Hi, There, Stampers!
Back in February, I attended a gathering of quite a few Stampin’ Up! demonstrators in my new home state of Florida. The organizers had lots of projects for us to do, including a really simple cover for a small note pad. Part of the simplicity is that we just glued the small note pad into the cover we made. This meant that, when the note pad was finished, the simplest thing to do was to discard the cover and make a new one. That’s what happened to me last week.
Before you ask why I didn’t just pull off the old note pad and stick another one one, let me tell you that, by the time that note pad was finished, the cover had shown lots of wear and tear. Besides I had new “stuff” I wanted to use!
Memories and More Cards Are So Much Fun!
To make the original note pad, we were given a pack of a Memories and More Card Pack from the last Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. What fun that was figuring out which cards and stickers (yes, there are stickers in those packs) I waned to use for my new project. The good news/bad news is that there are only a few M&M (my Memories and More abbreviation) card packs available at any one time. So I chose the Texture Chic M&M Card Pack.
Once I picked which of the cards I was going to use for the background layering, I went about choosing the color of cardstock that I’d use. After trying quite a few, I chose Evening Evergreen Cardstock.
Choosing the Design Elements
The only design elements that you kind of need for this particular design are two M&M 4″ x 6″ cards, with colors that coordinate well but aren’t too close in color or color value. You want those strips to stand out from each other. Then cut 1″ x 4″ strips from each card. You will need five strips of the color that shows at the top and bottom and 4 strips for the other color. And definitely make those strips line up the way you want them to. Some of the people in the original group lined them all up perfectly horizontally. Those looked fine.
For the ribbons and stickers, just go for it. I cut some gold foil with hexagon dies from the Beautiful Shapes Dies set. I punched a heart from another of the M&M cards, added a bit of Gold Shimmer Ribbon. Then I went through the sticker sheets in the M&M Card Pack and ended up using more than I’d intended.
Adding the Note Pad
Before I glued the Note Pad into the folder, I cut a piece of coordinating Texture Chic Designer Series Paper the width of the note pad by 2″. Then I glued it over the top of the note pad and folded it to the back and gluing it in place there.
The Bottom Line
This is a fun project to make and to use – or give as a gift! And there really are no rules about how to decorate the front of the folder. Just go for it!
Stay Cool!
