Dr. Who-themed gifts

My son is such big Dr. Who fan so I couldn't help but make a couple projects for his birthday last week! 

First was a Doctor-inspired birthday card. I made a similar card at my monthly card class so I used it as a pattern to make one that looked very Dr. Who like. You can't see it too well but I took brown cardstock and stamped a tweed-like stamp on it for texture. 

Then I took a plain black journal I found and turned it into this TARDIS journal just like River Song carries. My son has been journaling in it every day since I gave it to him!

I designed a cut file and used lots of blue paint! I'll be making a second journal for my other son so stay tuned for a quick tutorial in a few days.

Another fun gift to include would be one of these pens-turned-sonic screwdrivers. 

Cheap pens + oven-bake clay= sonic screwdrivers!

I found this craft on Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/223913412700147905/) 

We've actually made very many of these and I was going to add some to my photo but ours are so heavily used that they are just too dirty for photos! It is an easy, inexpensive and kid-friendly craft. Follow her directions and use the pens she suggests and you'll have some very happy whovian kiddos. Even if you are not Dr. Who fans you can still make Harry Potter wands or Star Wars light sabers maybe!

Linking up to:

The Paper Girls Challenge blog Father's Day/Masculine projects

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes

An altered journal

It's gifts week over at SP & Company and I decided to make a notebook for my little niece. Well, actually this was my third idea after the others weren't gonna work!

I took a standard composition book and covered it in scrapbook paper. The first thing I did was get rid of the ugly inside cover.

I simply adhered white cardstock to both inside covers. But before I glued down the backside, I stapled a few lengths of twine (you could also use ribbon) to the cover.

These twine will now be book marks for her. I attached beads to the ends to weigh them down.

Next, I took some scrapbook paper (not cardstock because you want it thin enough to wrap around the cover) and adhered it to the front and back. Make sure to cut enough to wrap around the cover to finish it off. Then to cover the spine I just glued on some thick ribbon.

Now finally you get to decorate. I kept it fairly simple since she is only 5. All of my papers are from Echo Park's So Happy Together line which was part of SP & Company's June monthly club kit (and just so darn cute!).

I added twine and then fussy cut flowers from the Garden pattern paper. I used the sign from the Boutique Sign mini stamp set to stamp the label onto the Diagonal Dot paper. The banner behind it uses Happy Stripes and Road Trip paper.

I added her initials using foam stickers. And now she has a cute little book that she can practice writing her alphabet in! Maybe by the end of the year she'll be writing letters to her favorite aunt ; )

Thanks for stopping by today!

A preteen journal

I made this journal for my little niece as a Christmas present.

I started by taking some of my white printer paper and folding it in half for the insdie pages. The covers are made from an old Cheerios box! I covered it in this really cool Basic Grey paper from the Obscure line. Then I bound it with my Cinch tool with that hot pink wire because what little girl doen't love pink? 

To  make a few pockets (for collecting photos, tickets, notes, etc) I cut some patterened paper and adhered it to a few pages (gluing only on the sides and bottom).

Then I put my die-cutter to work! Using the Indie Art cartridge I cut the skull and cross bones but added wings and a tiara! In metallic paper. Because it's for a girl. And girls love tiaras and sparkly things!

 I also cut the butterfly in 2 sizes and layered them and covered the body with glitter glue and added a random heart I had leftover from another project.

Then I cut the heart locket and key several times. I think the locket was cut about 5 times from cardstock and I glued all the layers together to make it thick. I then covered it in about 3 layers of silver metalic embossing powder (heating and cooling between each layer).

The red key was cut about 3 or 4 times and glued together to give it substance.

 To close it I intended the key to hang from a string to wrap around the front. So to lift the locket and give some room for the wrapping I hot attached a big eyelet (or grommet - I still don't know the difference honestly!) to the cover and then hot glued the locket to it. See how it raises it up from the cover?

Look at this pic again to see how I tied the twine to the heart. And I know you can't see but the twine is attached to the inside back cover and then covered with another sheet of pretty paper.

 Now to close it she just has to wrap the twine around the back of the locket. I left the twine fairly long so there is plenty of room for it to grow as it gets stuffed full of trinkets and memories.