Simple But Handy

I recently posted about a card I made with digital paper called Blooming Butterflies that was designed by my talented friend Elizabeth Robinson and sold in her Etsy shop A Printer's Daughter. While I still had the paper from that collection up on my screen I decided to print a few more pages and make a simple but handy notepad holder. I probably should have posted this sooner because these would make fabulous little teacher gifts but school is pretty well finished for the year depending on where you live.

By the way, you will notice that the collections are in an A4 size but do not let that deter you if you are from North America. Some commercial printers might be able to sell you some A4 paper or cardstock but if not just print on letter sized paper with the smallest possible margin (or no margin at all, if your printer allows for that) and cut them apart to fit your project.

The notepad you use will determine the size of the holder. In this case I had a few small pads from Dollarama that are 4"x5 1/2" so I cut two pieces of fairly heavy card stock 6"x4 1/4" and scored them on the long side at 3/8". The two 3/8" sections were adhered together to make a top "spine". All the surfaces both inside and outside were then covered with patterned paper from the collection. Each piece of paper was cut smaller on each side than the surface it was going on by 1/16" and each piece was inked on the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink (Tim Holtz).

The next step was to make a pocket to slide the back cover of the pad into. In this case I cut a piece of card stock 4 1/8"x2 3/8" and then scored it at 3/8" on the short side. To make a pocket that is easy to slide things in and out of, I also cut side gussets 1"x2 5/8" and folded them in half on the short side. Once I folded the bottom of the pocket up and added the gusset on each side, the pocket was added to the inside back of the holder and patterned paper was added to the front of the pocket. I finished off the front by added the word NOTES, which was created on my computer.

I told you this was simple and can be customized for the types of pads you can get. Most dollar/pound shops sell packages of plain and lined pads in different sizes. I always keep a notepad next to the phone and I hope you will agree that one in a holder made with these pretty papers is more classy than a plain one.

I will be back soon with another project made from another one of Elizabeth's gorgeous paper collections.