VERY EASY and low tech Covered Notebooks...

For several years in a row, the Two Peas have crafted trinkets and sold them locally giving the proceeds to our local Children's Hospital.  One of the more popular items we made was covered notebooks.  Super easy to do make, quick and very pretty.  One year they made a huge stack and the notebooks themselves were delivered to 'tween and teen patients at the hospital. Here's what you'll need:

Composition Notebooks like this one (We found these at our local discount store for 50¢ each)

Ribbons Scrap book embellishments Glue - we used Elmers school glue Old paint brush Fabric Scraps

1)  First, cut the fabric for the cover.  Cut your fabric 2" larger than the cover on the top, bottom and side but even with the edge of the black spine.  Clip your corners as needed to get them to lay down nice and smooth.

Once you have cut to proper size, apply your glue on the cover and use your paint brush to spread the glue evenly.  DON'T use too much or your fabric will just be all wet from the glue.  Just use enough to give it a good even coat.  Lay your fabric onto your cover and smooth it.  I used a ruler edge to smooth it and get out any bubbles.  Once you have the front smooth, then open your cover up carefully and apply some glue along the inside cover at the top, bottom and outer edge and wrap your cover fabric around and secure with the glue.

2) Next, cut a piece of fabric for the inside cover.  This piece will be folded under 1/2" on all edges and will fit evenly to the center, covering your raw edges of the fabric from the cover you wrapped around to the inside.  You only need to press under your top, bottom and outer edge.  You can leave the edge along the spine raw.  It will be covered later.

I used my iron to press my edges of the inside fabric under.  You could also stitch the folded edges under with a pretty decorative stitch if you wanted to add some more detail.  Next, apply your glue and using your paint brush, smooth it until it has an even coat.  Secure your inside cover fabric piece in place and smooth.

3)  Add your ribbon.  I used several pieces of ribbon layered together.  First, lay your ribbon on the inside and wrap to the front as pictured.  Determine your length and cut.  I glued the ribbon layers together (you could also sew them) and glued them to the inside spine of my notebook first, covering the raw edge along the spine.

Next, I wrapped my ribbon around to the front, again covering my raw edges along the spine.  I glued the ribbon in place on both ends leaving the center unglued so I could tie it.

4)  Last, I added some of my scrapbook embellishments to the cover.

These are fun for the kids to do because with a little help, they can do most of this project themselves.  It would be a great idea for a child to make as a gift for a grandparent or teacher for the holidays.  If you try this project, add it to my Flickr group and share your works of art!

xoxo,

Trish

Rainy days keep us busy

We had enough rain the other day that it completely flooded the street and filled a tub we had outside with 6 inches of water!  That, my friends, is a lot of rain.  Luckily, Mom is prepared for such a day and thought I'd share with you some of my latest bargain rainy day fun finds.

I found these at Walmart on clearance.  (I was in a different state recently at a different Walmart and they also had them on clearance so I bet you might find them where you are).  I got 4 different Martha Stewart kits for under $3.50 each.

They were originally around $12.00 I think but I was really impressed with everything they included in the kits.

The first ones we tried were the jewelry kits.  Each kit made 5 different items.  Similar but the two kits had a large hair barrette, a small barrette, rings, hairpins and two pins.  They consisted of felt flowers that  already had a running stitch in them and all the kids had to do was to pull and gather to create the flower and tie it off.  Then, they glued several together, added leaves and beads.  The glue was a bit tricky at first because it just soaks into the felt and we had to find a way to hold it all together with some pressure but once it dried, it held really strong.

Then we moved on to the puppets.  Each puppet animal was individually packed, everything already had stickers to it and the details...wow!   Of course, this IS a Martha Stewart product.  I have to say - I was super impressed.  The bags were kind of small and my girls hands a bit large for them but still workable.  They said they were too easy.  All you had to do was assemble but they sure turned out cute!  And the show we had afterwards that included the hermit crabs...well, we are still working out some production kinks.

Would I have paid the full $12 for these kits?  I'm not sure.  They were filled with quality materials.  I thought everything was really nice for a kit - usually kits are really crummy.  So, maybe.  But I was happy to have found these for between $2 - $3.50.  Check your local Walmart - maybe there's a few left for your rainy day crafts!

xoxo,

Trish