Books can be fancy too

Let' be honest and say that most people do indeed judge a book by it's cover.  Some are attractive, and some sure could use a little flare.  I'm the kinda gal that likes flare so here's one way I came up with that on a simple book.

In this case, I wanted to dress up a Book of Mormon ( I am my ward's new Young Women's camp leader and had to come up with a couple of easy crafts so that's why I chose this particular book)

It's super easy and requires minimal materials and even less talent.  So here we go:

After picking out what paper I wanted to use, I measured it to the book to make sure it would cover it completly.  Then, I smeared glue from a glue stick all over the front.  I did insert a sheet of scrap paper in between the cover and other pages just so the glue didn't get on them and stick the whole book together.

Then I placed the paper on the glued side.  So far so good right.  Then as I went around the spine of the book, I creased the paper a bit so I would get a nice fit and then continued gluing like crazy.

I had a little excess paper but instead of cutting it off, I wrapped it on the inside and thought if would be a great place to personalize it with the date or whatever you wanted.

So here is the book all covered and dried.

I wanted to ad an embellishment or two so I hot glued some ribbon on it in case you ever wanted to tie it together.

Added a title that I just printed out on my computer

and the final touch was a flower or two.  At Robert's crafts they have these cute flowers that can be painted, chalked or glittered but they are not paper.  I decided to very lightly touch mine up with some pink just to accent it a bit, and then hot glued it on too.

And there you have it.  A book that looks like a good one to read, right. 

Or at least looks good to just carry around.

Trendy Vinyl Covers

I found the cutest blog called Vinylicious Designs and they have the funnest vinyl notebook covers, scripture totes, baby bibs, check book covers and so much more.  I think they are so creative.  I remember seeing them at a local craft fair and fell in love in an instant. If I weren't crazy like I am, I would totally have bought one.  But, me being me, looked at it, studied it and figured I'd try it myself.  And I did. Here are a few pictures of some that Vinylicious Designs made, and I copied.  I totally give them the credit for my creative experiement.

 

I found that all you needed to do was find some good quality vinyl at your local fabric store and get enough for the project you need.  I decided to cover an 8" x 10" notebook to give to my nieces and nephews for their birthdays.  So I measured........

Enough to cover the outside of the book and make two inside flaps..............

And then sewed it together using a zig zag stich. The embelishments on the front can be sewn on, or if you want, get out your trusty glue gun and glue away. 

And if you're lucky enough, you get a little helper to come in and supervise your progress.

(Isn't he cute)