Holiday Teacher Gift

Hi everyone! Did you have a good Thanksgiving? We had family in town, which is always nice. :)

For the month of December, the Glitz digital team is sharing holiday projects. For my post last week, I shared a custom notepad I made (check it out HERE). Today, I'm sharing another notepad with a full tutorial. I apologize in advance for the numerous photos.

I decided to make a notepad for my daughter's teacher that would work beyond the month of December. Here's what the finished notepad looked like:




To make the sheets, I flipped the floral cluster from Hello December's Element Pack #1 over the yellow washi tape element from the Element Pack #2. Next, I added the sentiment. In another document, I opened four different papers from Element Pack #2, the Hello December Paper Pack, and the Cashmere Dame Paper Pack (the yellow) . I put four different copies of the white note over the patterned papers.

Here's what it looked like when I printed out the four different styles on one piece of paper:

I printed 8 copies of this paper onto a lightweight photo paper. You could use a heavyweight copy paper--just test the settings so the ink doesn't oversaturate the paper.

Next, I trimmed the papers down. This probably was the most time-consuming part of the process. ;)

Once I had all 48 pages cut, I worked on the back cover. If you wanted, you could skip this step, but I think adding a chipboard back makes the notepad more polished.

I printed off and trimmed down two patterned papers from the Hello December Paper Pack. I also trimmed a piece of chipboard...I used a leftover piece, but Ellen Hutson sells Craft-a-Board that is a good weight for this type of project.

For the next step, I glued the patterned paper to each side of the chipboard. This side isn't essential, but it makes the back pretty. :) Here are the back cover and the reverse side:

Still with me? I layered all 48 pages on top  of the back cover. The pages need to line up more tightly than they look in this photo. Don't ask me how I know that. ;)

For the next steps, I had to enlist the help of my husband. I had no idea where his clamps were, or how to use them for that matter. ha ha.

My husband is a luthier and guitar amp builder, and he had some fabric glue that he uses to adhere Tolex to the amplifiers. We did a test, and the Fabric Fusion glue worked amazingly well. It dried fast--I did three coats within three hours. I think he bought the glue at the grocery store. Seriously.

Here are the different tools you will need--two clamps, two blocks of wood, two clean pieces of paper, and the glue:

Okay, next you make a sandwich: 1) block of wood; 2) layer of paper so the wood doesn't muck up your notepad; 3) the notepad hanging over the edge of the block about 0.25-0.5 inches; 4) another piece of paper; 5) block of wood.

Add clamps toward the front of the notepad sandwich, but not in the very front. You need to leave space to add the glue. I added the glue directly and smoothed it with my finger. I'm impatient, so I only waited about an hour between coats. Here's the set-up:

While this process probably looks complicated, it was actually pretty easy...just a lot of little steps.

(Drum roll, please...) Here's the final notepad:

If you make a notepad, please share a link--I'd love to see it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!