Jo and I have recently discovered a special type of glue that you can use to make your own notepads. It’s called “padding compound” and it’s a simple adhesive that you apply to a stack of paper to turn it into a notepad.
We have had endless fun making custom, personalized notepads and doing various fun projects with it, and are still coming up with new ideas for more. It’s so easy to use, too! Here are the basic instructions:
Take a stack of paper — any color, type, or size you want — and tap it on the table so that one side is as flat as it can be. If you want your notepad to have a sturdy back, add a piece of cardboard, cut to the same size, to the bottom of your stack. Secure the sheets together with a couple of binder clips.
Now take a small brush and apply the padding compound liberally along the edge of the pad. In just a few minutes’ time, it will dry to a smooth and non-sticky finish. If you have a particularly large notepad and would like extra strength, you can also apply a second or third coat of compound.
And just like that, you’ve made your own custom notepad!
If you’re as intrigued by this stuff as I was when I first found out about it, you’ll want to know where to get it! You can usually find it sold by the quart on eBay, but since it takes such a tiny amount of the compound to make a notepad, a quart is practically a lifetime supply, which may be a bit much for the typical crafter. If you’re looking to play around with a minimal investment, check out the 2-oz bottles (which is enough for a couple dozen notepads) that we have for sale in our store.
The possibilities for these notepads are endless! Here are a few ideas I’ve tried so far:
- Make a mat stack for you or for a scrapbooking friend. Simply cut a collection of scrapbook papers a little larger than an average photo print (for example, 4.5″ x 6.5″) and turn them into a pad. You can then tear off a mat one at a time, whenever you want to mat a photo in your scrapbook.
- Turn scraps of paper into a cute scratch pad. What’s more fun than cute, printed paper when it comes to the scratch pad on your desk? Just take your otherwise useless scraps and pull them together into a notepad you’ll really enjoy using.
- Bundle business cards into a stack. My husband is constantly scattering his business cards all over his truck and bag because they are loose and hard for him to keep together. I took a stack of them and made a notepad out of them and now he has an organized stack that’s easy to carry. His clients are always impressed and delighted when he pulls a card off the pad.
There are many more ideas possible here, from score sheets to grocery lists to personalized stationery. Jo has several fun notepad projects in the works, so keep an eye out for what she comes up with next!
54 comments so far:
I was so pleased to find your website with info on how to make glued notepads…my initial desire was to turn used paper into pads for household scrap pads…however, I was intrigued by the possibility of making personalized pads…can you offer assistance on how I might do so perhaps using a pretty font on the computer…dividing an 8 1/2 x 11 paper into 4ths…I assume you could use a stamp but the computer would be faster…
What a great idea, Barbara! I think the easiest way to do what you want is to create a Microsoft Word document that divides the page into four sections, then put your personalization in each one and print it out.
I did some poking around in Word on my computer, and if you look under “Tools” and then “Envelopes and Labels”, there are many pre-set templates that can work for you. For example, label number “3263 – Postcard” will divide your page into four sections that are 4.25″ wide and 5.5″ tall.
However, that label design creates sideways pages instead of tall pages, so I messed with the default template until I got a working design. Once I got it to work the way I wanted, I saved it so I could share it with you
I’m happy to offer my Custom Notepad Template to all our readers. Just download it, tweak the image/text to suit your personalizations needs, print it out, then cut each page into four equal parts. Stack them up and you’re ready to make your notepad.
Oh, one other thing I discovered while testing this idea today… When you use regular copy paper for a notepad, I recommend cutting a piece of cardboard (the same size as the pages) to back your notepad, since the paper is so thin. Otherwise, the notepad is quite floppy
I hope this template helps with your project. Please let us know how it goes, and remember you can share pictures in our Flickr pool if you like.
Heheee. Good idea. I likeee it.
Our Adult Living class would like to know how to make notepads from recyled paper. Could you send a list of materials that we need to recyle. Have you charged any money for these notepads? We would like to raise money for field trips.
Thank You
not many art supply stores or office supply stores carry padding compound anymore. it’s most commonly found online which can be an inconvenience if you want to complete a project and don’t want to wait for it to ship. Mod Podge works just as well, i’ve found!!
love,
heather
iraida, have members of your group collect any type of paper that is blank on one side. You can even use a piece of cardboard for the back to make it more like a writing pad. Add a sheet of colorful paper to the front if you would like to bundle the pads together to sell. We have never sold the note pads but we have had a lot of luck selling our mulling spices in decorative jars and our dog biscuits in little bags. Best of luck!
heather t, like most craft rooms, ours has a supply of Mod Podge as well. We will check it out and see how it compares. Thanks for the tip and for visiting!
When I retired from teaching, I took many of my old worksheets and made them into notepads. We had the advantage of a press though and a unit which cut large stacks of papers. I cannot recall how long the glue needed to stay before the pressure was removed. Also, on the average, what is the most number of papers you can stack for the binder clip. I was really spoiled with the paper press, as the stack could be quite high.
Thank you.
Hi Anne. What a great idea with the worksheets, and I’m jealous about the press!
I’ve seen large binder clips that have a 1″ capacity, which would hold quite a bit of paper. If you need more paper in a pad than that, you could easily raid the garage for some large, expandable clamps. I would put a piece of wood on the top and bottom of the stack of paper and then secure with a clamp on each side.
This is such a great idea! It’s on my list.
At Heather’s suggestion, I tried making some notepads (some with paper and some with card stock) using Mod Podge instead of padding compound.
For both tests, I found that the Mod Podge did hold the pages together, but the padding compound is more suitable for this task for the following reasons. First, the Mod Podge had a thin, rough surface on the end of the pad when dried, but the padding compound was thick and smooth. Second, the Mod Podge seemed to soak into the ends of the pages a bit, and when I took pages off the pad, the edge wasn’t perfectly straight anymore. Lastly, the pages of the Mod Podge pads would snap off whenever I lifted them, (even if I didn’t want to remove them) but the padding compound pages would fold all the way back without coming off unless I tugged on them, which made for a much more useful notepad.
In summary, the Mod Podge will work for holding pages together in a pinch, but the padding compound will give you much better and more usable results.
Hey! Thanks so much for posting. I just started a small business where I am selling stationery, and this is a wonderful new product I can add. I had searched to find a padding vise that wasn’t too expensive, and then I found on your site to just use the binder clips. I ordered some of the padding compound, and I’ve made a few pads so far. I’m a teacher as well, and I think my class would love to make some of these. I can have them hand draw or stamp the pages. My 4th graders will love it! Thanks so much for sharing–they look just great!
Hi Christina! I’m glad to hear you’re having fun with notepads. We would love to see what your 4th graders come up with, so please stop back by and show us if you can!
Chica and Jo-I received my Padding compound today and can’t wait to give it a try. Anyone ever use fabric as a “topper” for a pad? I was thinking about custom template to make a personalized notepad for a couple of friend’s birthdays next week and thought I would embroider their initial on some scrap fabric, serge the edges and maybe use as a cover for the notepad. Would that work, or will it be impossible to remove the pages underneath (does that make any sense?)?
I LOVE the idea about business cards! Got to give that a try, too. Watch my blog to see what I come up with using the compound.
The embroidered fabric cover is a fantastic idea. We haven’t tried that yet though so not sure how it would work. We’ve added your blog to our reader so we can see how things turn out.
Thank you for making this available. I read about it on one of my craft groups on Yahoo and was so happy to hear about it! I’ve got tons of pads sitting around that I made with rubber cement and they’re all falling apart. It was cool to see that you used the binder clips too. A very inexpensive way to clamp the pads! I made my sheets with a variety of graphics at the top so there’d be maybe 4 or 5 different sheets, but also made some with the person’s name at the top along with a graphic that was the same on each page. I look forward to receiving this product and re-doing all those pads!
Thanks Sharon, and good luck with your notepad re-dos!
i love this site… just found it by accident… but have already read some projects that i am certain will get plenty of mileage…
Welcome, rbcphotogirl! We hope you continue to be inspired by our site! If you use an RSS reader, you might want to subscribe to our feed so you don’t miss any new projects
I buy up old games and use the money for scratch paper. GREAT way to make note pads! Thanks
The larger the pad, the larger clamp – I have a pad maker from Ellison, (it’s HUGE) but successfully used a flower press for years. Got started when carbon paper was still common, and made multi copy forms. Now, carbonless paper is available, and I rarely make forms. Think about using this for your own mini-books. Instead of a greeting card, a mini cook book.
Hi Chica and Jo,
I’m so excited to make my custom notepads – I’m going to use your template to make favors for a bridal shower. I’m going to order my padding compound today but I’m just wondering, how long do you need to let it dry before you can remove the binder clips and protective paper?
Hi Heather. What a great idea to make favors for a shower! The compound will dry in about 10-15 minutes. As soon as it’s dry to the touch, you can remove the clips.
One of our readers used this tutorial to make adorable notepads featuring her cat, Whiskers. Check out Constance’s photos in our Flickr group.
We love it when you guys share photos. Keep ‘em coming!
Thanks Chica for your posting on here. You have just helped me save A LOT of money for marketing material for my business. I plan to make our own notepads with our business info on them. Thanks a million!!! Can’t wait to get started.
Lisa, I’m so glad we could help! New businesses need to save all the money they can
You’ve probably seen the padding compound available for sale in our store, but we’ve just recently added padding kits too, so you might want to check them out.
HI there, I have been looking for padding compund everywhere and people stare at me blankly. I am in South Africa and can’t seem to find this. I am a graphic designer and have my own kids stationery business. Please help.
Hi Rekha! We sell padding compound to U.S. customers in our store. For international orders, please contact us at intlsales@chicaandjo.com and we’ll be happy to help you with an order.
Gosh this is such a clever idea and so simple. Have just ordered my padding compound!
I just ordered the padding compound today — I can’t wait to try it out!
A couple of weeks ago, I was bored at work (hehe) and thought to myself – I wonder if it is possible to make my own notepads. So, I Googled it and came across this page. Then I was trying to find a place in Canada that sold Padding Compound. You would not believe how excited I was to find out that Wallacks sold it! https://www.wallacks.com/catalogue/catalogitem.php?cat=bin17&table=binding. Not only is Wallacks in Ottawa where I live, it is 15 minutes from work! I picked up a bottle on the way home and have been going crazy making pads ever since!! Thanks for posting this tutorial!
Hey there, I’m working on my own notepads, thanks very much for this site. I put a paper cutter, but I still cant’ seem to get my pages straight enough, it doesn’t help that the paper cutter I bought can only do up to 10 sheets at a time, it just takes a long time to cut through everything only for it not to be as straight as I would like, okay maybe not even straight, but the edges matching on at least one side. Do you have any suggestions that won’t break my pocket book? I’m a struggling artist, thank you.
Hi Kuroitenshi. Getting all your pages exactly the same size can be very tricky, I know, and I wish I had a perfect solution to offer you. Very careful measuring is the best course to take.
One tip you can try is to put a piece of masking tape on the base of your cutter, lined up with the edge of the first page you want to cut. Then for each page you cut after that, the tape can be your guide. Just line it up to the edge of the tape, and that might you help keep the pages all the same size. Good luck!
Hey everybody, check this out. One of our readers, Dene, used our padding compound to re-attach the pages of a paperback book that were falling apart. She shared photos with us, which I’ve added to our Flickr group. Very clever!
Sounds fantastic. I want to make loads of notepads. Can I get this padding compound in England?
Hi Gillian! I’m not sure if padding compound is available in England or not, but we sell it in our store, and we do ship internationally. I’ll send you an e-mail with details. Any other international readers who are interested can contact intlsales@chicaandjo.com for more info.
Sounds fun using patterned paper scraps, and I will try it for my husbands business cards as well – what a great idea! When I was little and visited my Gramps, he would take us to the bank and get brand new crisp dollar bills, and then with a cardboard backing and thin typing paper cut to size make a pad of dollar bills with white pages in between. He used wood glue I believe, which was not as nice, but the rest of our visit we enjoyed the looks of astonishment on cashiers’ faces as we made our purchases with these bills ripped off of the pad.
Your Gramps was a smart and fun guy, Sharon. How fun for you kids! I had a friend once who did something similar for a newly-married couple, so that they could have fun spending cash on their honeymoon. There’s just something fun about a notepad of cash, huh?
This glue is an oldie but a goodie. A former boss of mine had us save all of our scrap paper…we cut it to size and glued it together for note-pads. Not as pretty as yours but efficient. An original green idea.
For those who are having a hard time cutting the paper into equal and straight parts, you might want to consider a Dreamkuts
machine from the makers of the Bind-It-All.
This machine is awesome and easily creates perfectly matched papers in many sizes. It easily cuts through cardstock as well.
wow this is a really good idea! I am going to make it ASAP!!!
The copy room at my office uses an actual table saw to cut the papers all the same size. If you are blessed with a wood saw in your workshop, this would work. Make sure you clamp the pages well before you start.
Thank you for this craft project! I have made one for my sister. Also, I printed coloring sheets, mazes, and other puzzles 4 to a sheet of paper for a activity book for my niece. Will continue to use your idea. I love your page and visit it several times a day.
Wow, you guys are all full of great ideas and tips! Thanks for sharing with everyone
I used to make tons of pads when I worked in a print shop. The cardboard used on the bottom is called chipboard.
The best pads I ever made were for a salesman who would come in and have a stack of one dollar bills padded up. He’d keep them in a checkbook, and he said the reaction when he would rip out a few bills was always fun.
I just thought of another idea for the backing for the notepads. I think that cereal boxes would also make a good backing for notepads, especially if you’re interested in recycling. I now it’s not as sturdy as chipboard, but most of us have it in our homes and the price is right!
I also love the idea of a pad of dollar bills, which would make a great gift for teenagers.
Marky, those dollar-bill-pads definitely sound like a winner. Who wouldn’t love that?
Sandy, that’s a fantastic idea!
Hi
This stuff is awsome!!
When my niece graduated from college and she and her friends did the New York trip thing – I purchased “new” or fresh $1.00 bills from my local bank and padded them. They were for the tipping that takes place everywhere. My sis gave me some for my honeymoon trip too! You can even “pad” foreign currency as long as all of the money is the same size.
I’m super excited!! We have a Young Ladies Cookie Swap every year at our church and some of us participate in a “Bonus Round” which includes small crafts. THIS IS PERFECT! I can’t wait to share with the girls! The theme this year is ’stars’ so maybe I will stamp a few stars on blank pages. Thanks for sharing this!!
What a wonderful idea, Ashley. You might like reading our previous post on cookie swap tips, and we’ve got an invitation coming soon, so check back
We’d love to see how your notepads come out!
hello- i work in a very large facility that has tons of scrap paper that are made into pads and i always thought they had a padding machine. I was clueless!! Well, I like to use large pads as mouse pads so that I can write notes and not have that extra thing on my desk. I asked the guy who makes the scratch pads if he could glue my “mouse pad” together and he pulled out this huge jug of Elmers Glue All. He said ue used to have padding glue but he ran out and he cant find it thru our supplier so he just uses the glue all. This works amazing! The paper tears off without tearing up and the glue is very sturdy and its cheap!
Hi Mo. We are so happy to hear that your facility has such strong recycling habits and that you are making great use of scrap paper. I also love the mousepad idea. I’m glad you found a backup solution with the glue, but we’ve tested many adhesives and find that nothing compares to actual padding compound, which really performs the best.
We own a small home business and we collect mounds of endless scrap paper from printing. For years now I have torn 8 x 11 paper into quarters to make notepads. Although, one side of the paper has been printed on, we still use the blank side for notes etc…
Thanks for the great idea! This I will use.
Rob, it’s wonderful to hear that you are recycling within your home business. Keep it up!