Fingerprinted Notepads

For all of Ayla's grandparents gifts this Christmas/Hanukah, we made a handmade (literally) project that was very easy to do and turned out to be a great afternoon activity for me and Ayla to do together. 

We used Ayla's fingerprints and stamping ink to design three flowers.  Then I went back with a pen and outlined the fingerprints to define the flowers a little better and signed her name. 

Next, I scanned each of the flowers and created a Word document for each design that could be cut into 4 to make little notepad pages.

I printed about 25 copies of each flower (making 100 pages of each design).  Next, I cut the printed pages into the individual pages (which ended up being 4 1/4" x 5 1/2").  With all the designs printed and cut, I assembled 7 booklets (one for each set of grandparents and great-grandparents), alternating red, blue and pink flower designs.  The final booklets had about 40 pages each. 

To make the notepad more sturdy, I cut pieces of cardboard to 4 1/4" x 6 1/2" and scored and folded the top edge at 1/2" and 3/4" to create a little cardboard flap to fold around the stack of pages and cover the entire back of the notepad.

I used a stapler to staple the pages together and then hot-glued the pad inside the cardboard flap, but I think a heavy-duty stapler through the cardboard AND the papers would have been a better choice...I just didn't have a heavy-duty stapler to use at the time!

Next, I added a thin yellow bow around the top edge, glued a piece of patterned paper to the back, added few magnets and finally a little "made by" square, including another fingerprinted heart by Ayla.

Great handmade, easy project!

 

6 comments so far:

Tanya said:

I'm pretty sure you can use paper cement on the top edge of the pad and achieve the same effect as a machine made one where the gummy stuff up top keeps the pages from falling out. This way you could ditch the staples. The kids could apply it themselves as well. Low temp hot glue on the edge may work also. This is a super cute, easy and practical gift. Thanks for the inspiration!

Lee said:

LOVE this! Can't wait to try it.

LesleMora said:

What a cute idea!  They came out great!

Prlinehan said:

Very cute...I'm going to file that one away for mother's day!

elizbailey said:

Such a great idea!  I love the Mother's Day idea!

acmickelson said:

Wow. Those are some lucky grandparents. I love it.

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