In our household, cereal is a staple for breakfast, and let’s face it: lunch and dinner, too. With so many cereal boxes lying around, I wanted to come up with a simple and quick project to utilize all of that cardboard. These notepads are a breeze to whip up and make great stocking stuffers for that person who loves to make lists!
What you will need:
- Cereal box
- 50 sheets or so of recycled paper (old computer paper, scribble sheets, etc.)
- Scissors
- Piece of decorative paper from your stash
- Mod Podge
- Padding Compound
- Paint brush
- Binder clips
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Begin by cutting your piece of cardboard, decorative paper, and sheets of recycled paper all the same size and shape. I cut my pieces about the size of a coaster. You then want to Mod podge your pieces of decorative paper to each side of the cardboard. This will make it look nicer and give the cardboard a little more strength.
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Once your cardboard is dry, stack the sheets of recycled paper on top. Make sure you line everything up evenly on the top edge of the notepad.
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Take your paintbrush and dip it into the padding compound. You will want a nice even and somewhat thick layer. Paint along the top edge of the notepad getting every sheet of paper and making sure to go from corner to corner.
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Attach your clips along the top edge. This will firmly hold your papers in place and allowing the padding compound to dry while keeping everything aligned.
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Remove the clips after the compound is fully dry. You can leave the note pad as is or you can attach a magnetic strip to the back to make a refrigerator note pad.
What are some of the ways you’ve used recycled cereal boxes? Mine are still piling up and I would love to hear more ideas and suggestions! Feel free to leave links and notes in the comments.
I am a middle school art teacher. We use cereal boxes to make the forms for paper mache 3-D sculptures. We also recycle school supply catalogs from teacher mailboxes for strips (instead of using masking tape) to create the form. Click on link below to see the letter (initial) sculptures that we made.
http://view.txtbear.com/84752/untitled-txtbear-document/
Jo-Anne Jackson
We use cereal boxes for painting. My 4yo can put as much paint as she wants on the cereal box and her project won’t get soggy like paper can. We also use our cereal boxes to make notebooks and post cards.
http://kaotickrafter.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-first-attempt-at-tutorial-stitched.html
http://kaotickrafter.blogspot.com/2010/04/tutorial-homemade-recycled-postcards.html
Great ideas! Now I have an abundance of things to do with my nephew which is great.
I use cereal boxes for storing and organizing kids craft supplies as well as drawer dividers.
http://highoncraftblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/organizing-challenge-reveal.html
Why not cut up cereal boxes to make Artist Trading Cards?