Decorated notebooks

Stars and Stripes
Sometimes your 'stash' can turn up untold wonders. There are bits and bobs in mine that haven't seen the light of day for years, tucked away in a box or drawer but purchased because they held 'distinct possibilities' for use...........nothing definite, just distinct possibilities.

About 5 years ago I bought a couple of yards of this material.

It has a look of organza about it but appears to have what seems like 'hairy tinsel' stitched in straight lines throughout. I did use some of it to make a bag that was completely covered in colourless transparent pvc but that was all and there was quite a lot left over.

I also had a packet of rainbow coloured metallic sticky stars.


Against a dark background these show up really well underneath the organza material........

........so I used them to decorate an otherwise very plain black A5 journal.

I randomly attached the stickers to the front and back covers.

The organza material was added to the outside so that the coloured tinsel stripes ran across horizontally, and then the edges were attached to the inside of the cover.

As a finishing touch I attached a co-ordinated page marker ribbon with bead decoration........

 

.......and there you have it, one decorated A5 'Stars and Stripes' notebook/journal with page marker.

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Stars and circles
Whilst I was on a roll, and having discovered some handmade paper tucked away in a packet with several others (another 'distinct possibilities' purchase!), I thought I would use it to decorate another plain black A5 notebook/journal.

This time I glued the paper straight on to the cover  - admittedly this was a lot easier than attaching the material!

Although the notebook looked fine on it's own, it definitely needed something more. I am a big fan of 'seeing the unseen' - features or aspects of something that are not initially apparent an until you take another look or see them from a different angle. Using a medium sized star-shaped stamp and a silver ink pad, I randomly added textured star prints to the surface of the paper. On first appearance the stars are not all that obvious but when you hold the notebook on angle they magically appear!

Extra stars (in the form of small gold stickers) were added to the remaining backround circles that had not been overprinted by the silver stars.

To finish I added a white ribbon page marker with an antique bronze-effect leaf attached.

All in all quite a productive crafts weekend!!