper sticking up part. You could always make your scratchpads thinner and probably get two or maybe even 3 matchbooks from one scratchpad. Be sure to back it with some chipboard/box board. An old cereal or tissue box will work nicely. Just make sure the part with the words on it is the part you glue to your card stock. It won't show unless you are using white card stock. Then you may want to add a layer of white to it before you glue it in place.

These are simple enough to use as a make n take or even a stamp camp item. They make wonderful gifts too! Dress them up for men or women, everyone can use a notebook!

The paper I used is from the Designer Series Paper pack "Perfect Plum." I used the flowers die cut and cut out my flowers using the same decorative paper pack. I added a jumbo brad in the center. And since I couldn't put my words on the bottom part I put them on the flap and omitted the pen.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda