homemade jotters

Nick and I decided to continue last years tradition of making Christmas presents, which perhaps sounds sweeter than it actually works out in practise. We set aside a day to embrace our inner elf and set up a production line. One day is simply not enough if you want to go at a leisurely speed. These shopping lists and memo pads were my idea for our Mum’s. I designed them and printed them out, but it was at this stage I realised just how many pages would be needed. On our ‘making day’ Nick was cutting the sheets from 10.30am to 8pm with only a brief lunch break! So it isn’t for the faint hearted, which is why, unsurprisingly this is not a DIY tutorial.

If you do still fancy giving it ago or trying something similar, I used bookbinding glue to create the pads. I stacked all the pages and weighed them down with heavy books. This helps to keep them aligned, as well as preventing too much paper warping when the glue’s applied. I used 3 coats, allowing each one to dry in-between. Once finished you can easily peal a sheet off when it’s written on. It’s a bit like a ‘post it note’. I also bought some magnetic strips with adhesive backing. I attached these to the shopping lists so they could sit happily on a fridge.