Matchbook Notebooks! Weekend Project

One of the things I love doing is altering "stuff." I ran across these notebooks in a cupboard that I was NOT cleaning out. Actually I was looking for something and ran across these. It's amazing what you find when you aren't looking for it!! I did find what I was looking for and I found these. SO I finished up my project and then I went back to those notebooks and put them in a basket and set them aside so I could play with them when I had some free time to do so. I didn't want to wait too long. I knew they'd get put away and forgotten again. And lucky me, I had some time to play and this is what I came up with.

Now this is called a "matchbook" notebook because it opens like a matchbook does (for those of you too young to know what matchbooks are!!! LOL). I just took some Soft Suede card stock and pretty much wrapped it around the notebook. I left it a little long on each end until it was in it's final stages. As I wrapped it around the notebook I made sure I pressed firmly on one side to mark the folds in the original notebook. I wanted the card stock and the notebook cover to line up. Then I set it on my work surface and folded the edges. Next I taped the notebook. You don't want to use regular doublesided tape, you want to use the stickier "Sticky Strip" tape. If you use the regular tape it will stick but not for very long and all that time and work will be wasted. You can also use glue if you wish. I recommend a liquid white school type glue, not a glue stick. Now make sure your folds line up in the center and begin sticking it together there. As you reach the end you will trim the excess before you get it all stuck together and repeat that for the other end.

Decorate your notebooks as you wish. On mine I used the "Flower Daisy's 2" die cut for the flower. The decorative paper I used is from the "Thoroughly Modern" pack. I punched out 4 flowers to make the one flower on here. I curled the edges a little much like you would do with curling ribbon and a scissors. I used a jumbo white brad for the center and stuck it all to the notebook using a pop-up glue dot. I wanted something very sticky that would stick well to the brad prongs.

I found a small ink pen and tied it to the notebook with a ribbon. It was just what the front needed. The words are from the Stampin' Up! "Teacher's Pet" set. I have used those words more than I have used anything else in that set! Do you think I bought the set just for those words? Possibly but not! It has a kitty in it too!!! LOL Actually it's got a lot of cute animals in it that I will be using on some scrapbooking pages.

And back to the wording. I punched it out with the "Word Window" punch and taped it in place on top of a piece of Bermuda Blue I punched out using "Modern Label" punch. The tiny dots are not brads, they are just pieces of white paper I had punched out. Very simple but a nice effect! And that was it. It's a pretty easy project to put together. These would make great Hostess Gifts, Customer Appreciation Gifts, a great Stamp Camp project, a fun Make n Take and maybe even a fun Craft Fair item. Not to mention these are wonderful stocking stuffers (if you want to get a jump on filling those stockings on a budget!

You can make these notebooks yourself too, they are not difficult. All you need is some copier paper, card stock and notepad or scratchpad. Just fold your card stock around the scratchpad, making the front piece a bit longer so it tucks into the front bottom piece to keep it shut. Pretty simple. Maybe in a week or so I'll do a tutorial on how to make these from scratch!

I took a picture of the notebook open. I tried to rotate it so it was upright but it looked silly so I left it the way I took the photo. I wanted you to see how the ribbon was added plus I wanted you to see the inside itself. You see the bottom part where you tuck the top flap in? That's the key piece to the matchbook!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda