Best Friend Birthday Duo

Tomorrow is my best friend Michele's birthday. To celebrate the special day, I got tickets for us to go see comedian Kathy Griffin at the Kennedy Center in DC, but wanted to give her something crafty, too. So, I made her this decorated notebook and matching card.

The notebook is a kraft-covered spiral notebook from Target's office supply section. These notebooks are really easy to alter because they have a brightly colored accent strip along the binding that doesn't need to be covered, so you don't need to worry about punching holes in paper and lining it up with the coils to put on the front. I covered the notebook with a piece of patterned paper from Basic Grey's Phoebe line. The magenta in the paper matched nicely with the accent piece on the notebook. To hide where the paper meets the accent strip, I attached a strip of brown velvet ribbon along the seam.

The "m" is one of the On Board Simon chipboard lowercase letters, covered in Soft Sky cardstock. I used a new pencil eraser dipped in white craft ink to make the dots on the "m." I accented the "m" with a dotted Prima flower with a rhinestone brad at the center.

The card is a slight variation on the "joy fold" card seen on SCS. I decided orient the card vertically instead of horizontally and to position the small flap off-center, closer to the right side of the card. The piece with the girl and cake image (from Living Large) actually flips UP, while the piece with the pattered paper flips DOWN to open. The card uses the same Basic Grey paper as the notebook and similar cardstock colors, too. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils, then added some Stickles to the birthday candle flames. Cute!

My new Stampin' Up! stuff arrived late today. Be sure to check back tomorrow for something (not sure exactly what yet) using my new stamps . . .

Materials Used:

From Stampin' Up!: Living Large stamp set; Basic Black Classic ink; White Craft ink; Rose Red, Close to Cocoa, Soft Sky, and Whisper White cardstock; mat pack and paper piercing tool; chocolate grosgrain; 1" circle punch; On Board Simon lowercase chipboard letter

Other: patterned paper (Basic Grey's Phoebe line); notebook (Target); pink flower (Prima); rhinestone brad (Making Memories); copper brads (Making Memories); velvet ribbon (Michaels); Diamond Stickles (Ranger)