Notepad Holder

The new challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow is called It's Charming.  We want you to create vintage or shabby chic cards or other projects that have a metal charm or other metal on them.

Provided we have at least nine entries in the challenge we will choose one random winner who will receive a little piece of word art along with a winner's badge to display. The Design Team will choose their Top Pick and that creator will receive a winner's badge and also be in the running for a monthly Guest Designer spot.

As I mentioned last time, I was in Virginia visiting Patti Painter and on one of the days that we crafted we made these really cool notepad holders.  The template was Patti's but when we started to create I suggested that we tweak the inside to include a pocket so that the notepad could be replaced once it was empty of useful pages.  She liked that idea so between the two of us we came up with new measurements and it worked beautifully.

Here is how mine came together noting that Patti let me use all of her supplies and she has some beautiful things to work with:

For the outside, I started with a piece of Stampin Up card stock and then added some patterned paper from K & Company.  The opposite side of the paper was used to make the panel and I used a Martha Stewart edge punch to make the border.  The lace is from a fabric outlet mall in Fancy Gap, Virginia that we went to.  The pearls are from Want To Scrap.

The flowers were made with card stock scraps using the Peonies die from Spellbinders and have brads from Making Memories as centres.  The branch is a Sissix Die.

The sentiment is from Stampendous and has been stamped onto a Spellbinders Labels 18 die.  The little butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch and was stamped with a script stamp from Gina K. Designs.  Patti wasn't sure where the gorgeous metal heart came from but it makes a lovely frame for the butterfly.

The edges of all the card stock and paper pieces have been inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink from Ranger.

Next I worked on the inside.  I added a strip of the floral patterned paper to the top of the notepad to make it prettier.

Finally I decorated the pocket with more of the patterned papers and some pearl flourishes.  That is the back of the notepad that you see inside the pocket.  The pads came from WalMart and are roughly 5" x 8".

This was a super fun project to make and would make wonderful gifts for teachers, service providers and of course, friends.  I gave this one to Patti to keep once it was done.  By the way, Patti made a gorgeous one too with a beach theme and did hers in half the time I took to make mine - I am such a slow crafter.