a handy dandy notebook (or three)

Can you spot my newest little DIY craft project?

I stole the idea for these adorable little notebooks from a magazine. I wish I could remember which magazine it came from, but for the life of me, I can't! I can tell you that it was either Coastal Living, Southern Living, or Country Living ... but I'm afraid I just can't remember which one of those three it was!

You'll need:

• Paper grocery bags, 2 bags per book (I used Trader Joe's bags) 
• Scissors
• Embroidery floss (I used yellow and blue)
• Something to poke small holes with
• Stapler or paper clips (but a stapler works better)

(yes, what you see there is a real-live, genuine Mary Grace grocery list. That will be worth a lot someday;)

Here's what I did:

• Remove the handles
• Split the bags open at the bottom and side seams and lay the bag out flat
• Iron the bag on high heat to flatten the creases
• Measure out and trace an 8x12 rectangle onto the bag, cut it out, repeat.
• Stack the papers and fold them in half 
• Staple or paper clip them as a temporary "binding"
• Poke 7 evenly spaced holes for the binding
• Thread the embroidery floss through, then thread it back again so that it covers both sides all the way
• Tie it up, and remove the staples

Now you just reduced, re-used and recycled .. and you got a brand new notebook!