A little DIY project....

Was home this past weekend, and my sister is just ALL about my little creations. LOVE HER <3!!! And she reminded me about this little note pad I made for her and all my aunts this past Christmas. I had personalized each one with a little sketch of them with their names on top and a little quote fitting to them. For instance, my aunt who is such a lush, hers said "Don't forget the olives" with a little sketch of her holding a martini glass.

My sister's (pictured above) was actually a notepad that doubled as a mouse pad for her desk, the rest were shopping list pads with magnets for the fridge. I'm currently making one for my jewelry line so I can add little thank yous to each order I send out.

Here's how to do this...Its really easy if you have a cad program like Illustrator or Photoshop.

1. If you can draw, sketch whatever your little heart desires, If you can't you can use images off the Internet, scans of magazine clippings OR use a personal picture and fit it to the following dimensions on your cad program. (I used an allover print)

Mouse Pad - 7in X 7in or  Longer Shopping notepad 3.75in X 9.75in

2. Inside the area filled with your picture (that you sized to one of the above dimensions) make a white box at 85% transparency with about 1/2in space all around. Then play with whatever other little images you would like to see around the white box (I put a sketch of the recipient)

3. Write whatever you like on the top of the white box. Your name, your favorite quote..anything. Then Put the lines all the way down spaced about 1/4in apart

4. Print about 20 of each template on whatever type of paper you like, And cut them apart. It helps if you have a large paper cutter so you can cut a bunch at a time and they will be the same exact size. You can get one relatively cheap at Michael's or Target. Or you can just take a trip to Kinko's. I'm pretty sure they have these there that people can use.

5. Cut a slightly thick piece of cardboard the same size to use as backing. Michael's also has black heavy presentation boards that you can use. This is what I used.

6. Using thick paper clamps, clamp your 20 or so sheets along with the backing together making sure the edges on the top (the side you will glue) is nice and even and flat.

7. Take a glue gun and smear a thin layer of glue to the top, using a tongue depressor or a plastic knife to even it out and make it nice and smooth.  Let it dry. The pages will tear off nice and easily.

8. If your making a shopping list buy magnets, using your glue gun, glue about 2 on the back of your pad (the sticky magnets don't hold, from my experience the glue gun works best)

9. If your making a mouse pad on the cardboard backing glue a thin line of glue with a glue gun to the top and bottom to prevent the pad from sliding around your desk.

10. YOUR DONE! your own personalized note pad!