Matchbook Notebooks: A Discussion of Techniques

I am doing a craft show at an elementary school. This one is for the kids in the school. It is to give them a chance to buy gifts for their family and friends. I like that idea. I've been told that the things that sell the best are under $10. My little badges are inexpensive and should do OK, but I wanted to have a few more things that I could make easily, sell for a dollar or less and then gift or donate if they are left over.


These little matchbook notebooks are all over the internet. There are lots of tutorials and believe me, I have looked at lots of them. Most of them seem to work on a very slim margin of error. A margin of error that is too close for my limited skills. I ended up getting out the sheets of card stock and scrap paper and the paper cutter and working out what fits with the least amount of waste.

I have two sizes that work so far. One has sheets of paper that are 4 by a scant 3 inches. They fit into a strip of card stock that is 9 x 3 inches. I found that by cutting the pages a hair narrower, I was better able to fit them in and make it look good. If they were the exact same size, even the slightest variation in width would allow some to show. The smaller ones have pages that are a scant 2 x 2.5 inches long while the card stock is cut to 2 x 5.5 inches.



I use one of my quilting rulers and the edge of a pair of scissors to score them. I found that holding the pages in one hand and the stapler in the other let me center the staple better than trying to keep it all on the table.

I am using my old collection of stamps on the covers. I thought they looked too plain with the simple colored card stock. I have settled on a variety that I hope will appeal to the kids as well as to the parents. I have had some luck using scrapbooking paper with the smaller sized notebooks. you can just see the camo one in the bottom of the first picture. That should give me enough variety without having to purchase a single thing for this project! Yay for stash-busting.


Now, all I have to do is figure out a price for these that makes it worth my time to make them. I'm open to suggestions.