Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tuesday Tutorial: A reading log mini

Hello there! It's Nathalie here today to share a step-by-step tutorial to create a mini reading log. Whether it is lounging by the pool, at the beach or on my own patio, I love to catch up on my reading during the summer... and the next best thing is keeping track of the books I read (I also make layouts at the end of each year with the full recap).
I am using this log for my summer reads but it can by done at any time of course, or given along with a book as a gift...

logopen

I used the July main kit "Sail Away", the embellishment kit "Go Girl" and the stamp add-on "Five Star".
You will need:
- patterned paper (can be scraps)
- library cards
- embellishments for your cover
- brad
- stamps

A note regarding the library cards: the ones I used are real ones from my stash. You can find them on Etsy, choose to make your own or you can easily find printable ones, like these. A search for free printable library cards on Pinterest, yielded lots of results.

1/ Cut the front and back covers out of patterned paper to the exact size of your library cards. Mine are 3x5 inches:
logtutorial1

2/ Cut a smaller piece of patterned paper to fit on your cover. Mine is roughly 2.75x4x75. Round the corners and sew (optional):
logtutorial2

3/ Print a quote onto copy paper and trim to about 1x1 inch to fit behind one of the veneer frames from the embellishment kit:
logtutorial3

4/ Place the little frame on your cover along with your other embellishments. I added a tag, a brad, sequins and a little heart stamp:
logtutorial4

5/ With the awesome "Five Star" stamp add-on and black ink, add "I rate this" and five stars onto each library card:
logtutorial5

6/ Now put everything together in order:
logtutorial6

7/ Line up everything and make a hole through both covers and the cards towards the bottom right corner. Bind everything together with a brad and you are done:
logtutorial7

But I couldn't stop there so I decided to also make a quick bookmark to match! 
Simply cut a piece of patterned paper to 1.75x6.5 inches. Make a hole on top and add a hole reenforcement. String a few veneer and metal embellies on twine and attach to the hole. Add a couple small paper strips towards the bottom and another little veneer frame with a stamped paper behind it:

readinglog+bookmark

As always with our tutorials, feel free to ask any questions you might have in the comments. Thank you and happy scrapping!

3 comments:

  1. such a great idea Nathalie!!
    I love the way you document your reading, I always feel that I can't remember the titles of books I've read... ;)

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  2. I LOVE this Nathalie! :) I like to document all the books that I read too. Have you heard of goodreads.com? It's a good way to document and rate all the books you've read and also to find how others rate the books you want to read.

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  3. Brilliant project! I'm going to use this to document my latest reading challenge.

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