Altered Notepad Tutorial!

During this week's Tuesday Stamp club we worked on two projects, the first of which is this altered notepad. Tasha Enderby presented a similar project at a demo meeting last year (a very cute project, I might add) and then I was once again checking out Angi Juda's site and found a video tutorial for this project that was slightly different from the one Tasha presented. I thought I'd combine the best of both! While you can see an excellent video tutorial on Chic'N Scratch, I'm going to try to create my own step-by-step pictorial. Have some patience as you view the photos as the lighting at my craft desk is horrible!
Here's a close-up of the top of the pad. Simple but pretty!

For the local folks, POPS printing on Ramstein Air Base will cut legal size pads for you, with three long pads possible from one large pad. I paid $1.50 to have five pads cut (it's 50 cents a cut but they were able to stack all five together and cut them in just three cuts. That comes out to 10 cents a pad for 15 notepads...not bad!) If they're not busy, they'll cut them while you wait. POPS is located in the 435th Services building across from Mom's Video. Okay, for the rest of you folks, you can visit your local mom and pop printing place or Staples/OfficeMax and they should be able to cut them as well. I had them cut to 3" x10" so I could fit the background piece from a standard 8 1/2 x 11" piece of cardstock.

Cut your notepad base to 3 1/2" x 10 1/2" and randomly stamp your background image along the edges. I used the new In Color Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Up! cardstock for the base with matching ink for a tone-on-tone look; sponge edges if desired and set the base piece aside.

Cut your color layer 2 3/4" by 1 3/4" and the white layer 2 1/2" x 1 1/2". Adhere the back of the white layer and apply to the color layer. Adhere a piece of 3/4" x 1 1/2" Designer Series Paper to one side of the white layer. Center and stamp your sentiment on the white layer; set aside.

Cut cardstock 3" x 4 1/4": score at 2" and 2 1/4". Fold along score lines to make foldover piece for top of notepad.

Apply dimensionals to the back of the previously layered piece and adhere to foldover base.

Apply Scor-tape or Sticky Strip to top backside of notepad and the front top strip of the notepad. Remove backing and carefully apply the foldover piece. Do not adhere foldover piece in front to the notepaper! Only apply Scor-tape to the top strip of the notepad so you can still rip your notepaper off the pad when your project is finished.

Once the foldover piece is adhered to the notepad, apply long strips of Scor-Tape to the back of the notepad as shown. Removed the adhesive backing, center the notepad over the base, and adhere to the cardstock base.

Voila! Your notepad is nicely secured to the base and now you're ready for some added embellishment.

I I stamped a coordinating butterfly from the Great Friend stamp set, trimmed the excess cardstock from the edges and applied the image to the front of the notepad with a dimensional. A dimensional pearl from the SU! Pretties kit was adhered with a mini glue dot. Simple and easy! Thanks for patiently going through each step. Please let me know what you thought of my maiden tutorial voyage...suggestions are always welcome! Happy crafting!