Sunday 2 September 2012

My scruffy notebook, made into a nice notebook. With the help of Creativity Club Downloads

Hiya Crafty Friends,

I have been playing today with the gorgeous free downloads you can print for free when you're a Creativity Club Member. The hardest part of this project was picking which download to use first as there is soooooo many gorgeous ones to pick from. In the end I plumped for the 'Secret Garden Series'...GORGEOUS!!!!!

At the moment I am trying to get myself more organised, which I have been meaning to do for a long time...lol! I had an old notebook just lying around but it looked so scruffy!! I knew I had to do something with it, that's when the free downloads came to mind. I was dying to have an excuse to use them, and this was the perfect 'excuse' :)

As I have used a small notebook, and I didn't want to lose any of the image, I thought I'd show you how I resized my Creativity Club Download. There maybe other ways to do it, but I find this way works for me :)

Open up your Creativity download as normal


In the tool bar you will find a little icon of a camera. Click on the ico- and this message will appear.


Your cursor will now have changed to a cross. Place the cross in the top left-hand corner of the image and press down the left-hand mouse button. Whilst still holding the mouse button down, drag the cross cursor to the bottom right-hand corner of the image, then let go of the mouse button. You will see that the page is highlighted and a message will appear telling you the selected area has been copied.


Open a new word processor


Click on paste.


And the image will appear on your page.


Click your cursor on the image to select it.


And a tab will appear above your toolbar, with the word format on. Click on this tab...


 A new toolbar will appear, and at the end of it there are two measurement boxes. Type your desired measurement in the the corresponding boxes, click on your image...


...and hey presto. You have the whole image the size you wanted!!!



Now we can start making our notebook :)

What you will need for this tutorial is:

- A spiral bound notebook
Creativity club download of your choice (x1 A4, x2 resized)
- Glue
- Xcut Flower Doily Punch


Firstly, I took my tatty looking notebook and took the front and back covers off. You will need a spiral bound notebook for this project as the covers are removable.


Take one of your resized downloads,


 and cut around the image leaving an approximate 3cm margin.


Cut a slit from the corner of the paper, to the corner of the image.


Repeat on this process on all four corners.


Take one of the notebook covers, and place on the back of the downloaded image. I found holding it up to a window helped me to line it up as the image can be seen through the paper. I secured it with a little tape.



 Tightly fold one of the edges up around the back of the cover and glue.



Cut the end off the next flap, as shown, tightly fold over and glue.


Repeat this process on all four edges.


When you get to the last flap cut both ends off and then fold and glue.



Now all the edges are secured.


 As you can see, the edges are quite pointed.


A good tip is to roll the corner back and forth...


 Which gives you a much neater finish.



 For decoration I couldn't resist using some of  my Lucy Cromwell Paper stash, (it's GORGEOUS!!!) And punched it with the Xcut Doily Flower Border punch.


 I then cut it to a 4cm width.


 Place glue on the back.


 And fix onto your cover.


Repeat this process with the other cover.



This now leaves the inside of the cover looking a bit shabby,


 Measure the size needed to cover the whole of the back.




I printed off a co-ordinated paper, A4 size this time,


and cut two peices the size of the measurments I had just taken.


Place glue all over the back of your cover.


 And adhere your paper to it. Repeat this process with the second cover.



To make the holes for the spiral binding I used an embosing tool to rub along the edge of the cover, where it indented identified where the holes where, and enabled me to see them more easily.


The process of making the holes is up to you. But, I found using my Big Bite made the whole process very easy.





Cut a peiece of card with an Xcut Scallop Die.



Then emboss.



Place some foam pads on the back.


 and place on the cover you have decided will be the front of your note book.


Fix your covers back on to the notebook.



 And decorate as you wish.


And hey presto. From scruffy to gorgeous!!! (Hands off mum lol)













20 comments:

  1. This is gorgeous, thanks for a great tutorial too.

    sue

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  2. Wow! Beautiful. What a fab Tutorial, great way to show how to use the downloads in a different way.

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  3. Brilliant and thank you for sharing xxxxxxx

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  4. Fantastic tutorial and gorgeous new note book. thank you for sharing.

    Hugs
    Linda xxx

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  5. A very pretty result, lovely paper
    Ruth x

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  6. Thank you for sharing Debbi. What a beautiful note book it is now . Wonderful x

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  7. Fab tutorial and your notebook is gorgeous.
    Becky x

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  8. Gorgeous book, thanks for sharing this fabulous tutorial. I love notebooks! Love NJ XX

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  9. Great tutorial - it must have taken you an age. Thanks for sharing this!!
    Kate
    xx

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  10. Hey,
    Love this Fabtastic Tutorial...Its great and your demonstations of how you did this is so clear and easy to understand. I have soooo many little notebooks that are spiral bound that I wanted to cover but brain didnt step into gear on how to get around the Spiral binding...Yipppeeee, thanks to your Fab Tutorial I can now go ahead and get these made & ready for Xmas :-D. Thanks again for the fab Tutorial. Crafty Hugs x o x

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  11. This is absolutely blooming gorgeous Debbi, thank you for sharing this wonderful creation and also the tutorial xxxx

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  12. Thanks for the tutorial i'd love to try this. Your notebook cover is lovely. Can you remove spiral binding off any notebook or are they a particular type, if so where are they from please? Many thanks Anne :)

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  13. Such a gorgeous alteration to your notebook and a great tutorial. TFS! xx

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  14. Beautiful results & great tutorial xxx

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  15. ah wow hun what a fab idea.. and it dont look as hard as i thought it would be. Thank you for joining my ladder, been too long since i visited :-) xx

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  16. love this idea! thanks for the tutorial x

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  17. Very cute project and pretty paper!

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  18. Great tutorial on how you completed your notebook! Thank you so much.

    I will be visiting again soon. Love what I am seeing on this blog.

    thank you so much!!
    Kimberly
    http://scrappingrookie.blogspot.com

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  19. A fabulous notebook and a great tutorial.xxx

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Thank you for taking the time to comment. It is very much appreciated xx