Back to School: DIY Pipe Cleaner Notebook

When you reach a certain age, i.e. adulthood, the seasons seem to fly by faster. This summer, every time I've looked at the calendar I've been shocked at how few days we have left before school starts. I have managed to sneak in a couple crafts, and this latest project is super easy, colorful, and don't tell the kids-all mine! As with all Craft Lightning projects my rainbow pipe cleaner notebook took less than 15 minutes, minus dry time.

I truly have no intention of sharing it with the kids, instead, I'm going to help them make their own! Here's how you can make one too.

Supplies

• Chenille sticks/Pipe Cleaners
• Glue
• Notebook 
• Wire cutters or scissors you don't mind dulling

First, take a couple quick minutes to lay out the sticks and figure how many will be needed.

Don't waste time trying to line them all up at this point, that part comes later.

Once you know how many you need you could go ahead and measure/trim them to fit the length of the notebook.

OR you can take a much easier and more precise shortcut, but I'll talk more about that later.

 Next, start gluing down the sticks, using a straight edge as a guide. In the image above you can see I used a wooden box as my guide.

Once they're all glued down, put some heavy books on them, so they don't curl and give the glue about an hour or two to dry.

Early in this project, I started using my jewelry tool to cut the pipe cleaners because, oddly enough, I could find it but not my bad scissors, and there was no way I was using my good ones! Thankfully, while the glue was drying, I found them in my daughter's room-go figure.

Scissors really are the better option for this project because:

1. They give your notebook a cleaner edge.
2. They're quicker.
3. As you cut, they curve the ends of the wire, just slightly, so that they aren't pokey.

Honestly, I'm ready to get back into our homeschooling routine, mostly so when the kids say they're bored I can ask them if they've done their Math!

Are you ready for school to start? 

For more great Craft Lightning Back to School project click on the box below!