Category: school supplies

Composition Notebook RE-DO #3! YARN!

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Hello Everybody!

Sorry this post is a little late. I hope everyone is having a great week!

Are you crafting? I would love to hear about your projects.

So over the last couple weeks I have been posting on different ways to update and redo your everyday composition notebook covers.

To recap, You can find week one, Composition Notebook Re-do #1 Paper Decoupage, Here: https://goo.gl/qSGXIh and

Week two, Composition Notebook Re-do #2 Hand drawn cover, here: https://goo.gl/nzdMIP

This week was a total experiment, and I will not lie, I almost gave up thinking it was going to be a craft fail, but I kept going and actually love it.

This week’s Composition Notebook Cover redo is with Yarn!

Now the yarn I had laying around I found in a clearance bin. Its called Red Heart Boutique Sashay in twist and platinum sparkle, you can still find it online if you like the look of this particular project. The description in Mary Maxim describes this yarn as “A unique kind of yarn with a touch of metallic that creates beautiful ruffle scarves and accessories with just one ball.” Its almost netted and has a neat effect.

Red Heart Boutique Sashay

Red Heart Boutique Sashay

Its not regular yarn but you can absolutely use regular yarn, it is just going to require a bit more patience and glue sticks.

Materials Needed:

yarn, scissors, glue gun & sticks, notebook

yarn, scissors, glue gun & sticks, notebook

  • Yarn (Any will do but I used: Red Heart Boutique Sashay in platinum sparkle and in twist Link to Yarn)
  • Scissors
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • Glue Sticks (at least 15)
  • Composition Notebook

This project is super duper simple. It requires more patience than anything, and you are working with a hot glue gun so if you’re doing this project with children keep an eye out.

Line up and glue

I chose to line up my yarn vertically. You can do whatever your heart desires. If you are using regular yarn you can make pictures and patterns.

So you just heat up your glue gun and start laying down strips of glue. I would work in small patches at a time.

short patches of glue

Lay out about a two inch or so line and then carefully lay the yarn on top. Try not to push right away, you will just burn your fingers, so wait a few seconds then you can lightly press.

I chose to lightly overlap the layers. I also kept the yarn bunched up not pulled out.

Keep adding glue and yarnKeep on going… I know it looks weird.

I did four lines of the twist color then one line of the platinum sparkle.

keep going!

Don’t give up yet…once you are finished with one side make sure the edges are secure and cut off the excess. If you glue around the notebook edge right against the edge then cut you will get a cute frayed look.

cut off the excess

cut off the excess

Now for the front!

But first…get up and stretch, go get coffee or do a few neck rolls, work out that neck so you don’t get a stiff neck staring at this project 😀

So back to the notebook 😀

Keep on gluin’…

Keep gluing

OK, so here is where I get honest. I ran out of glue sticks right at the point pictured above, D’OH!!!!!

If this happens to you, never fear, you can use Mod Podge like I did or Elmer’s glue or anything that will dry clear. I added a pretty thick amount to the remaining piece of the notebook then laid out the rest of the yarn.

Once everything is down…resist the urge to touch it. Just walk away for a few hours, once it has had time to sort of set then you can come back and lightly press everything down. Then walk away again until it dries completely.  (You can do the whole cover this way, but it will take a steady hand and more patience than I have). Hot glue is quicker and much easier.

and TA-DA!

Now you have this soft, fun, hippie, boho, right out of the 60’s awesome notebook. And when all those people ask you where you got such an awesome notebook, you can say “I made it!”

FIN

Who'da thought?

Who’da thought?

all done!

I am so glad that I did not give up and stop this project because I thought It was too weird in the beginning. I think this one is my favorite.

I learned two things from this project:

  1. Do not give up on a vision, not matter how silly it might seem in the beginning.
  2. Make sure you have enough supplies!

Have a wonderful week everyone. I hope you enjoyed this weeks project.

I would love to see any of your projects or hear what you think.

Keep Craftin’!

before and after

Composition Notebook Cover Re-Do #1 (Decoupaged Paper Mix Media Style)

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title

Tutorial by Sugar Beet Crafts

Composition Notebook Cover Re-Do #1 (Decoupaged Paper Mix Media Style)

Hi Everybody!

It’s tutorial time! I love to customize my own office supplies. I use composition notebooks for everything so keeping them easily identifiable is a must. I am going to create a few tutorials over the next few weeks showing you different ways to maximize the fantasticness of your notebook, so keep an eye out!

This week I thought I would start with a fun one. Its basically paper mixed media. I use these techniques when I make tags and art journal entries. I had fun with it and really like how it turned out. I hope you like it too.

So here we go!

Materials Needed:

  • Composition Notebook
  • Mod Podge
  • Ink Spray or Watercolors
  • Paper cut outs or Stickers
  • Embroidery Thread
  • Beads
  • Markers
  • Glitter Glue
  • File Folder
  • Scissors

First off, let’s make a reusable template. Now of course you do not have to do this step, you can just trace around your composition book. I personally like a template, easier to handle.

I use file folders, they are the perfect thickness and I usually have a whole bunch of extras around. *You could also use a cereal box, they also work great.

Place the folded edge of the composition book along the folded edge of the file folder.

I like to make templates I can re-use.

I like to make templates I can re-use.

Trace. Cut out.

cut out template

I always keep the scraps for later. You never know when you need a random piece

The bendable line farthest from the folded edge of the folder is the same amount of space the black tape on the composition notebook. This comes in handy if you are not going to cover the entire book and want to keep the black tape on the notebook exposed.

4

I usually bend it over then trace on that line to get the right size.

folded

Now the fun stuff.

You can use anything you like as a background. For the tutorial I decided to use 2 pages that were photocopied out of a vintage dictionary. One for the front and one for the back.

copied page of vintage dictionary

Gather your materials:

Gather your template and your background page.

Gather your template and your background page.

Trace the template onto the background image.

Then cut out.

Cut out your Background page

Gather your ink sprays or watercolors, Spray with color!

I used Dylusions Ink Spray, but you could use watercolors or anything you like.

 Dylusions Spray

I colored up the page by spraying  Ink Sprays around the page.

Then I added some water to get the colors to run together and combine.

Let completely dry.

I used Ink spray and water

I used Ink spray and water

  1. Once the spray is completely dry, Open the composition book so that it’s flat.
  2. Make sure your finished background fits the top of the composition book the way you like.
  3. Smear the cover page of your composition book with Mod Podge then stick the background in place. I add a layer of Mod Podge, then lay the page on top, then carefully smooth it out.
  4. Repeat with the back page on the back of the composition book.
  5. Let completely dry. The drying time is the hardest part.
  6. Once everything is dry, it’s time to start adding the fun stuff. Gather all your cutouts or stickers or whatever you would like to stick to your composition book.

Arrange your cutouts, once you’re happy use the Mod Podge to stick them down.

Stick down cutouts

Now Carefully cover everything with the Mod Podge. The Mod Podge will pick up the color of the ink even after drying, so I usually pour some out into a container rather than re-dipping the brush in the main container.

11

Sticker for the back
Back

Front Cover Dried

Let completely dry.

You can now cover with a spray clear sealer if you want too. I like to use it. Keeps things nice.

Now, You can stop here… but I didn’t.

I like to add bookmarks. And random stuff.

Usually, I just tape a ribbon to the inside of the front or back cover as a bookmark, but I decided to have a little fun with this one.  

I had some left over tags that I previously decorated.

  1. I placed them side by side and taped just the outside side on each tag. So they open towards each other.
  2. I then strung some embroidery string through the Tags hole, and added a pretty little bead to the bottom, just for pizzaz.
I used pen to add some detail to the leaves

I used pen to add some detail to the leaves

Flaps

Bookmarks & Beads

Here is a link to some earlier Mixed Media tag projects, you might like some ideas to use for your Composition book covers. https://goo.gl/CdvZcc

I would love to see what you come up with! Send me some pics!

Next week I will be doing Composition Notebook cover RE-Do #2! You will have to check it out to see what it is.

Have a wonderful week everyone! Let’s get crafting!

Before & After