I know many of you like to create handmade gifts for all the special people in your life. With the gift giving holidays fast approaching, Emily Pitts our designer for this week, thought she would show us a fun project that would allow the special people in your life to have something especially made by you.
Here is Emily with her project:
I wanted to share how I made this notebook cover today. It’s rather simple to put together, and because you choose your saying, it’s much more personal than buying a pre-made on at the store. I chose my quote from the website www.thinkexist.com. I typed in the word grow and found the perfect saying for my mother, the gardener. She’s got a huge garden and I know she’s going to love this. A small word of advice: the shorter quotes work better. Here’s a step-by-step instruction on how to put this quick project together.
1. Once I had my quote, I took my blank covered notebook (I find these every so often at office supply stores and buy a bunch, they make great altered gifts!) and took the front measurements.
2. I used Photoshop to make a canvas that fit those dimensions exactly. If you don’t have Photoshop or Elements, you can still do this, just make a text box in Word. You won’t be able to alter the text size, but you can fill the box with text and adjust accordingly.
3. Then I attached the print out to the blank cover with a small piece of removable tape and cut it to fit. You don’t need too much adhesive, I only used a small piece right in the middle, just enough to keep the paper from slipping around as I started the next step.
4. With a ballpoint pen, trace around the letters, pressing down firmly. You don’t want to rip through the paper, but you want to leave a good impression on the cover underneath.
5. Check every so often to make sure you are getting the image you want on the cover. This is where it’s very important that you have that small piece of tape working for you. You don’t want that top paper to slip!
6. Once you’ve traced your entire quote, carefully remove the paper and adhesive. Try not to rip the cover.
7. Get out your paints and alternate the colors to get a fun playful title. I left some of my letters blank; it adds so much to the overall look. Once you’re done painting and your letters are dry, trace around them again with a black scrapbooking pen, I used my EK Success .05 journaling pen.
8. Now cover each letter painted and not with a thick layer of with Glossy Accents, the thicker the better. This will create an epoxy look once the glue dries. The drying takes a while, set your project aside for a few hours so you don’t smudge it.
9. Now you have a fun personalized gift for someone special, or yourself. You can also use stamps with this technique.
