Library Lending Journal (Altered Composition Book)

Hi, everyone! Rebecca (ReboScraps) here to tell you about my latest hybrid project, a Library Lending Journal.

I have a friend who has probably a couple thousand books in his library. He generously (and often!) lends them out, and when he does, he keeps track of it by writing it on a sticky note.

And another sticky note.

You get the idea! I thought I would set him up with a Lending Journal where he can keep track of all his book-lending in one place.

Here’s the supplies I used for this project

Composition Book – here in the U.S., these are easy to find in the office or school supplies section of many stories. If you shop at back-to-school time, you can pick them up at a great price!
Mod Podge
Foam Brush
Scissors
Duct Tape, in a coordinating color
Old Timer digital kit by Etc by Danyale
On My Desk Kit by Viva Artistry and Etc by Danyale

First, I made my digital design. The cover of a composition book is basically a rectangle, so I just measured it and drew a box in Photoshop Elements at that size. Then I made it 1/4″ bigger all around, to allow for some trimming later. Just make sure you keep your design a bit away from the edges. I designed my project on 2 letter-size canvases (8.5″x11″), here’s what the digital design looked like:

Then I trimmed my pages along the sides of the design and mod-podged it on to the composition book. This picture isn’t the greatest, but it shows that my paper is sticking out a bit from all sides of the cover.

Once the Mod-Podge had set a bit, I attached the second cover and then, after it was dried enough to not wiggle around, I trimmed the excess paper off with regular scissors. I let that set for a while, maybe 30 minutes, and then I added Mod-Podge to the top of the covers. I set the open book on a “stand” for it to dry completely. I left it like this overnight. The black you see is the original spine of the composition book, I will cover that in the next step.

I used Duct Tape in a tan color to cover the spine, so it would match the book, and… here is the finished book (but don’t stop reading yet! there is one more finishing touch!)

This was a birthday gift for my friend, and along with it, I gave him a rubber stamp he can use to stamp inside his books, it says “From the Library of….” I’ve seen stamps like this in ads, but there is a website where you can submit your own design (I made mine in Photoshop) for much less! I ordered mine from http://rubberstamps.net/.

I don’t/The Hybrid Chick doesn’t have any affiliation with them, I just think it’s awesome that you can design your own rubber stamps for a great price! I also used the stamp design in the cover design of the altered book so it is a coordinated set.

Library Lending Journal (Altered Composition Book)

Other Articles by ReboScraps:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply