Get Crafty
In an attempt to get my children used to the idea of doing projects this coming school year with everyone involved I have been scheduling a craft once a week for a few weeks. The purpose of this is for the older ones to really understand patience and following directions as well as helping the younger ones.
The oldest is really great with all of this and is even great to help out with the little ones when they need it, or should I say, when I need her to help me help them. Goro just assumes he knows what to do when he sees the supplies on the table and is ready to just jump in and do what he thinks is supposed to be done - no instruction/directions needed. Just like a man, isn’t it? Birdie is great with waiting to see what we are going to do and how to do it, but she is a bit impatient when I need to help the little ones. Once she knows what to do, if she needs any sort of assistance she does not want to wait for me to finish with someone else.
I admit that I expect more out of the older ones when it comes to patience. Princerella is actually very patient waiting for me to help her, but she does need a lot of help as her fine motor skills are still lacking. some of CowBoy’s four year old motor skills are better than hers at times. Although with her special scissors she has gotten pretty good at cutting by herself.
Now, on the this particular project: Covered Notebooks
For your supplies:
- plain composition notebook
- paper trimmer 1
- scissors
- pretty scrapping paper with at least one side measuring 12 inches 2
- double sided sticky tape or a craft tape runner 3
- various stickers and/or stamps for decorating
Begin by deciding how you want to cover your notebook. We did a decorative split with ours, meaning we used two pieces of coordinating paper to create a split covered look. How is that for an explanation?
/>After deciding how you would like to cover your book ready your first piece of paper. Measure how wide you want it and cut it with your paper trimmer.
Glue or tape the back edges of your paper and line one long edge up with the spine edge of your book.
Press so it will hold. Open your book and fold the overlapping ends to the inside of the cover. Press tight so it will hold.
Now it is time to ready your second piece of paper (the coordinating sheet). Measure. Trim. Glue. Line it up. Press.
Now this time when you open the cover to turn in the edges it will be a bit different as you need to be careful of the rounded corners. To do this, we folded our corners in making sure that the edges were squared up. Only press the the corner at this time as you need to trim some excess.
Take your scissors and trim the paper away from the notebook, lining up your scissor blade with the edge of the book.
Now trim away that excess from the other direction as well. Your corner section should now be covered and you will be left with nice even edges to fold in to the inside cover of your notebook. Press these down.
Now do the same to the back of the notebook.
Go ahead. I’ll wait.
After you have covered both the inside and outside of the book you will need to cover the inside of your book as well (to hide those ugly flaps that you glued down inside). Measure once, cut twice. Measure twice, cut once.
Tape/glue the edges and place the piece of cut paper onto the inside cover and your notebook. Do this for both the inside of the back and front cover.
Now it’s time to decorate, sticker, and stamp to your hearts content.
And be sure you get everything lined up just right.
And a few projects completed 4
The older girls and will most likely turn this into a great gift to go along with part of a children’s swap. Here’s the whole set.
Those rule!
Those are really cute. As an added bonus, everyone knows whose is whose.
MKs last blog post..It’s been a long time…
Okay, those look great! We are definitely going to have to do that nest week.
Hattiesburg sends it’s love!
Okay, those look great! We are definitely going to have to do that next week.
Hattiesburg sends it’s love!