From creative ME to LOTS of creative YOU's - notebook cover design

So this post was preceded with some random and not so random thought on NOTEBOOK COVER DESIGN, and notebooks in general. I do love cute covers, it happens quite some time to me to want to buy a notebook because of cute cover design. But actually I'm more kind of girl who buys virgin/BLANK/whatever stationery, and thrift/buy/collect/recycle all the possibly appropriate embellishments – hoping to find some ideas how to PERSONALIZE the covers accordingly to the filling. 

As for now my subjects are pretty simple and just around the corner – like family randomness that makes me happy, upcoming garden beauties (still under snow, but hopefully not that long), good things that happen, cute thoughts of my little girl on life and on other „big“ subjects, and so on... and it's quite fun. So I have some notebooks and loose pages that I'd like to arrange and create covers for them. 

Do you know what turns me off from buying the ready-made notebooks? Silly little things, like too white paper (I like cream, and textured, and recycled, and mixed), too small, too big, too many pages, binding is tacky, or not functional, page layout is boring, pretty on the inside, but why-the-heck-that-silly-cover – see, that's why I'm almost NEVER buying notebooks – I'm difficult to satisfy, and there's ALWAYS something bugging me. 

So yes, this time it seems that I've FINALLY FOUND some blank pocket size notebooks with – YES!- cream paper and craft cardboard cover. A bit small, but I could live with that. 

So covers... With all this in mind I've been thinking/creating/arranging COVER LAYOUTS. To make them as gifts or for sale. And I did spent some time with that, till the moment when I've realized, that it would be much more fun preparing the CREATIVE KITS instead of finishing them completely by myself. If I woudn't buy a notebook, but rather spend my money on a randomly arranged DIY-package to create it on my own, why would I propose those ready-mades for sale? So I thought of MORE FLEXIBILITY, and do-it-yourself concept. 

Here's the idea of upcoming project: see all the little pocket notebooks that I've made? Of course I can sell them, but I'm thinking of making a DIY-kit on cover design. 

So you get here enough stuff to personalize appr. 5 notebooks (in my example three) – I would say the kits would include 4-5 fabric birds, a lino carved stamp, about 8 tags (coloured, cream, and textured paper), a couple of papers like silk paper or any other textured paper, some stripes to put the journal title on, then a couple of sheets with hand printed motifs – as you see here – the floral print with fabric texture, printed on cream paper. 

ALL YOU NEED IS:

• a notebook of your liking – mines are pocket size 9 x 14 cm. Take a bigger one, if you prefer. I recommend one with absorbant cover (better for stamping), not a glossy one.
• double-sided adhesive tape - for clean glueing without glue drops squeezed out. 

So you can either use the kit exclusively, or mix it up with supplies and paper that you might already have – both ways are fun and exciting. 

Then take your time and GO CREATE:

1. Cover background design - cut all the papers in smaller pieces and arrange them randomly on covers. Take tags, scraps of textured papers, printed paper. 
2. Cover background design with STAMPS - you can also STAMP THE WHOLE COVER or only a part of it. You can STAMP ON PAPER and add them as well to the background.
3. Cut the stripes in smaller pieces and WRITE YOUR TITLE DOWN. Put them on the front. 
4. Add the BIRD. 

I'd say we're done, but feel free to add any other elements that are appealing to you. 

Of course the kits cannot be comprehensive, we all have different likings for colours, shapes, etc. They are even not comprehensive for me, and there're endless possibilities to add or vary this or that, but they are completing my "Forest friends"-LINE and it's pretty enough for now. 

This kit is featuring birds and flowers, other ones would be focused on bears/rabbits etc - following the "FOREST FRIENDS"-Line.

In next days I'm gonna work on some other ideas to share about how to use them, and figure out what those kits would include exactly, what would they cost. Stay tuned!