Howdy, and welcome. This post is a bit long, so grab a cup of tea, coffee, or any other favorite beverage. Today, I felt like 'talking'.
For those who know me, or follow me regularly, you know that I have a weakness for pinks, blues, creams, and trims. I think I can make just about anything shabby chic, with little to no effort. Just give me a hot glue gun, a jar of buttons, my basket of seam binding and cotton trims, and watch out! {smile} I also know that it is not the 'love' of everyone. (not quite sure why not, but oh well.)
I posted a decorated notebook I made last night, and well, I just HAD to make more. I ended up decorating three large notebooks (5 1/2" x 7"), and three little ones (3" x 4 1/2"). They all ended up being just as sweet as can be. But, I figure you already knew that {smile}. So, this morning I woke up and started decorating a few more notebooks, but wanted to use some of this 'new to me' pretty paper. So, I am sharing my creation with you and a few challenge blogs:
Scrapslet,
Your Next Stamp, and
Word Art Wednesday. Here we go!
My first stop was
Scrapslet. Their current challenge is a color challenge. This challenge is from Russia, but they don't have a translate button {frown}. However, this collection of crafty ladies will certainly inspire you!
My next stop was
Your Next Stamp. Their current challenge is both a sketch and an inspirational photo. You can use either, or both. I am using the sketch. I love their sketches, because they allow you to add your own style to these super user-friendly sketches. This challenge is no exception.
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I rotated the sketch 90 degrees. |
And my last stop was
Word Art Wednesday. This is a constant for me. Their challenges always have a scripture and the warmth and acceptance from these ladies is contagious! I have never met any of them in real life, but I imagine they are the kind of ladies you invite over for tea, and sit and chat for hours. Just plain lovely folks. Oh, their current challenge is
anything goes - family friendly.
and so, here is what I did:
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decorated notebook (5 1/2" x 7") |
Recipe: I started with an ugly black notebook. Then, I grabbed supplies from my craft room, and made it pretty! {smile} I used a chocolate brown card stock as my base, and layered on some pretty digital paper. I used my corner rounder punch to round the bottom corners of a few of the papers, to mimic the notebook cover.
My firs layer of paper is this beautiful blue winter pattern paper. I added a strip of tiny polka dot paper across the top. I then cut a rectangle piece of the brown reindeer pattern paper and adhered it on top. The sketch has this piece under the band. But, I wanted it to peek out of the top of the trim.
I next used a die to cut the decorative piece of pink pattern paper. And a different die to cut the sentiment piece. I thought that the various decorative edges would work well together, and break up the repeating pattern of rounded corners. I hand-stamped my sentiment onto the scallop trimmed rectangle and adhered it to the front of my paper stack with foam tape. I then took this stack of papers to my sewing machine and started sewing. I did simple borders on all the pattern papers, except the scallop rectangle (due to the foam tape).
I wrapped the cream cotton trim around the band at the top. And wrapped a pale pink seam binding piece around that. I tied the seam binding into a simple know. I didn't want the bow to compete with any of the embellishments. (To me Junk Bows are eye catching! so that is why I kept it simple.)
I used a medium size snowflake die to cut a snowflake out of white glitter paper. I cut the snowflake in half, to embellish my blossom. For the blossom, I stacked three 4-petal flowers on top of each other, staggering the petal placement. I secured the three blossoms with a brad. I hot glued a faux pearl & rhinestone gem to the center of the blossom. I hot glued the blossom and the two pieces of snowflake to the lower left corner of the notebook. I also hot glued a silver decorative snowflake to the right upper corner of the sentiment piece.
And the big finale is the snowflake charm on the spiral and a coordinating pen. I cut a thin piece of pattern paper, rolled it up tight, and stuck it in the barrel of the pen. I hope you like it. I think it came out beautifully. Oh, and here is a photo of the second notebook I decorated with the same pattern paper.
Thank you for stopping by to have a look-see, as to what I crafted. And yeah, I'll post again soon. Sometimes its just hard to stop crafting and take a photo. But, I'm working on it! {smile}
My one and only holiday craft fair is December 2, 2017 @ La Cueva High School (Albuquerque, NM) from 9a to 4p. Come out and see my crafts in person. I promise you won't be disappointed!