My Mom organizes a scrapbooking/stamping group for church. Once a month she gets the building for a Saturday so whomever would like to join them can come and work on a project. Mostly there are beginners who don’t have many supplies but want to learn to stamp. So occasionally I help her by designing a project for the ladies to do, and then go to the group and teach it to them. Because this is for church, I only charge what the supplies cost me, and not my usual Stamp Camp fee. This also allows me to share other papers, images, etc. that I love to use that are not Stampin’ Up! The ladies have enjoyed the projects so far, and we all have a blast stamping!

This month I designed a composition book for them to do. I wasn’t sure what project to do this month until I went to Target and got in on the great clearance deal! I had only done composition books once before and they were such a pain that I didn’t want to do them again. I had read some tips, and unfortunately tried using spray adhesive. It was a MESS! The corners turned out lousy because I had to work fast, and they were so sticky and smelly! This time around I was able to get some great tips from my HYENa friends at splitcoaststampers.

I love the Fall and I am getting very excited for the time of year to change. I found this paper by Bo-Bunny Press from their Shabby Princess Collection called Harvest Table at my local scrapbook store. I love the colors and pattern, so I got what sheets they had. I already had the idea to use the big image from Thoroughly Thankful because I thought the ladies would enjoy coloring it in, and the pattern on the paper is perfect because it does not overpower the image.

I stamped the image with my Palette Hybrid Inkpad and used my reinkers and Aquapainters to color the it in. I wasn’t certain they would want to watercolor, but since this was going to be mine I went ahead and did it. I’m getting better at watercoloring and I was really pleased with how this turned out. I brought all the inkpads with me so they could try watercoloring if they wanted to, and to my surprise all of them tried it and loved it! I then distressed the sides and did some faux stitching on the Old Olive mat. Then I used my craft knife to cut a slit for the ribbon, made a monogram tag, attached it to the safety pin with a jump ring and pinned it thru the knot. I didn’t have enough wide ribbon to cover the spine of the composition book, so I made sure that I used black as an accent color to tie it in. The inside is lined with Old Olive cardstock.

There were new ladies at the group this time, and they all enjoyed making the project. One even had her Jr. High aged grandson with her and he was excited to make one of these composition books, too! He was there scrapbooking his birthday at Pirate Adventure and I couldn’t get over the fact that he was there enjoying papercrafting! It is something he does together with his grandma and that just tickles me! So I have learned that you never know who will show up to the classes!