Back to school crafts

With school starting soon I thought I would share a couple back to school themed crafts that I have made.

I made all of these last year so I only have pictures of the finished projects.

The first one I want to share is a decorated tin that would be perfect to give as a teacher gift. 

I used a 3" x 5" metal tin, cardstock, patterned paper, a laminate sample, apple eyelet, apple sticker, chipboard letters, ribbons and some rub-ons.

I did make an accordion insert and left it plain cardstock, no decorations on the insert.

The second craft I want to show is a metal look composition notebook.

I've made a few of these and even made them with my sisters this winter.

This was my first notebook and the one I liked the best.

This one was made with 3" tape that I had in my stash but when I went to buy some more I only

found 2" tape so the rest of my notebooks were made with 2" tape. 

I started out with a basic composition notebook, some metal tape, a sanding block and some re-inkers.

~Cover the front and back of the notebook and like the sample above you can cover a thin chipboard diecut as well to use on top for decoration.  

~Smooth out the tape as best as you can. 

Wrinkles will add to a distressed look so don't worry about them.

~Sand the whole thing going in all directions.  

This takes off the shine and will help the ink stick to the tape to help it look more like stainless steel.

~Put a plastic sheet between the cover and the inside pages and spread ink on the outside cover.  

You want a good coat of ink, maybe 5-10 drops.

~Let it sit for about 2-3 minutes.

~Wipe off the excess ink.

If you want a darker look you can heat set the ink but beware the adhesive on the tape may smoke a bit so do this in a well ventilated area.

I put eyelets in the corners of my die cut and hung a metal embellishment.

  

A view of the back.

I covered the inside of the covers with scrapbook papers attached with glue sticks.

I used a stylus to etch in 'notes' on one of them. 

I think I would have preferred attaching letter stickers under the foil tape. 

You don't have to use only black re-inkers.  Here is one I made and used pink re-inker rather than black. 

 I ended up making a green one for my daughter and a purple one for her friend so

the colors are only limited to your re-inkers.

Here is one where I put the tape on horizontal instead of vertical. 

I hope this inspires you to decorate those notebooks. 

No need to have a plain notebook.

June

Linking to these parties

What ever goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts

Flaunt it Fridays on Chic on a Shoestring

Tutorial Tuesday with Hope Studios

Trendy Treehouse Creative Share