Quick Notebook Upgrade

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And that means I need lots of notebooks for all those lists.  I found these notebooks at Michael's - 3 for $2.00.  Who could pass up this deal - not moi!  The books are just the right size ( 5.5 x 4 inches)  to slip into a pocket or purse for those grocery store or Tarjay lists.  Of course these books are OK just as they are, but I thought I could make them even better.  See that stash of washi tape in the back?  I know it is a ridiculous amount of tape; probably I shouldn't tell you that I just had to buy three more rolls today.

I decided to tape the edge of each page to add some color and interest.   This was an easy project - -no measuring, no color plan, just tear, stick and clip.

Here's how I did it - tear off a strip slightly longer than the page.  Stick it down along the edge, leaving enough to fold over and stick down to the back of the page.   I have some pretty narrow tape (3/8 inch) and found that this technique works best with tape at least 1/2 inch wide.  The narrower tape is harder to position so you have bough left to fold over - not impossible, but not the easiest.   Tear, stick, fold over and repeat until you've taped every page.   

Here is my book with all the pages taped.  Now about those tape tails.  Since the cover and pages of these books have rounded corners, I decided to round each page edge.   I cut the tails even with the top and bottom of each page and then used a corner punch to round the edge.

Here are some of the pages with the edges taped and corners rounded.

This is what the book looks like with all its pretty taped pages.

Now about those covers.  

I love these Dina Wakley Squiggly Bird stamps!  So cheery, so happy, so fun.   I used a piece of artist paper from an old Somerset Studio magazine for a background.  I stamped the birdie on light blue paper and added a script stamp, cut it out and glued it to the background.  The sentiment came from a magazine.

This little card fell out of a used book and he was too cute to throw away.   I rubbed on some Distress Ink and added some bling.

The sentiment came with the scribbly bird stamps.  I used a piece of scrap paper with paint and inks leftover from other projects and doodled around the edges.

This is a perfect TV-watching project- quick and easy and no gluing.   Happy list-making!