My Other Creations: Notebook Using Dina Wakley's Gals and Borders Stamp Set

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme embraces all things school/ study-related.  Give me any excuse to even THINK about making a notebook and I'll take it! Here's a mini notebook whose cover I revamped:

I like to buy notebooks this time of year and then make covers for them and give them as gifts as the holiday season approaches.  For this cover, I started out with Strathmore Mixed Media paper.  I sprayed it with Dylusions Spray Ink and water.  Dylusions sprays and water are a great way to color a lot of space with minimal effort.

I started layering strips and scraps of painted paper and Washi tape onto my cover, then decided to whip out this charming girl image from Dina Wakley's Gals and Borders stamp set.  I love a lot of stamp images, but I'm not always clever enough to figure out how to use them when they have big sections of opaque color.  I knew that if I stamped the girl as she was, she'd cover up a lot of the collaging I'd just done.  So I tried something new.  I stamped her in black ink, then cut our her torso, leaving just an outline of her torso which I glued a strip of patterned black and white paper to.  Here's a pic of my separate elements: the notebook, the cover, and the girl.  

I glued everything together and added some stitching, a flower, and a "clever girl" sentiment that I stamped with alphabet stamps.  I wanted the girl to be the focal point, so I had to make sure she was nice and dark.  To get a super dark black stamped image, I usually have to either heat-emboss with black powder or color in the stamped sections with a Sharpie.  I used a Sharpie for this image.

I added a strip of an old vintage Bingo card to the spine and painted the edges black.  As a final step, I wanted to top off my notebook with some yarn. A simple way to do this is to tie fibers to a paperclip which can be used as a bookmark.

Here are the supplies I used on my project that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Strathmore Mixed Media Paper	Dina Wakley Gals and Borders Stamp Set	Seth Apter Spellbinders Coffe Ring die	Simon Says Stamp Hydrangea Petals die	Sizzix Big Shot
Hustle and Heart 12x12 Paper Pack	American Crafts Shimelle 12 x 12 Starshine Paper	Hero Arts Playful Alphabet Stamps	Tim Holtz Idea-ology JOURNEY Design Tape	Dylusions Ink Spray, London Blue
Dylusions Ink Spray, After Midnight	Dina Wakley Black Heavy Body Acrylic Paint	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley LIME Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley Evergreen Acrylic Paint
Dina Wakley TURQUOISE Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley TANGERINE Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley LEMON Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley Fuchsia Acrylic Paint	Dina Wakley RUBY Heavy Body Acrylic Paints
Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad

My heart and good wishes go out to all those youngsters and maybe not-so-youngsters who have recently headed back into the world of academia!  Go you!  Be sure to get crafty if you need a break from homework and being responsible in general.  Create something study-rific and upload it to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store!