constructing the daily

took me a while to decide what was going to hold this year's december daily. i really like the simplicity of the chipboard covers and large book rings, which is what i did last year. but i kept thinking i wanted to change it up. while the canvas books look great, i started thinking i wanted mine to be more structured. i came across a 6x8 notebook at my lss's trash to treasure sale a few weeks ago. it was navy. with gold pressed lettering on the front. it was only a dollar. i grabbed it.

fortunately, the cover was not the typical office supply store notebook plastic. it had a texture to it which i thought i would be able to paint. turns out i was right. so, grabbing the gesso, i went to work.

i gesso'd the cover a couple of times, and then painted it in a manila acrylic. originally i was thinking i was going to offset the cover embellishment and be able to cover up the lettering indention that was on the cover. i nixed that idea and just turned the book around so it would be on the back instead.

here is the inside, before paint. i got a little giddy working on altering this notebook, as i was finding it was actually going to work.

the completed inside. using a kit from Katie Pertiet:: La Cremerie: Fraise Paper Pack, i papered the inside of the covers. deciding too that these papers would be the theme for the book, evoking a bit of a vintage feel. perfect!

7gypsies gaffer tape came in so very handy. it enabled me to cover under the mechanism where otherwise it would have been difficult to have painted and still look nice. i should have included a close up.

and here is the completed cover. just so very happy how it turned out. the bingo card is jenni bowlin. a basic grey rub-on is added to the top. a 7gypsies canvas tag, with a basic grey rub-on atop of that. the sentiment is torn from a vintage piece of music. that is layered on a piece of chipboard to give it stability.

do you want to see the inside?