I was at Office Depot last night buying labels and found the cutest thing. It’s a notepad in a plastic case and the pen is what holds it closed. It’s brilliant! I have a notebook in my purse now now but after a while it gets torn and messed up plus I have to search my bag for a pen because there’s no place on the notebook to hook a pen to… am I weird that this bothers me?
Anyway, I bought this little beauty for $1.99. Not feeling it’s too beautiful though…

So I decided to customize it with my logo and one of my favorite crafty products, Mod Podge!

1. Print out logo, image or desired text. (This would be cute with photos too, don’t you think?) Trim paper to fit the top of the box. (I cut mine just a tiny bit smaller)
2. Ink edges of paper if you want a more distressed look. Once you start brushing the Mod Podge on though, this ink may move a little depending on what kind you used. I liked how mine turned out but you might want to seal the ink first with spray fixitive.
3. Lay down a fairly thick coat of ModPodge on the top of the plastic case (following directions on bottle). I used a paintbrush to apply it because it was a small project but check to make sure there are no stray paintbrush hairs on your surface before it starts drying. Mine was shedding all over the place!
4. Center and place paper image on top of box. Add another coat of Mod Podge on top of the paper. Let dry for 30 minutes or so. Layer on one or two more coats, allowing drying time in between.
5. Add a crystal or two- this really makes the project! It can be glued or affixed with a heated tip tool.
6. Hard to see in the photo but I also added a crystal to the end of the pen and colored it with a Copic marker to color coordinate! Love it!

This technique will work with any plastic container so feel free to start personalizing kid’s school items, household storage containers, craft totes, gift boxes, recycled Crystal Light containers or whatever you have around the house.

I am excited to have a personalized pen and pad right on hand and easy to grab when a creative inspiration hits me!

Until a few days ago, it was still quite warm here in Northern Virginia. This weekend was rainy, then cool. Tonight I put the blanket on the bed. Next item of business will be switching out summer clothes for winter. That means it’s officially fall and thoughts turn to Halloween. Last year I participated in Alexa Westerfield‘s Terroriffic Tuesday’s, where she gathers her creative buddies and posts a bunch of Halloween projects every Tuesday. I don’t want to say this too loud but Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I think all those years of getting 4 kids in costumes just wore me out. But nevertheless, here I am with a project!

This is a somewhat spooky card holder which I made using one of my Sizzix ScoreBoard dies, the Notebook Pocket, and cutting it from black matboard. The ghost and letters are other Sizzix dies, designed by my friend Brenda Pinnick. I love the expression on the ghost’s face 🙂 I found this swirly thin papery material in my stash and can’t remember where I got it but it was white. I sprayed it with Clearsnap’s Smooch Spritz in purple, green and gold, mixing them together. After towelling off the excess, I sprayed spray adhesive on the back and adhered it to my Notebook Pocket. After inking around the edges in black, I adhered “Eek” and bumped up the little ghost with pop dots. I finished it off with some rust ribbon as a handle and pompom trim. After I adhered the trim, I realized the orange was a little too bright (actually I smudged some black ink on by mistake first). Then I took my black Copic marker and kind of scribbled over the pompoms and I do like the more subtle look. Another happy accident!

The card was one of a batch I found while cleaning. I made them from some fun primitive (and somewhat creepy) paper I found a while ago. Then I printed simple Hallween saying on vellum and adhered them to the front. The card bases were all done in muted fall colors. Stop by next week for another project!

It’s been a while since I asked: Have you joined The Hive yet? It’s like Facebook for crafters. Lots of cool ideas, challenges and ways to get involved and interact with some cool peeps! Click here to join and don’t forget to check out the Sizzix group.

Stay warm!

Did I mention being snowed in for a week? Here’s a project that I did while held captive by the storm.

This week I finished doing my taxes! Normally, I file my receipts in a gray metal file box. But usually they collect in a pile on my desk for a while in case I need to return something. So I decided to use this pretty box on my desk for temporary storage.

The box was found for $1.50 in my favorite thrift store, the Closet. First, I spray painted the box with aqua Krylon. I decided to experiment with my Copic markers and glitter. I used 2-3 values of each color in red/pink and green. It was really fun to just play with the markers and kind of scribble and blend the colors as I went on the raised flower section. After I colored it, I added Stickles on top for a little glitter. OK, I’ll admit it was hard to stop once I got going… but really, can you HAVE too much glitter?

I like how this project came out. It’s definitely much neater to look at than stacks of store receipts, plus everything is in one spot for when I am ready to file it all.