All of this back to school hullabaloo has got me thinking about books. Books are one of the hardest areas to de-clutter, I find. The good ones never really lose their value, and since each one is a reflection of me at some point, I figure they all must be good ones, right? I’m slowly winnowing out the ones that I’ll never use again, the ones that make me feel unpleasant things, and the ones that I look at and wonder why I bought that one. Most of my unwanted ones will probably get donated to the library, but that’s not the only option.
I bought this very plain notebook a while ago at Borders because it had a simple, unadorned kraft cover.
The problem I usually have when I decorate one of these notebooks is that the paper I use to decorate it starts coming up at the corners with any use at all. The one solution I’ve found, using strips of Sticky Strip right at the edges, creates raised edges and if I use it right at the edges it seems to attract lint. I’ve tried wrapping the paper around the sides, but because I rarely want to cover the spine I’m left taping or gluing that edge anyway.
I decided to take some of my washi paper masking tape and cover the front cover. I wrapped any excess around the front of the cover, and were I giving this as a gift I would create another layer on the inside.
I took a solid color that co-ordinates with the spine and created a letter on the front. Then I changed my mind an made another. Then another. In the end I had a very personalized gift in about 5 minutes.
K is for Kristen, on the event of her son's baptism
L is for Laura, my brunch going buddy
M is for Mike, because he carried heavy boxes for me
If it were a gift I would have been a little more compulsive about getting the striped tape lined up perfectly, but since it’s really for me (S is a hard initial to represent prettily in tape) I didn’t worry about it.
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