#notebook tutorial

School started the other day and I am really damn pissed. Not sad, but extremely angry and everyone and anything. :D I hate not having enough free time for myself, and I also hate wearing ankle-lenght jeans while the sun is trying to burn the entire country alive. So yeah, I kinda despise being there.

At least, I could make this a bit more fun. Bringing metal in school can make your time there pass easier. Starting from your bag, the next thing that you can decorate are your damn notebooks.

The materials that you are going to need are:

Covering the notebook

1. Start with a notebook of your choice and grab the coloured contact paper that you like the most. The one I bought is mat black, but I also thought about getting a fluffy grey one to do the rest of my notebooks. (My life is complete now that I know that fluffy contact paper exists, bruh) Now, cover the front part of the notebook with the paper. Unfortunately, this proccess required both of my hands and I was unable to take pictures of how I did it.

Thankfully, this video will show you the exact same way in which I did my notebooks. 

2. If you are starting with a spiral notebook like mine, you are going to have to cover the front and the back separately, with two different pieces of contact paper. Just place your notebook on the paper and cut around it, leaving a 3cm margin (around one inch) around the areas marked in the picture below. 

After doing that, peel the sticky side of the paper off and stick it on the front part of the notebook. Carefully slide a ruler across the surface to avoid any bubbles, as the person in the video did, but don’t fold the edges in, yet. 

3.  Now, let’s get rid of the sticky paper that has stuck on the spiral of the notebook. Carefully, use your exacto blade to make two slits right next to each spiral, so that there will be one spiral between two slits. (1rst picture) Then, puncture a hole every two slits, exactly where the holes for the spiral of your notebook are. (2nd picture) When you are done, pull the pieces of contact paper that you have cut around and free that damn spiral. Wipe the glue that could still be on the spiral with a baby wipe.

4. Now, fold the paper in, just as it is shown in the video to achieve a smooth look. Close your notebook and place a couple of heavy books on top, to flatten it, in case you have accidently bent the cover while working with the contact paper.

Decorating the notebook

5. Choose the design that you want for your notebook and cut it out. In my case, I really wanted to have a part of Orion’s bass score on my cover. It’s the middle melodic part, right before the guitars kick in. 

6.Flip the designs upside down and stick them on the transparent contact paper (1rst picture). Using a ruler, smoothe out the bubbles (2nd picture) and cut around the shapes with a pair of scissors (3rd picture).

7. Time to go wild with the designs! Using wood glue (preferably) or a glue stick, stick the designs that you have sealed with transparent contact paper on your notebooks. Use wrapping paper, stickers and washi tape to make everything more interesting.  I did many different designs this years, that you can use as inspiration for youw own crafts.

(1rst picture up right) You can write lyrics on your notebook. I choose Death’s Perennial Quest for the cover, but you can do whatever lyrics suit you best. It is advisable not to have very offensive lyrics or swearing on the cover of your notebook, since it can get you in serious trouble in some strict schools.

(2nd picture) Glue random guitar and metal memes on the covers of your notebooks. Use, google “tumblr *** stickers“ and add a subject of your choice to the *** bit to find many cute pictures to add on your notebooks.

(3rd picture) Or, just grab every single scrap of material that exists on your desk and glue it on. That last book is my agenda for this school year, and it has everything on it, from pieces of fabric, to band stickers (Check out 1000mods if you love Stoner metal!) and from pieces of napkins to silly stickers. The dude in the photo is Samy Elbanna from Lost Society. I wanted to have a v-shaped guitar on my cover, but I was too bored to print out anything more and I just taped this picture of his on the cover. I have gotten the weirdest looks from this notebook, but I like it a lot :p

So, this is it! :D

Feel free to send in questions regarding the tutorial, asks and submissions. Send in your own creations and have them all featured in my blog!