The Final Product...
The Inspirations...
This is kind of where the quote on the front idea came from
And the stitching idea...
And this is where the color came from...
These are all notebooks from Target... but I took the picture myself from the store.
So this DIY is basically two diys in one. One is a painted notebook and one is a stitched notebook.
Here is what you need:
(for the tie dye one)
any notebook
paint, I recommend acrylic
a paint brush, I used a sponge one
(for the stitching)
a notebook with a cardboard cover, one with a plastic cover will not allow you to stitch
a strong needle
thread, I used gray and split apart some embroidery floss
So for the tie dye part (I had to make it pretty before I detailed it)
This is the notebook I started with...
It was an old notebook from school, but a new one will work
And this was the base color for my notebook...
I did one thin coat...
And another...
And then I realized that the best way to coat the cover was to dab on the paint not to do brush strokes
After a couple more dabbing coats and touch ups I was left with a fully plain covered cover.
And now for the decoration, it's not technically tie dye but it's pretty close.
Using my sponge and some dark blue paint I painted around the border with a dabbing "stroke".
And then I did a dark turquoise with the same technique blending the colors together...
To blend the colors more I added some new turquoise to the center (that was the color that I covered the whole notebook in).
And that is the finished painting...
Now for the stitching part...
You could basically do anything but I did this quote by Henley...
You are going to want to print or draw whatever it is you want to be on the front of your notebook (not draw on your notebook but on a separate piece of paper). I had to rip the edges to place my template on my notebook. The point of the stencil is that you know where you are sewing...
And then you stitch along the lines making sure that you go back over your stitches so that there are not stitching gaps. If you follow one path doing the letter go back over it the opposite way, this will make one solid line.
This is what the back of mine looks like, don't worry if it is messy.
When you are all done you are going to want to peel off the paper...
And you might be left with some little pieces, you can use the point of your needle to poke these out
And don't worry about those strings that have been pulled out you can go on the back and pull in the thread from the back which will fix the problem on the front. You can secure these ends, and you can also cut off some of the excess thread in the back, and secure these with clear tape afterwards...
And you are done to rock your totally new and customizable notebook.
Make sure to make it your own, use your own colors, and your own design, also feel free to one or the other or both together.
