ReUse First: Making Scrap Paper Pads
This is a quick video on making paper pads with three resources that you have around your office.
I know we are designers, artists, writers, illustrators and we use paper. We print things out to make sure they look correctly before we send to a client or the printer. We end up with a lot of paper that we would recycle.
I am challenging you to take your one-sided printed paper, stack them up and take them to a printer to be chopped into the sizes you want. We have a small guillotine at the University. It’s sorta like this: https://amzn.to/4hQq9gE.
These are super affordable and don’t take up that much space. I used to take large stacks of paper that was printed on on only one side to my local printer and have them use their big guillotine and chop it up to the sizes i wanted it. It cost about .25 per chop. So it was very very very affordable. Call around and ask local printers what the cost is.
Then after I get my paper cut and organized with all printed on sides facing the same direction, then I start assembling four to six pads at a time.
The video takes you through the entire process. And the transcript is at the bottom of the page.
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Transcript
[00:00:00] diane: Okay, I’m gonna show you how to make pads of paper today. This one is glued at the top. It is just recycled paper. I’ll, I’ll cut this so it’s a little bit better. But I used a guillotine and I have made taken little pat little stacks of paper that are. Print it on one side so I can make, [00:00:30] um, just pads. And they’re not perfect to see that drip, but these are just glued at the top.
[00:00:35] And what I do is I get some recycled paper and now I have it all turned the right way I think. Nope. Some of that’s not, but I’ll fix it as I go. And then I have some cut as quarter sheets. I have some cut as half sheets, which I’ll make long ones. I mean, I’ve, I made some that were longer and skinnier and they’re just glued to the top, but they’re all about the same thickness.
[00:00:59] When I say [00:01:00] I do is I take a shoebox or a, like a good sturdy box and I just cut holes that are about the thickness that I want and just a little bit wider than what my paper is gonna be. And they’re not perfect. You know, I just, I didn’t use a ruler, I just cut. And then the integrity of the box. Usually if there’s a shoebox, I would just really get for.
[00:01:23] But because this box is a little bit bigger, I cut another one here and then a long one, which I have done two and two. When I [00:01:30] did these shorter ones, I did, I stucked it in and like two in there, which is not ideal because the little binder clips that I use or they run into each other. But this is just for a long one in case I wanted to do.
[00:01:47] Like I did this one sideways and this, and then you’ll need binder clips and just plain old blue Elmer’s glue. The extra strong [00:02:00] formula dries fast and safe and non-toxic. So, so lemme show you how this works. Okay, so I’m gonna make some of these size. I just make sure that they’re all facing the right direction, which these are, this is too thick, so I need to thin it down a little bit.
[00:02:21] And what I do is I get a really hard, um, edge at the bottom. So that’s gonna be my top. So I’m [00:02:30] going to clip this as close to the top as I can. On two sides with binder clips. Okay. And then I’m just going to stick. That one’s really a little too, I need to make that roll a little bit bigger. And all I do is to get my executive, I’m just gonna cut just a little bit more on this one because it’s a little too [00:03:00] tight for me.
[00:03:01] It’s been a little too tight. So.
[00:03:09] Okay, so now I’m gonna do that again.
[00:03:19] Facing up.
[00:03:24] This one might be too thick.[00:03:30] [00:04:00]
[00:04:20] Now. You can see what I have set up. So I have these ready and these are just sideways so that I can do it. Now what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna take [00:04:30] my glue, open it up, and I’m just gonna use my finger. So nothing crazy. So get a good, generous amount and where you have that buckle, I might have to put a little bit more, I’m gonna do all of them and then go back with my finger.
[00:04:59] It [00:05:00] doesn’t dry that fast, then it takes a couple hours, but it’ll be dried and then you can do another set. So this is definitely something to do, you know. When you, oops. I’ve got a lot of drips, but it’s okay ’cause it’s on the back. Just gonna kind of lift it and then try to make sure that I’m getting all the edge, all the parts, and a little on the back.
[00:05:24] I don’t care. I mean, I don’t care if it’s on the front, even [00:05:30] like this one’s not wanting to sit straight.
[00:05:36] Just wanna make sure that it’s good and coded. All the little parts, and I may be a little too generous with my glue, but I’ve never had a pad fall apart on me and the, this glue was $2 at the dollar store. Right now, the hard part of waiting and just wipe off your finger[00:06:00]
[00:06:02] and that’s it. You can make pad to paper from your. Paper that you printed on one side and it rips off. Nice. So obviously there’s a front in the back. Well, it’s a little bit harder to see on this one. So it’s a lot of pastries at the end where they’re just kind of blank. Um, but it just rips off. This one maybe didn’t do as [00:06:30] good.
[00:06:31] Let’s see about this one. Rips off just like a regular piece of paper, so now I have two extra sheets that I can buy somewhere else, and I can take it back to the guillotine if it’s not sharp straight enough and just chuck those edges off. I don’t really care. I usually just leave them, but that’s how I make pads of paper with just a shoebox or a good sturdy box.
[00:06:56] With a lid and um, Elmer’s glue [00:07:00] and binder clips. The end.