MIM #167: DIY Notebooks

Even though it's only been a week, it feels great to play with paper again! Erin Lincoln has a terrific challenge for Make it Monday #167: DIY Notebooks. Head over to Capture the Moment to check out her video tutorial and join in the fun.

I pulled out my first ever PTI stamp set for this quick little project. Yes, it was the Take Note stamp set that sucked me into the stamping world, although I didn't really dive into card making until a couple of years later. 

A few pieces of Library Ledger papers were cut and stamped with Aqua Mist images to make the notebook pages.

I followed Erin's instructions closely until it came to adding the cover.

I left the back cover a litte longer so that it wrapped back up the front of the pages. A vase die was selectively cut to provide a tab on this piece.

A paranthesis was cut out from the front panel to provide a slot for the tab, allowing the notebook to close completely.

I left my craft room and family last week to indulge in exploring a new (to me) city. A few months ago my oldest BFFs and I co-ordinated the schedules, set dates and booked flights for a trip to Chicago. We thought the hard part was done (it takes work to get flights from 4 different cities to land within 30 minutes of each other!) and then ran into a minor problem: every lovely hotel room in the city was booked for the ASCO. What the heck?! Apparently we picked the weekend that 30,000+ Oncologists take over the town.

While we have been friends for 40+ years and have slept together on everything from basement floors to tents, the minimum standards for our biennial eating/shopping/exploring trip are pretty high and require at least 2 rooms.  I've used VRBO and AirBnB for family trips before, but this is the first time for I've used this type of service for a girlfriend weekend and I'm not sure we will go back to a hotel again. We gave up daily housekeeping, but found a fabulous condo, with 24 hour concierge services, that didn't require sharing rooms and suited us perfectly.

Our sweet Bella is almost fully recovered and thrilled to be free to roam the house again. I had to laugh at my daughter very seriously assessing her last night and determining that there was no reason Bella couldn't sleep in her room once again.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie