Teachers' Day Notebooks

For as long as I can remember, Teachers' Day has always been on 1 September, and Children's Day on 1 October. It seems like things have changed now. Something like both days fall on the first Friday of September and October respectively? I suppose it makes more sense, because it gives the teachers a nice long weekend, and goodness knows they need loads of those, dealing with kids all day.

You might recognise (or not) the shapes? They're from the Mister Maker goodie bag that we got when we went for the Mister Maker craft activity last week. So I prepared the paints (also courtesy of Mister Maker - we like him. But only watch his shows when I'm a) not intoxicated in any way or b) not having a headache. Because I am incredibly jealous of his boundless amount of energy, and it's so so hard listening to someone who's so enthusiastic when all I want to do is melt into the couch), and all the royal princess had to do was stamp away.

Then I was left to do the rest as she got distracted by the train set. I really hope the teachers like their books; I gave up my nap time for them.

Want to make your own? They're not difficult and can be rather quick once you get the hang of things, but be prepared to get your fingers sticky and possibly pricked a couple of times. There are no pictures of the making process because my fingers were too sticky to handle the camera.

Materials (for 2 booklets):
Plain A4 paper, 11 sheets
Coloured thicker stock paper (I used 220gsm paper), 2-3 sheets of contrasting or matching colours
Elastic bands
Needle and string
Glue
Scissors

1. Decide how you want to decorate your cover. You can use rubber stamps and stamp pads, draw, or do like us and use sponges and paints. For 2 booklets, you'll need to do 2 sets of prints, each on a half piece of A4 paper (i.e. A5). Unless you want both sets to have the same print, then cover one piece of A4 paper with the prints (have I lost you already?). Set aside to dry.

2. Cut remaining 10 sheets of paper to size (I simply folded the A4 paper into halves and cut them). So you'll now have 20 sheets of A5 sized paper

3. Do the same for the stock paper

4. Take 10 sheets of your A5 sized paper and put together with one A5 sized coloured paper and fold together. Make about 5 holes on the line in the centre page (like the centre fold of a magazine), equally spaced (I used an embroidery needle, which broke after a few holes, but continued to serve its purpose. I must be really strong)

5. Next, use your needle and thread to sew through the holes. Remember to keep the knots on the outside of the book (i.e. on the side of the coloured paper). This should keep the 'book' together. By this time, you'll have a 'cover' (the coloured sheet) and 'pages' (the white sheets)

6. Remember the cover you printed? It should be dried by now. Stick it to the front page of your book.

7. Take a contrasting (or matching, whichever you choose) piece of coloured paper, cut it to be half the size of your book (length-wise). Then fold it in half, lengthwise. You'll need it to be pasted against the spine of your book later, to cover the knots of your thread

8. Make a small hole on the folded line, somewhere in the middle (I used the same broken embriodery needle). Then take the elastic band and fit both ends into the inside of the folded paper so you'll have a loop on the outside. Test it out: Position this small folded coloured sheet against the spine of the book and gently pull the loop over to the other end of the book, adjusting if it's too loose/tight. In the process, make sure the ends don't slip out through the hole.

9. Once you are satisfied, secure the ends on the inside with sticky tape.

10. Now glue the inside of that sheet of coloured paper and paste it against the spine so half of it will be on the front of the book, and the other half on the back. Loop the elastic band around the book, and place book under a ton of dictionaries for about half an hour for glue to set and everything to be nice and flat and neat.

Phew. I really hope they like it. Nap time is so precious to me.