Altered Notepad

Here’s a quick little project I threw together this weekend that was so super easy!  Using one of those standard generic notepads you can pick up for under a $1 at any office supply (or even drug store), simply alter the cover with a favorite patterned paper and a few embellishments to make a unique gift for a friend, a make and take at a crop (or for yourself!).

All you need:

• Notepad with a spiral binding in any size ( I used the pocket version)
• A patterned paper you love
• Mod Podge
• Hole Punch (like the Crop-A-Dile)
• Any embellishments you choose

To make it:

Step 1:  Bend the edge of the wire binding to “open” it up.  Then simply turn the metal spiral so it twists out of the holes holding the note pad together.  Don’t worry it will just as easily go back in.

Step 2:  Adhere your paper using Mod Podge to the cover and backing of the notepad.  The trick here, is to go back and punch the holes through the existing ones before you completely cover them up.  So cover the front of the front, punch holes, cover the back of the front, punch holes.  Make sense?  That way you can be sure you keep them evenly spaced and where they are supposed to be.

Step 3:  Now go ahead and thread the wire binding back through, twisting and feeding the wire through the holes the same way it came out.  It’s really super easy.

Step 4:  Embellish!

Though you can also put together a note pad or journal like this yourself (especially if you own a Bind-it-All), altering a pre-made store bought version saves you from cutting and punching all those interior pages, and is even a little more cost affordable.  Make a ton of these for Easter Baskets!

Or like me, use it for all the important lists you need to keep up with:

Hope you have had a wonderful weekend.  We were snowed in believe it or not (or at least we chose to stay indoors and thus refusing to believe we got as much snow as we did), but that made a for a very productive weekend.  I’ll have lots of fun things to share this week, new ACB projects with Cloud 9 Designs, a recipe that makes Alan swoon (hee), and some sneak peeks of AC Bailey’s gorgeous April Kit.  Whew!

Thanks for stopping by today, and see you soon.