Category Archives: Notebooks

Covered notebooks

16 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in Home decorating, Notebooks, Using up scraps

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I play the piano, and have lots of music in those cheap plastic insert display/sleeve folders.   Each time I play, I think they are very ugly and definitely could do with some “prettying up”. 

A quick trip to office works and raiding my paper stash later, and look at the collection of pretty music books I now have! 

   
    
 
Most of the papers come from The Sweet Stack paper stack I bought at Big W (I think!). 

They were just very cheap notebooks, but ended up looking rather lovely! 

  
  
Thanks for reading. 

Caro 

Simple covered notebook

03 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Home decorating, Notebooks, Using up scraps

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

See this cute little notebook?

  
Five minutes ago it looked like this:

  
I was making some notes on a boring old regular, cheap, plain writing pad then decided to pretty it up. 

Five minutes with some scrap paper, a ruler, a paper cutter and some glue and my boring note pad was magically transformed into a cute notebook for my desk. 

 

Just measure the width of the writing pad and cut the paper to size, then fold and glue excess paper at the back. It works better if you score the fold line and score another half cm further along for where it needs to create a spine, but a simple fold works fine too.   This picture hopefully explains what I mean about the two scores half a can apart helping to create a “spine”

  
Now I can get back to work!  (The joys of working from home!)
Thanks for reading

Caro

Decorating the everyday

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in 3D projects, Home decorating, Notebooks, Using up scraps

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I was well enough to get back to work yesterday and after being in such a crafty zone the last few days I looked at a notepad on my desk and had to do something about it before I could possibly start work 😉

   
 
There, that’s better!

Yet another piece of paper from my stash has found a good home 🙂 

Caro

More covered notebooks!

02 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in 3D projects, Notebooks, Uncategorized, Using up scraps

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Hopefully you saw my other 2 posts about using up left over paper to cover notebooks – either mini notebooks or larger ones.

Here is another idea – using a simple blank ‘jotter’ style notebook but making it a little more special with a bit of pretty paper and a ribbon.     These books take less than 5 minutes to cover but are so much nicer to have on your desk or kitchen bench than a plain old notepad.

photo-2

photo-4To work out the length of paper you need, all you need to do is measure the size of the notebook (measurement 1) and measure the size of the spine (measurement 2).  The length of your paper will be  1 + 1 + 2.   The width will be simply the width of your notebook.

You could just cover the notebook, but I like to add a ribbon tie to keep the cover closed when it’s not being used (and ‘cos it looks pretty!)

Again, this is very simple.  Turn your notebook onto the reverse side once covered, run a strip of glue (eg Snail adhesive) along where the ribbon will go and adhere.

photo-3

Once you have stuck on the ribbon, simply turn your notebook right side up and tie a bow!

Too easy 🙂

Covered notebooks and matching pencils

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in 3D projects, Decorative Label, Gift tags & wrapping, Modern Label, Notebooks, Using up scraps

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

The other day I showed you how to make mini notebooks covered with DSP.  Today I wanted to show you how effective it can be to take ordinary A4 exercise books and decorate them with DSP.

20121207_140453

This was a little present we gave to a family friend who was starting university.   I covered a bundle of A4 exercise books in coordinating DSP and covered some matching pencils.

20121207_140522

I made a label where she could write her name or a subject name for each book.  The larger pink label is punched out in melon mambo using the Stampin’ Up! Decorative Label punch, and the smaller white label is punched out using the Stampin’ Up! Modern Label punch.

20121207_140528

To make the covered pencils, measure the distance between the end of the eraser and the beginning of the wood at the bottom.  Cut a piece of DSP to that width, with enough length to wrap around the pencil 2 or 3 times.    I’ve found it’s easier if you wrap the paper around the pencil a few times before trying to glue it on – it just works a bit better when you come to stick it down if it’s already a little bit “bendy”.    I run a line of Sticky Strip (double sided tape) along the edge of the paper which will be the last to stick down and use Snail adhesive to cover the rest of the DSP and stick it as I wrap around the pencil.

This is a really nice idea for a simple gift for someone – particularly someone like me who loves their stationery!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Peg magnets

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in 3D projects, Beautiful Butterflies, Blossom Builder, Gift tags & wrapping, Notebooks, Tutorial, Using up scraps

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Here is another idea I borrowed from the very talented Tanya Bell’s blog – this time, making magnets or paper holders out of pegs covered with DSP.

photo-4

These are so easy to do!  Step one, measure the size of your peg (cheap wooden pegs are the best).   Step 2, cut out lots of strips of DSP (this is such a great way to use up tiny little pieces you couldn’t figure out what to do with but couldn’t bear to throw away!).  Step 3, stick onto the peg!   Snail adhesive works well but starts to lose its “stick” after a few months so double sided tape like Sticky Strip is best.

I turned my pegs into magnets by sticking some magnets onto the back side of the peg.   One tip I learned here – if you want to use the peg as a magnet, either don’t decorate the reverse of the peg, or definitely use sticky strip to adhere the DSP to the paper.  Snail adhesive is not strong enough to keep the DSP stuck to the peg once it is stuck on the fridge with a magnet!

Here are a bunch of pegs with the DSP stuck on, waiting to be decorated.

20120605_161653

And here are a bunch more, after being decorated with butterflies, birds and flowers.  I’ve used die cut and punched butterflies, the bird from the Stampin’ Up! bird builder punch, and various flower punches.  Pearls and rhinestones can add some added ‘bling’.

20120605_161643

They can look quite cute packaged up in cellophane bags for a small gift for someone.

20121209_220144-1

photo

Adding some pegs with a little covered notebook (see yesterday’s post) can also look really cute.

20121209_220108So next time you finish a project and have a thin piece of DSP left over, why not turn it into a cute little peg fridge magnet?

Covered mini notebooks

27 Monday May 2013

Posted by in 3D projects, Notebooks, Tutorial, Uncategorized, Using up scraps

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Hi.  Thanks for stopping by my blog!

I wanted to show you another cute use for some bits and pieces of DSP (designer series paper) or other pretty scrap paper you have lying about.

20120725_081836

I got this idea from the very talented Tanya Bell, who posted some gorgeous covered notebooks, as well as a YouTube tutorial on how she made them.  I get a lot of inspiration from Tanya’s blog, so encourage you to check it out.

I made mine a little differently, but the basic idea is the same.    I bought some little notebooks from a $2 shop (I think I got 8 little books for $3?).   Rather than covering the books just with DSP like Tanya’s tutorial, I wanted to make the cover a little sturdier so covered it with card stock first and then decorated with rectangles of DSP.

To make the card stock cover, I measured the size of the width of the front of the notebook and added 2mm on either side.   This is the width of the card stock you’ll need to cut.    To figure out the length you need to:

1 –  measure the length of the front of your notebook (eg 8cm) and double it (ie, 16cm)

2 – measure the depth of the notebook (ie, the size of the ‘spine’) (eg 0.5 cm)

3 – add 2mm overhang for the front and back (ie, 0.4cm)

The total length would be 1 + 2 + 3 (using the dimensions in my example, this works out to be 16.9cm)

You then want to score the length of the paper where the fold for the spine would be.  (Using these example measurements, you would score at 8.2cm in from either side of the long end of the card stock, leaving a .5cm fold in the centre of the card stock which would go around the spine of your notebook.)

Fold and make sharp creases on the score lines.  I use a bone folder to get a really nice crease line.

Attach the card stock to the front and back covers of the notebook and stick down over the spine.  You can use glue (eg Snail adhesive) to do this, but I found that using Sticky Strip (Stampin’ Up!’s uber strong double sided tape) gives a stronger hold.

To decorate the cover I used some leftover DSP and the snail image from the Button Buddies stamp set, with a button on the snail attached with a glue dot.

I have made these notebooks with all sorts of decorations.   Butterfly punches can make them look especially gorgeous!

photo

photo-5

photo-1 copy 2

I have also used DSP and various punches and stamps to decorate plain spiral notebooks.  These are super easy – just measure the front of the spiral notebook just to the edge of the spiral, then cut and glue on the DSP.

20120727_185607I decorated these ones with the Stampin’ Up! Blossom punch in Daffodil Delight card stock, and I used the wings from the Bird Builder punch to create leaves.  A 1 inch circle punch made the centre of the flower and a cute button in Daffodil Delight finished it off.

These are so easy to make I hope you have a go.   I’d love to see a photo of anything you make!

Thanks for reading

Caro