It’s no secret that I’m a list person and consequently love pretty notebooks and notepads. In fact I have quite a few, each one designed to address a specific need. The other day I realised that the one I use for simple shopping lists was almost gone. So in true papercrafter style I found a plain notepad and turned it into something much nicer.

FIRST CAME THE NOTEPAD

This project all started with the notepad I found on a recent trip to Dollarama. The pages are 3-1/4″ by 5-3/4″ including the punched area for the spiral binding. I chose this notepad because it has quite a firm cover and lots of pages. Although the cover was a boring black, I decided it would be a nice contrast for the brighter colours I planned to add.

As this was to be a shopping notepad I thought the bag / purse pattern from the Best Dressed 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack was very appropriate. Then from that I was able to choose my card colour. In the end I went with Lovely Lipstick, one of the 2018-2020 InColors which is retiring in a couple of months.

I cut a piece of the card to fit the front of the notepad leaving a 3/16″ border of the black cover showing. Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed it to the front. Next came the DSP attached to the card layer with more liquid glue.

Before I finished with the DSP I found a scrap 1-1/8″ x 3″ strip which was perfect for the pencil holder. I wrapped the strip around a mechanical pencil and glued the ends together. Then I glued the pencil holder inside the back cover of the notepad.

LIFE IS SHORT

Now all I had left to do was the sentiment and for that I turned to the Dressed To Impress Stamp Set.

I chose the “Life is short. Buy the shoes” sentiment but wasn’t convinced I needed the ‘shoes’ part. So I decided to alter it with the help of some Stampin’ Write Markers.

Keeping with the colour scheme on the DSP I went with Blackberry Bliss (from the Regals collection), and Lovely Lipstick. I mounted the sentiment onto an acrylic block and then using the brush tip of the Blackberry Bliss marker I coloured the ‘Life is short’ part of the photopolymer stamp. Next with the Lovely Lipstick marker I coloured ‘Buy the’, before stamping the sentiment onto some Whisper White Card. Finally using the writing tip of the Lovely Lipstick marker I added three dots to the end of the sentiment.

NOTE – This marker to stamp technique does not work with alcohol markers.

Now my altered sentiment was complete I turned to the All Dressed Up Dies. Using the small stitched die included in the set I cut out the sentiment, then glued it to a strip of Lovely Lipstick Card. To finish my project I added the layered sentiment to the notepad cover and I was done.

In no time at all I’d turned a boring black notebook into something much more fun. Now to start my first list…

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Dressed To Impress Stamp Set and All Dressed Up Dies using a single ‘bundle’ item number. This saved me 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included both options below so you can compare these if you wish.

FREE DESIGNER SERIES PAPER SAMPLE PACK – Did you know that you can get a free 6″ x 6″ DSP sample pack containing 48 sheets featuring selected designs from the 2020 Mini Catalogue and Sale-A-Bration Brochure? To get the DSP sampler along with a free mini guillotine cutter simply join Stampin’ Up! before March 31st. The current joining offer is amazing and I’ve updated my Join Stampin’ Up! page so you can read all about it and get many of your questions answered. If you have any other questions just contact me and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.