Cuddly Buddly Crafts Blog

Materials Needed

• With Love Banner Angel and Love Angel rubber stamps
• Backing papers from Angels Background Papers Designable – hearts, yellow haze, plaid
• Backing paper from A Patchwork of Papers – Plum haze
• Water colour pencils or pens
• Inkpad or chalks for edging paper
• Making Memories Mini Blossoms neutral
• Brads
• Bookmark tassel or ribbon or fibres
• Scallop circle punch 3”, Plain circle punches 2½” and 1”, Corner rounder punch or scissors
• Cuttlebug set of four Flowers dies. Die cutting machine
• Bind it All machine. Wire for binding – white – 5/8”
• PVA glue. 3D foam pads
• Greyboard or heavy duty cardstock A6 (4” x 6”)
• Good quality 120gsm photocopy paper for inserts
• A5 Cardstock – piece of ivory card for greeting card
• White printer cardstock for bookmark

1 – To make the Angel Notebook. Using the hearts design paper cut two pieces 7½” x 6”. Centre the grey board or heavy duty cardstock on the reverse of the backing paper and glue into position using PVA glue. Spread the glue evenly over the cardstock to prevent any bubbling in the paper. Allow to dry.

2 – Using your craft knife and ruler remove the corners of the paper diagonally on all four corners leaving about ¼” past the edge of the cover. This serves to keep your finished corners tidy.

3 – Using a scoring tool or embossing tool score round the edges of the cover to help the paper fold more easily.

4 – Glue down all the edges onto the back of the cover making sure they are well secured and allow to dry. When completed, gently tap the corners onto your working surface to give them a rounded finish.

5 – Cut two pieces from the plaid backing paper slightly smaller than the cover of the book. Glue to the inside of the covers. This will hide any fixings you may want to add and keep your notebook tidy.

6 – With the plaid side facing measure the centre point on the narrowest sides top and bottom. Lightly pencil in a line to join both points. This will be erased later.

7 – This line will give you the exact position to place the cover into your Bind-It-All and is matched up with the centre mark on the machine.

8 – Punch both covers being careful to check that your patterns are running in the same direction back and front. Erase the pencil lines.

9 – Now you can prepare your embellishment for the front of your notebook. Cut one 3” scallop circle from the plaid patterned paper. Cut one 2½” plain circle from the yellow haze paper. Ink the edges of the circles to give them some dimension. Stamp your chosen image and cut it out. I masked off the sentiment on the banner and replaced it with my own.

10 – Stamp inked with mask in place.

11 – Mask removed before stamping onto paper.

12 – Stamped image.

13 – Colour the stamped images to suit your project. Mount onto 3D foam pads. Glue the circles to the front of your notebook and place the angel towards the top of the circle giving room for the sentiment at the bottom. Cut several small flowers from your plum haze paper using the second largest flower from your Cuttlebug set, plus one from the third largest die. Alternatively you could use a flower punch. The flowers will sit better if the plum haze design is printed onto cardstock. This helps to give it more body for mounting onto your project. Cut a 1” circle from the yellow haze paper. Using your computer print your chosen sentiment onto the yellow circle, ink the edges and glue to the largest Cuttlebug flower that you cut previously. Apply a piece of 3D foam to the back of the sentiment flower. Make up the others using your mini flowers and join together with a brad. These can be placed on the front of your notebook as an added embellishment. It helps if you cut into the die cut flowers slightly and curl the petals a little. Attach to the front of your notebook.

14 – To complete your notebook, cut and punch your insert pages. Using 20 pages of good quality photocopy paper 120gsm in weight cut 80 sheets from A4 paper to measure ¼” less in length and width than your covers so that they will sit inside the covers when the notebook is bound. To punch the inserts use the same method as for the covers – this will keep them lined up perfectly. Using a section of 5/8ths” binding wire for this size notebook (you will need six complete ‘loops’) lay the covers and pages in this order: 1 – back – right side facing. 2 – front – wrong side facing. 3 – pages. Hook the wires through the punched holes with the closed edge facing you. Check that you have your patterns the right way round before you complete this section.

15 – Set the Bind-It-All to the correct depth – 5/8ths” using the guide that comes with the machine. Insert the spine of your book into the Bind it All and press firmly to close the wires.

16 – Your notebook is complete.

17 – To make the coordinating greeting card score and fold the A5 piece of cardstock to make an A6 card.Round off the two corners at the bottom edge of the card front and back. Cut a 3” circle from the plaid background paper. Cut a 2½” circle from the yellow haze background paper. Ink the edges of the circles with ink and mat them together. Stamp and cut out the Angel image. Colour to suit your project. I used water- colour pencils. Take a piece of the heart background paper ¾” x 1¾” and round off the edges on one side only. Mount onto the plum haze background paper. Round off the edges in the same way. Attach a flower cut from the plum haze paper to a mini MM flower (neutral) with a brad and secure to the tab you have made through both layers of paper. Position the mats onto the centre of your card (landscape orientation). Glue the tab onto the top left hand side of the card.

18 – Make a matching bookmark 55 x 170mm (2¼” x 6½”). Print the yellow haze background from the Littlest Angel set onto cardstock. Stamp an angel image onto cardstock – I chose the’ Love ‘angel. I cut round the image and coloured her to suit the project. Using your computer print your chosen sentiment or verse on the bottom half of the bookmark to allow for positioning your angel image later. Punch a hole at the top of the bookmark and round off the corners with your corner punch.

19 – Using 3D foam pads attach the angel image near the top of the bookmark. Attach a tassel or toning ribbon or fibres through the punched hole.