DIY »Notebooks with Rattan«

DIY »Notebooks with Rattan«

Materials:

• Plain notebooks with a smooth cover, like these Moleskines
• 1 or 2 sheets of cane webbing depending on the size of your project
• sharp scissors
• tacky glue (This is the only brand I’ve used and it’s great! Dries hard and clear)
• sponge brush for application

Instructions:

1. Using scissors, cut a piece of cane webbing that’s slightly larger than you need to cover the notebook. (To make the fringed notebook in the pictures above, simply use the edge of the cane webbing to cut your piece).

2. Squeeze some tacky glue onto a palette or scrap of cardboard, then use the sponge brush to coat the notebook in glue. You want to apply what I would call a “medium” coat of glue; not so thin that you can barely see it, but also not so thick that it’s just piled on there. Note that if it’s 98 degrees and you don’t have AC, the glue will dry REALLY FAST (fun).

3. Place the piece of cane webbing on top of the glue and press it down evenly, making sure that all the edges have contact with the glue. Weigh down the notebook with something heavy that covers the whole surface (I used my laptop!) And now we wait — always the hardest part of any DIY project, don’t you think?

4. The glue should be mostly dry in about 30 minutes, but I gave my notebook an hour before handling to be safe. Use the scissors to trim off the overhanging edges of rattan. And just to make sure the glue has totally cured, allow the notebook to sit overnight before using it! (You can see mine definitely needed longer before it was fully dry and clear!)

5. And that’s it! Enjoy your super stylish and totally unique DIY rattan notebooks.