"Anything but..." Tea Party

This week's tea party hostess, Susan Liles, of Susiestampalot's blogspot, threw out this challenge:

Stamp anything except a card.

Wow! ANYthing???

I was tempted to stamp a "tattoo" on Mr. Eli, take a picture, and say, "There!"  But whenever I go to the flippant side of life, even a little bit, it always comes back to haunt me... Besides, Mr. Eli has enough "cleverly cool" ideas on his own.

In the hopes of taking a more serious approach, I put on my thinking cap and got to work -- A domino necklace?  Naw, expected.  A laminated bookmark?  Nope, too much like a card.  A tin?  Good idea, but with all the irons in my fire, a little too messy.  Hmmmm....

Then over the weekend, I was quickie shopping through the local Dollar Tree when I spied a cute, little, hard covered, spiral-bound notebook.

Now, I happen to be a notebook freak, so I just had to stop, and take a better look... Hey not bad!  "Square" is different, and I actually LIKE the basic cover and the inside paper (rare for me to like both)... and don't I already have some brown/blue spotted ribbon???  Oh, yeah baby, this was it! 

The only things I didn't like about it were the bon bon box motif (I think that's what you call it) in the front cover's lower, right corner, and the nasty bar code imprinted on the back cover... Yuck!

THAT's where the stamping, and a little paper magic came into play...

I chose one of the pooches from the ABC-Dog Daze set because I already had him cut out, and I chose the "happy memory" saying from WD-39 Friends Listen because I wanted a one-liner which could fit on the notebook's pink strip.

The pooch got colored and embellished (embroidery thread bow and teeny heart i.d. tag from a Fiskars hand punch), and the saying got stamped and embossed directly onto the notebook's cover.  Due to a slight warping, it was difficult to stamp with even pressure, but since I bought only the one notebook, a single try was all I had... Good enough!

Next came that brown/blue spotted ribbon, applied with permanent double-stick tape, the layered scalloped circle punches (by Punch Bunch), and the punched flowers (PBMD2, PBS2, and PBS5).  I couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to order the three colors, so I actually punched one of each size from each color, and played mix it - match it... Yes, friends, sometimes I annoy myself!

I wanted the notebook to remain very functional, so I opted not to add too much bulk with brads or to tie ribbon along the spiral binding.

For the back, I covered that hideous, bar code imprint with a small library pocket, and fitted the pocket with a double-sided tag.  I figure if given as a gift, this would make a nice place to write a special message.  It would also make a good place to index the contents of the notebook, or record a few dates, etc. 

As you can see, the tag was embellished with some more spotted ribbon, and the pocket with one more punched flower.  Again, I tried to keep things as flat as possible.

In addition to Susan L., smART Cookies attending the "Anything but..." tea party are:  Donna, Dina, and Heidi.  I have no idea what each of them decided to stamp, but it certainly will be fun to take a look...

Please Note:  Trish's father-in-law passed away unexpectedly Monday night, so please be in prayer for her and hers while they are faced with this time of sadness.

Comments

[Donna]

Hey! I love the tattoo idea...wish I'd thought of it myself! Your notebook it pretty cool too, though. I agree with Heidi...I love that you kept the base and added to it.

[Michelle Adams]

Love it! Thanks for the inspiration!!!

[Heidi K]

How cute! What a fantastic transformation!! It was nice how you kept the 'base' and just added some good stuff!