Mother's Day Monogram Notebooks

I must admit, I crammed in preparing my mother’s day gifts. Aside from the card that I made for my mom, I decided to make monogram notebooks as well for my mom and mother-in-law. They are pretty, useful, and very easy to make. I thought my mother-in-law could use a pretty notebook for her Sari-Sari Store entries. Her own notebook looks pretty beat up already. My mom also has an old notebook which she uses for her accounting stuff so I thought she could use a prettier one.

I used the small notebooks I bought from Airees last Christmas. First, I made the mini-envelops. I actually made my own pattern for this. I drew the pattern in MS Powerpoint and printed it on cardstock (I actually made a pattern for a few other envelop sizes, and monograms, too!). I cut it out and traced the shape on a sheet of SEI patterned paper. I made two envelops – one for mom, and one for nanay (mom-in-law). I adhered the envelop on the notebook at an angle.

I created a tag using my Making Memories tag template. I punched a hole and embellished it with a flower eyelet (from My Little Attic). I then tied a ribbon (We R Memory Keepers) through the hole. I wrote my mother’s day greeting and inserted it to the mini envelop.

Then, I used my monogram templates and traced them on a sheet of chipboard (they come free whenever I order paper online!) which I then cut with a craft knife. V for mom Vangie, and L for nanay Lita. I sanded the edges to smoothen them. I applied three coats of blue acrylic paint and lightly sanded after each application. I use the heat gun to speed up the drying process (the tip I got from one of the Pinoyscrapbookers EBs). Then I applied three layers of UTEE for that enamel look. I embellished it with ribbons, fibers and charms before adhering it to the notebook.

There you go, a pretty gift for any occasion that’s sure to be appreciated by the recipient. That’s what I love about scrapbooking. Other than layouts to preserve memories, I get to use the techniques for other purposes like making cards and gifts for special occasions. I love this hobby!!!

Check out the notebooks for my mom and mother-in-law at the MyScrapWorks gallery.