Yeah, my kids don’t even go to school. We homeschool, and yet you’ll still find me trolling the aisles at Wal-mart in the middle of every summer, elbowing aside all those families with their school lists as I stock up on 15-cent folders and 75-cent binders and 25-cent packs of crayons. The fact is, of course, that you don’t need all that crap. You especially don’t need the super-expensive licensed-character pencils and folders and notebooks, and yes, you can still use last years’ binders, even if they’re a little beat up this year and have the wrong boy band written on them in permanent marker. Crafting your own personalized school supplies D.I.Y. style is economical, allowing you to make some very uncool stuff look very cool using your own two hands and some stash materials. It’s also an eco-friendly practice, encouraging you to reuse and recycle what you already have on hand instead of buying new. Here are five awesome projects to get you started:
