Paper Crafting - Small Notebook Cover

Crafting with pretty paper gives me so much pleasure. Cutting and pasting was a favorite activity when I was young. My thrifty grandmother would make glue on the stove from flour and water and give me magazines to cut out the pictures. These would then be pasted into an old Readers Digest. I didn't mind the writing behind the pictures, I liked the contrasting pattern it made. 

When scrap booking became popular I couldn't resist stocking up on supplies. Apart from making pretty photo albums, I  enjoy using them for general crafting too. These little notebook covers don't use up a lot of paper but are a treat to put notes in and small enough to pop in my handbag. What writer doesn't have a notebook and pen handy?

I chose papers that have an interesting or beautiful background. I cut them to the size of the notebook plus extra at the top to fold over and glue at the back. I used a double sided tape runner for this but you can use any glue that you have on hand. I then layered embellishments on using hot glue. The notebook above has a fussy cut strip of stripped paper layered with strips of crystal stickers. A raffia bow is layered with a blue organza ribbon bow and a couple of crystal stickers hot glued keep the tails in place.

This shabby chic inspired notebook cover was inspired by the backing paper. It helps to work with a theme if you can.
A cream organza ribbon was layered with a strip of silver sequence. Overlapping that are some raffia strips and a fabric flower.
I found that pulling the petals apart in a small flower and removing the plastic center allowed me to stack them flat with hot glue. I fussy cut a rose from the lace strip that I also used at the top and hot glued a small heart embellishment. A metal embellishments from my stash was glued behind the rose to add texture and interest but also to tie in the small flowers from backing paper.
​The lace at the top was added using a fabric glue, which is still a little opaque in this photo as it's not completely dry yet. I used this type of glue because I wanted the lace to wrap around to the back and needed the ability to adjust the lace before the glue dries.

By now you'll be getting the idea that this is a time theme. The butterfly reminds me that time is fleeting and that it takes time for something beautiful to emerge. The hearts are for love. There should always be love in the time we have here.
The embellishments were adding in order of how they appear. the paper strips at the top and bottom were layered onto the backing paper first then the raffia strips.
I like using hot glue because it grabs the embellishment and secures it in place quickly, but do be careful with hot glue, it's easy to burn your fingers. The blue organza ribbon bow echos the shape of the little butterflys,  and of course it's pretty.

This last notebook is about the garden and how nature is a gift to us all. The only embellishment I wanted to add was the little metal bee and the strip of text. This sheet of scrapbook paper is so gorgeously detailed it didn't need a lot.
I added the bee because gardens need bees to fertilize the seeds and they give the gift of honey to us. The text 'A GIFT FROM ABOVE' was the closest quote in my stash to express the value of nature. For me it is a gift from God that we need to take care of and be grateful for.

It's lovely creating something beautiful, but as in my writing I like it to say something or express something I feel, mainly joy. The wonderful thing about paper crafting is that there are so many different combinations you can make you'll never run out of inspiration. I included several different styles and color combinations as an example of what can be done.

I hope you enjoyed this paper crafting post, I will be doing more of these in the future with larger projects. I think starting small gives us the confidence to move on to bigger projects.

If you're still with me at the end of this post, thanks so much for stopping by to see what I've up to in my romantic life.
Happy crafting, Dora.

Dora Bramden writes heart-melting, passionate romance.
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