Pretty Me up//DIY Notepads (For Stylish Doodlers!)

When I tailored my newest paper & digital crafting collection, I knew exactly what project I'd design with it: My own notepads! I can never get enough of notepaper, being both a blogger and and architecture student, my mind tends to over produce random chunks of crappy, lopsided ideas that need to be polished (preferably in journals) to make some sense and land over here on the blog. So notepads (and the cutest ones too) were such a welcome addiction addition. Besides, these make just the prettiest desk accessories I can vouch for and even prettier gifts for friends!

Here's a tiny secret I'll share today: whenever I get an idea, I make sure it's not already out there and raved about on the blogosphere. Even if it's original in my head, someone may think I ripped it off. (Has this happened to you too? :| ) When I do recraft someone else's ideas it's either because I wanted to test it out or because I loved it to the moon. (design-function wise, in which case, I provide credit). That's how this DIY really got to here, I found that most other notebook tuts were actually about customizing them rather than making them-from scratch. (which is as easy as customizing them!)

The collection is now available at my store for two bucks (really!). I used three sheets from the collection for this project.

Materials:
-A4 sized paper (18-20) sheets.
-White/cream colored cardstock
-Scissors, a ruler and a pencil
-Modpodge (matter)PVA glue
-Washi Tape (optional)
-Pretty scrapbooking paper (I printed out mine from my Candid Springs collection)

Instructions:

1. Align all the A4 sized sheets in a stack. Decide the size you want your printed decorative paper to be. I printed out mine to be 4 inches by 5.5 inches (for reference) and place one atop the stack of A4 papers.

2. Using a pencil and a ruler, mark out the boundary of the decorative paper onto the A4 stack. Since my decorative paper came to be roughly 1/4th of the A4 sheet. I divided the A4 sheet into 4 sections.

3. Use a scissors and something (like binder clips or clothespins) to temporarily keep the papers from going haywire while you cut through. Cut along the four divisions you made with the pencil so that you get four individual smaller stacks of paper each the size of your decorative paper.

4.Cut cardstock the same size as the decorative paper to act as the backing for the notepad.

(Since I used three sheets of decorative paper, I made one notepad thicker than the rest by using two of the four papers stacks combined for my thicker notepad.)

5.Align the paper stacks, the decorative paper and the cardstock (so that the paper stack is sandwiched between the deco paper and the cardstock) and along one of the shorter sides, apply a generous amount of modpodge. This is like the spine of your notepad.

6. Allow to dry. When dry, reapply a thin layer, cut washi tape to the size of the spine and apply over. Let dry again.

Finished! Now you can hopelessly romance with these pretty gifts.

If the process sounds complicated, it's actually not. I daresay it'll be done in 10-15 minutes (yes, all three of them including the drying time!). Three-gorgeous- notepads to let your creativity let lose in a jiffy! ;)

A closer look. ^ :) Here's a preview of the collection you can download the papers from at my online store.

Like it? Pin it! You can also find tons more stylish DIYs in my DIY gallery here!
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Till then, have a great weekend, hugs and ciao!
Nash