(Submit Articles) At school or in the office, you may be in need of notepads for, as the name implies, taking down notes. You may want to keep track of the things you need to do or accomplish during the day or the week. Notepads are functional, but you can also make these fashionable. In the market nowadays, you can find notepads in various shapes, sizes and colors which appeal to all demographic. For kids, you can find notepads that feature cartoon or anime characters. You can also find notepads that can get the attention of adolescents. These may feature their favourite bands, artists, or movies, among others.

For professionals, these notepads can come in sophisticated or even simple designs. If you wish to create your own designs though, you can always make this as a do it yourself process. For starters, you will need your paper stock, ink, printer, computer, clamp and adhesive. Yes, the tools and materials needed in making notepads can be simple. These can be available in your own home. If you wish, you can recycle your previous notepads to create a new one. For the step-by-step guide in making notepads, read on:

- Gather all the materials and tools you need. Aside from those mentioned above, you may want to prepare the design elements, such as images, font styles, brushes, and patterns. All these will comprise your design template. You can pick these design elements from your own files, but you can also download these from the internet. These design elements can be downloaded for free. There are also those that require payment. Make use of your internet research skills to get these free downloadable design elements.

- Choose the design software you are going to use. You have a wide array of choices. For beginners, one user-friendly publication software is Microsoft Publisher. You can make a design template from scratch. You can also make use of pre-designed templates available. For those who have experience in publications design and editing, choose from different Adobe and Corel applications. These include Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, and Adobe In-Design.

- Set the specifications or measurements for your notepads. You may want to create notepads that are of non-standard size or shape. Usually, you can find notepads that are available in circle or rectangular shapes. Make your notepads unique. You can create, for example, triangular or oblong shaped notepads. Using the publications software of your choice, plot out the size and shape.

- Once you are done, print a sample. In that way, you can make the necessary revisions. There may be errors in the design that you do not notice on the computer screen. Once you have made the changes, print the required number of notepad pages as well as the front and back covers. Stack the notepad pages in between the covers. Use a clamp to hold the print materials together.

- Apply adhesive on one side of your notepad pages. Make sure that the coating has dried before you coat the second one.

When making notepads, you need to give attention to detail. From the design process to printing, you need to make sure that there are no oversights. Also, it is important that you use your creativity to the fullest. If you are going to create notepads for personal use, there is no limit with regards to design.

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