Joy Notepad by Gloria Stengel

Hello everyone! It is Gloria with you today. I have created a sweet little notepad cover for you. I love notepads. They come in all sizes and shapes. Creating custom covers for them is fun and easy, and they make wonderful quickie gifts!

You can decorate your notepad cover as much or as little as you wish.

My notepad measures 8 x 2 1/2 inches. If you cannot find notepads this size, you can purchase standard 8 x 5 inch pads and cut them in half. My office supply store will cut a whole stack of pads for me for a few dollars. If the "right" clerk is on duty, he will cut them for free!

1. Cut tan cardstock to 8 1/8 x 5 1/4 inches. Score at 2 1/2 and 2 3/4 inches on the short side. This makes your basic notepad cover to fit a 8 x 2 1/2 inch notepad.

2. Trim printed paper to 3 x 2 1/2 inches. Score the long side at 1 and 1 1/4 inches. This will create a little "topper" to hide the ugly binding on your notepad.

3. Cover the notepad binding and then attach the notepad to the right side of the notepad cover.

3. Emboss green cardstock with the Endless embossing folder from the All Occasions Collection. I used Core'dinations Cardstock and sanded it to revel the pale core of the paper.

4. Trim black cardstock to 8 x 2 3/8 inches and attach to the front of the notepad cover. Trim embossed cardsctock to 2 1/4 inches wide. Trim two pieces, joined where the embossing matches, to create a 7 7/8 inch long strip. Attach the embossed strip to the black cardstock with the seam near the top of the notepad cover.

6. Using the large Ivy Doily Die (Fantasia Collection), cut and emboss a doily from printed paper. You may need to use the Piercing Tool to remove some of the tiny bits from the die cut shape. Attach to the top of the notepad cover with foam mounting tape, making sure to overlap the seam.

7. Stamp sentiment onto tan cardstock with black dye ink and cut with a Circle Nesting Die.

8. Attach the sentiment to the center of the doily die cut shape.

9. Add self-adhesive pearls to the four corners of the notepad cover, and attach a postage stamp image sticker to the bottom center.

10. Using the Scallop Rectangle Nesting Dies, cut a scalloped rectangle from black cardstock.

11. Line the Rectangle Nesting Die template over the a section of embossed leaves cardstock and tape down. Cut the embossed paper and adhere the rectangle to the scalloped rectangle mat.

12. Trim black cardstock to 8 x 2 3/8 inches and attach to the inside left of the cover. Trim printed paper to 7 7/8 x 2 1/4 inches and attach to the black cardstock.