Upcycled Notebook - Print & Cut with Cameo

Today I have a different sort of project to share with you.  When I taught the class at the Community Center, I was asked if I could "fix up" a book for visitors to the Art Space (where my work is hanging right now) to leave comments.  Apparently the old book got filled up or was misplaced, so a new book was needed.

 This plain spiral bound book was given to me as the starting point, along with the newspaper clipping of some art tools in the photo below.

I am not sure exactly where this image came from but it looks like fairly standard clip art.  I decided I could adapt it and make it more colorful for the book.

The first step was to edit my photo to create an image with high contrast.  I needed to make it easy to trace in the Silhouette Studio software.  I used the Creative Memories Memory Manager 3.0 software to do this (on sale this month for only $25.97).

I brought the image into the Silhouette Studio software, traced the shape and did some node editing to produce areas that could be individually colored.  Then I created two labels for the front of the book and for the inside pocket.  The label shapes are from the free set of images in the basic Silhouette software.  The words are typed using a font on my computer.  I used a rectangle sized to fit the cover to check the scale of the images I was creating.

When I had everything sized properly, I placed the images on the mat to fit an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of white cardstock.  I added the registration marks and printed the page on my regular home printer.

After I printed the page, I placed it on the mat and loaded it into the Silhouette Cameo.  These are my perfectly cut out images.

Here is the leftover white cardstock on the mat.  The small square and the two "L" shapes in the top right and bottom left corners are the registration marks.  The machine reads these automatically before cutting out the images.

The colors were all added in the Silhouette Studio program, including the color gradient on the paintbrush tip.  The background is a print called "newspaper grunge" which was one of the weekly freebies on the Silhouette site.  I created the shadow layer using the offset feature in the program.

I chose bright yellow for the cover so it would be easy to spot in the gallery area.  I made sure to use plenty of strong adhesive and paid particular attention to the edges since the book will be handled a lot.  If I was creating the book, instead of adapting an existing book, I might have laminated the covers but I think this will hold up just fine.

There was an inside pocket on the notebook so I thought this would be a nice place to hold some cards from the exhibiting artist in case people had questions about the work on display.

The same bright yellow base cardstock, font and label shape makes the inside match the cover.

The last detail was to add a pen that would stay attached to the book (the pens for visitor books always seem to wander off!).  I cut a length of ribbon and added some Scor-Tape to one side.  Then I wrapped it around the pen cap several times to secure it.

I used some more Scor-Tape on the other end of the ribbon and fastened it to the inside back cover.

I dropped the book off at the Community Center last Friday so it will be ready for any visitors who come by today.  I was able to do the project quickly and easily with the Silhouette software.  If you have any questions about how I did this, just leave a comment and I'll try to post a more detailed explanation.

It is raining cats and dogs here, but we really need the rain so I am trying not to complain.  At least we got one good weekend day - Saturday was beautiful!

I did a lot of experimenting with pens this weekend - and got some interesting results... I'll be posting more about that soon.

Have a wonderful Monday. 

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