A Simple Gift Idea

It's always tricky to come up with meaningful gifts for birthdays and holidays.  It seems as though everyone has everything they could possibly need or want.  But I found one simple gift idea that could work for anyone.  

For Father's Day this year, I gave my dad a homemade notebook as part of his gift.  He makes and bottles his own beer (this makes Adam very happy), so I created a homebrew journal for him to write down all his beer recipes.  I saw similar journals online and on Etsy that I thought my dad would like, but they were a bit pricey for being just a notebook.  I thought to myself, why don't I just make one?  It wouldn't be that difficult or time-consuming, plus homemade gifts always feel more special.  

Here were the supplies I used:

-Paper for front and back covers (I used craft paper cardstock.)
-Paper for inside pages (I just used plain copy paper.)
-Cardstock or cardboard for hole punching template (I used old cardboard.)
-1/8 inch hole punch
-16 gauge wire
-Binder clips
-Scissors
-Needle-nose pliers  
-Corner Rounder (This is only if you want pages with rounded corners.)

The first thing I did was design the front cover, back cover and inside pages.  I used Google Drawings for the covers and Google Docs for my inside pages.  You could also use Word or even design them by hand.  I printed the covers on craft paper cardstock using my printer and had the inside pages copied at Office Depot.  I used a corner rounder to round the corners.  You don't have to do this step, but I like the look of the rounded corners.  

Next, I made a hole punching template using scrap cardboard.  This will help you get all the holes punched in the correct spot on each page.  I looked at a regular spiral notebook to figure out my spacing and then I just eyeballed it on my template.  Once I had my template, I lined it up with about 10 pages at a time.  I highly recommend this hole punch, because it is heavy duty and can punch lots of sheets at one time.  Then I just punched holes where there was a hole in my template.  I repeated this until all my pages had holes.

Once all my pages had holes, I used binder clips to hold everything in place.

Then I needed to make my spiral.  I used 16 gauge wire and wrapped it around a pen.  You need to wrap it around the pen as many times as you have holes.  I had 27 holes, so I wrapped the wire around my pen 27 times.  

After I made my spiral, I started threading it through the holes.  I'm not gonna lie, this part took a bit longer than I thought it would.  Just keep Netflix on in the background to keep you entertained.

When I had my spiral in place, I trimmed the ends and tucked them inside so the sharp ends wouldn't stick out.  

It turned out pretty cute!  You could make a notebook to fit anyone's interests.  It's easy and it means something to the receiver that you took the time to make something just for them.