How to Make a Checkbook Cover

To make this checkbook cover I started with two floral surface designs that I had painted, but scrapbook paper works equally well. I used my laser printer to copy my designs onto card stock. I transferred the template I made onto my floral copy, scored the lines that have the little hatch marks using a ruler and a bone folder, and then assembled the piece with a a glue stick. Very fun!

I Love Orange

My husband and I went to the Golden Nugget Flea Market in Lambertville, NJ last weekend and the last thing I expected to come home with was a flat of tubular begonias, gerber daisies and herbs. I couldn't resist all the beautiful oranges. I drew a flower on this cinnamon colored paper, copied my drawing onto glossy card stock, cut out the shape and used a button to sew it onto a hand band.

Paper Wallet

Create your own decorative paper and turn it into a wallet! Yesterday when I was walking I picked a bunch of weeds along the side of the road. I came home and arranged them on the surface of the printer and hit "copy". I took my print and cut out an opening to create the pocket that holds credit cards, folded the sheet of paper in half horizontally and then in half again. I used glue stick to seal the ends and made the last fold to form the wallet.

make your own notebooks

Last week I made a bunch of gelatin prints without any definite plans for using them. I've always liked the idea of stitching sheets of paper together with my sewing machine, so I decided to make little notebooks using the prints for the covers. I stitched sheets of computer paper to the print with my machine and then attached a piece of white chip board to the last page using glue stick. This would be an easy project to do with children. You don't need to limit yourself to using gelatin prints for the cover, but it is a fun process and I have instructions here and illustrations of the process here.