I love Sundays. It’s a day to relax and unwind, maybe read a book, or sit and watch a movie. It’s also the day when I plan for the week ahead. I don’t necessarily get everything done, but at least I know what I’d like to achieve. Some weeks are more successful than others. Of course making a plan means pulling out one of my many notebooks, or decorating a new one. So when I got the new Lighthearted Lines Stamp Set that was the first project on my list. For me Sundays also mean simple projects and this one really does fit the bill.

WELL SUITED STRIPES

I found this notebook among a stash that I’ve randomly collected. I often pick up notebooks when I see them on sale especially if they have a neutral-coloured cover. Black is especially useful as a cover colour as it will go with just about anything.

Having selected my notebook I then needed to add a decorative layer. After searching through various Designer Series Paper (DSP) packs I settled on a diagonal striped pattern from Well Suited. The colours used on this paper are Basic Black, Basic Gray, Night of Navy and Pacific Point, and I chose Basic Gray for my coordinating card layer.

This notebook has a hard cover with a line scored 1/4″ in from the binding. So I measured the cover from that line to the right-hand edge, and from top to bottom. Then I cut my Basic Gray Card 1/8″ smaller than that, and the DSP 1/4″ smaller again.

As I was checking how the card and DSP layers would look, I realised that the notebook had rounded corners. This could have been a problem for the layers but I had an idea… Before sticking anything down I lined up the top right corner of the card layer with the top right corner of the front cover. Next, holding it firmly in place I used Paper Snips to trim off the excess card at the corner. Then I slid the card to the bottom right corner and trimmed off the excess card around that corner too. I repeated this process for the DSP layer, and then did the same for the card and DSP I’d cut to decorate the back cover.

Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I mounted the DSP onto the card and fixed the assembled pieces onto the notebook.

LIGHTHEARTED LINES

While the notebook looked a lot better already I still wanted to add a sentiment and additional decoration to the front cover.

The Lighthearted Lines Stamp Set is a sentiment only set that has some great tongue-in-cheek sentiments. I thought “To a person who’s still got it … but might not remember where they put it” was perfectly suited for a notebook. However below that it also says “Happy birthday”. That wasn’t a problem though, I’d just be careful to avoid that part of the stamp when inking it up. To do this I placed the stamp on the table rubber side up, and carefully tapped the Tuxedo Black ink pad just over the top two lines. This was actually very easy and then I simply stamped it onto a 1-3/4″ x 3-1/4″ piece of Basic White Card.

Before going any further I needed the new Peekaboo Farm Stamp Set. This clear photopolymer set has some lovely sentiments, but today I was more interested in the cute farm animal images. These are designed to peek over the wall image included in the set, but I had a slightly different idea.

After looking carefully at the images I noticed that the pig had a sort of unsettled look on his face. It made me chuckle, and could have been made to accompany my sentiment.

So I began by stamping the pig onto some Basic White Card using Polished Pink ink. Next, using a Blending Brush, I went over the whole image with a light layer of Polished Pink ink. Then I simply cut out the image with Paper Snips leaving a longer ‘tab’ between the pig’s ‘hands’.

With that done I attached the pig to the top of my sentiment using liquid glue. The tab went behind and the ‘hands’ in front so it looked like the pig was peeking out over the top. Then I used more liquid glue to fix the completed layer to the front of the notebook and this week’s simple Sunday project was complete.

This is such a cute project and I love the pig. Now to see if there’s any other natural pairings between the Lighthearted Lines and Peekaboo Farm Stamp Sets. I’ll be sure to add them to my notebook so I can show you on a future blog post.

Whatever you have planned for today, I hope you’re able to find some creative time for yourself. I’m off to play some more…

PRODUCT LIST