Purple Notes ~ Recycle those Rubber Scraps!

Well, today is my youngest son's birthday today...he turns 16! I'm taking him out for Chinese food as soon as he gets home from school today (they have an early dismissal for a teacher in service day). Sooo, not a whole lot of time for art today as I'm also baking a cake, canning some tomatoes and froze some green beans this morning!

I did want to share a notebook with you that I made recently for a friends birthday! It's purple of course and I made it using recycled scraps of rubber from cutting out sheets of unmounted stamps.

Supplies:

Bits & Pieces of waste rubber from unmounted rubber stamp die sheets.

Adirondack Acrylic Dabbers in 3 coordinating colors - Ranger

Ink Blending Tool & Foam - Ranger

Stickles - Ranger

Grungeboard - Advantus

Ribbon - Unknown

Silver Metallic Pen (or other desired color)

Damp Cloth

Ribbon

Chipboard

Bind-It-All machine & wires or other desired binding system

Pages (for inside)

Instructions:

1. Cut 2 sizes of squares or other geometric shapes from the waste rubber from your unmounted sheets of rubber stamps. Test stamp your new square stamps to make sure they look good when layered.

2. Paint the front and back covers of your notepad. I did this by pouncing all 3 of the coordinating colors in different locations on the chipboard pieces then blending with the Ink Blending Tool & Foam. Once you are satisfied with the look let dry.

3. Attach the larger square to an acrylic block. Start applying color by dabbing one of the 3 colors of paint onto the stamp. Press the stamp in the upper left hand corner of the chipboard. Wipe the stamp clean on the damp cloth.

4. Next, apply the second color of paint to the stamp and make the second impression beside the first leaving approx. 1/8" between the two. Wipe the stamp clean.

5. Repeat step #4 using the last of the 3 coordinating colors, stamping beside the 2nd impression. Wipe the stamp clean and repeat alternating paint colors until the entire piece has been covered.

6. Now, repeat the entire process using the smaller stamp and alternating paint colors. Let dry completely.

7. Once the paint has completely dried (very important!!) trace around each of the large and small squares with the Silver Metallic Pen. This does not have to be exact....actually the more sketch it is the better it looks. I started out making perfectly straight lines and didn't like it.... I painted over it and started over - LOL!!

8. You are now ready to assemble the book according to Bind-It-All directions.

9. Paint the Grungeboard wings with the lightest color of paint and highlight with the middle value of paint. Let dry.

10. Paint the Grunge board M (or other desired letter) with the darkest color of paint. Let dry.

11. After the letter has dried apply a layer of Stickles over the entire letter.

12. Curl & adhere the wings on the front cover. Mount the initial over the wings with double stick foam tape.

13. Tie a ribbon around the top and enjoy!

While this is a bit time consuming the finished item is well worth the time it takes to create! I guarantee that anyone who receives this little notebook will be thrilled!!