Fun and Fast!

Hello Stampin' Friends! 

As usual, the week has flown by and Friday is almost here.  If you are working... hang on!  The weekend is coming and Saturday is supposed to be nice!  Hurray for sunshine!  I won't mention what is supposed to happen on Sunday.  I'll just pretend I didn't see that in the forecast.  I've been working on getting ready for three upcoming stamping parties this week and I'm happy to say that I'm finished with designing cards and cutting paper.  I'll show you the cards over the next few days. I love how they turned out and I think you will too!  After all that card-making, I needed a break.  So yesterday, I put together a little gift for my granddaughter Emma, who's five years old.  She is in that "princess" phase right now and everything she owns seems to be either pink or purple or both!   Check this out....

This is a cute journal I made for her.  Yes, I know she's too young to keep a journal, but she loves to write and the practice she'll get printing her letters will be great.  I imagine she'll also draw pictures in it as well.
Check out Target and big box office stores for discounted school supplies.  I got this composition book for just 16 cents (on clearance) at my local Target.  These would be a great gift for a niece, daughter, granddaughter, or friend.  It can be almost anything you want it to be--- a collection of your favorite recipes, a book of favorite quotations, an inspiration book with pictures from magazines or catalogs showing great color combinations for card-making, or even a gratitude journal.   I'm going to make a creative journal for myself so I can keep all my card sketches in one place, instead of putting them on random scraps of paper.

Once you decide on a color scheme and theme for your journal, the rest is easy.  For a woman, I'd choose a more sophisticated color scheme, such as black and white with maybe a touch of red or hot pink.  Mocha Morning Designer Paper would also be elegant for a woman.  But for my five year-old, of course I chose her favorite color... Melon Mambo... a nice hot pink.    Measure the front of the book and cut a piece of designer paper to fit.  I rounded the corners before I glued it down to the front cover.  I used my Scotch ATC gun to glue, but you could use Stampin'Up's snail adhesive or dotto or other double sided tape. Stampin'Up!'s glue stick would work well too.  I would not use a wet glue such as Elmer's school glue as it will cause the paper to bubble. The trick is to get the adhesive right at the edge of the cover, so the paper will not curl up at the edge. I don't think it is necessary to cover the back of the book, but if you want to, go ahead and cover that too.  Avoid covering the binding of the book.

The name plate is just a Top Note shape, cut with the Big Shot.  The letters I used to stamp her name are from the alphabet set Lovely Letters.  To make it easier, I decided to have my letters jumping around... so much easier than trying (and failing!) to line them up perfectly.  If you are a perfectionist and want all of your letters in one perfect line, get out your Stamp-a-ma-jig.  For those of you who may not have been introduced to the Stamp-a-ma-jig, it is a stamp-positioning tool.  I will be happy to demonstrate its use at our next get-together--- just remind me.  The flowers are from a stamp set called Cottage Garden.  I colored directly on the stamp with Melon Mambo, Elegant Eggplant, and Old Olive markers.  To finish up, I simply tied a polka dotted ribbon ( non-SU) around the front cover.  I think the whole process took less than 20 minutes. 

Here's a quick list of the products I used:

Stamps
Lovely Letters, 115030
Cottage Garden, 120003

Ink
Melon Mambo, 115656
Old Olive marker, 100079
Melon Mambo marker, 121074
Elegant Eggplant marker, 105110

Paper
Designer Series Paper Stack, Brights Collection, 117155
Whisper White, 101650

Accessories
Top Note Die for the Big Shot, 113463

These would be great fun to make as Christmas gifts.   If you start now, you could have a whole stack finished by Christmas!  Thanks for stopping by for a visit today.  I appreciate it very much!  Don't forget to come back on Friday for more stamping fun!

Susan