Cereal Box Matchbook Notebooks

I was a very proud mommy last night.  My 3 year old had an untouched cookie sitting in front of him for the longest time, because he was so into drawing in his large matchbook notebook.  He filled up the whole book last night with some awesome drawings.

He wanted to draw more this morning, but he needed more paper.  So I made him two new large matchbook notebooks.  These notebooks were made from two sides of a box of Captain Crunch cereal.  The paper is made from 100% post consumer recycled paper.  One of the notebooks has the cereal box design on the outside, and the other has it on the inside.  For the one that is brown on the outside, I decorated it with Valentine's Day stickers.

These are quick and easy projects to make for kids of all ages.  I've made these with kids ages 7 - 13, and they always love making them.  Basically what you do is to fold a half an inch of the bottom up.  Then you insert some paper in that fold, and staple it in.  Make sure to staple in the center of the folded flap and not near the top of it.  Then you fold down the top of the cardboard and inset it into that stapled flap. You might need to cut the paper at this time to make sure that it is the right size.  You can make these in all kinds of sizes.  I like using the large side of a cereal box when making notebooks for little kids.  Its a great thing to stick in your purse with some crayons and pull out when you need to keep your child entertained while on the go.

While I was resizing the pictures for this blog post, my son filled up the Valentine's notebook with some really great drawings for his daddy.