I made these for my craft fairs last year too and sold out of them so y'know--had to make more! (I sell them for $7 if you're curious. When I sell them alone, the beaded pens go for $2.50.) I always stick with Stampin' Up! designer papers, ribbon & stamps for these because everything coordinates easily,which saves me a lot of time when creating in bulk.
The first set is from the retired Rockabilly Specialty Paper (with tweeners in mind). My seven year old son wants the rock star one of course. That stamp is from the "Little Something" retired hostess set.
This second set uses the retired Good Morning Sunshine paper & coordinating stamp ("Cheep Talk") & retired rub-ons. I also used the Scallop Circles #2 die & the Circle Scissors Plus.
This last one uses the retired Raspberry Tart paper and more dies--SU! Birds & Blooms Sizzlet and SU! Sweetest Stem embosslit.Few nitty gritties...some people make these by folding the paper over and then covering the inside covers. I simply cut very close to the edge, adhere (with SU! glue sticks), trim off excess and sand the edges. My 5 year old daughter has a notebook I made a year ago and it's withstood her um, lack of order without coming apart so I stand by my methods. My year old pen has held up well too.
I use Pentel RSVP pens--some people roll the paper up and insert it inside the pen. I didn't think you could see much of the paper, so I use sticky tape (the 1 1/2" wide Scor-Tape) to adhere it to the outside of the clear barrel and then use the tape again to adhere the ribbon & then clear micro-beads. SU! now sells Sticky Sheets so you could also cut those to size and use them too. Be sure not to adhere the bottom of the pen while making these because then you can't open them to refill the ink (one of the main selling points of these pens!) Also, add the paper & tape with the cap on--otherwise, you might not be able to close it all the way if you take it off. I also use sticky tape (the 1/4" kind) to adhere my ribbon to the notebooks.
Finally, I love to add some final bling to my images so if you look closely, you'll see I added Stickles to the first two sets and colored half-back pearl embellishments to the last one.
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If you only knew! I was going to try to make these this past week and decided that I needed those little microbeads to do it. I made journals - I really like yours, though, and I wanted to make those pens. I love all these sets! Thanks for all of your tips. I will try to put those little microbeads on my next demo order - I have the colored beads that you buy at the store, but I'm afraid they will be too large.
ReplyDeleteValerie--I've used colored (metallic) microbeads I've bought at Michael's before. They sell them in those little packs of 2 vials. You can't see through them, of course--you need the clear ones for that. If the beads have holes, then yes, they probably are too big.
ReplyDeleteHello there !! I stumbled upon this blog page through a google search. I am very interested in your product. I am doing a conference for 150-200 women and we want to give them all a notebook and pen. Would you want to make that many of them? Could you do a smaller notebook and bring the price down? Just thought I would throw that out there to you! If interested post a reply and I'll check back!!..........laura
ReplyDeleteHi Laura...Well, if you have a price in mind, I can let you know what I could make for that...a smaller notebook would be cheaper of course & so would just using paper on the pens instead of adding the microbeads (that & the adhesive is where the expense lies). They make "mini composition books" so you could see if that size works for you. Send me an email through the contact above with more details on what you have in mind, when you'd need it by & I can tell you better what I could do. Thanks for your interest! Julie
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