Craft Corner: Book Cover

Before I started writing, my sister and I used to have a craft show in my house in November, selling items we'd made over the course of the year. Our first year, which was back in the 80's, we made $600, which was pretty darn good. I also used to make a lot of my kids' clothes, as well as my own.

Those projects pretty much ground to a halt after I sold my first book. However, now that I'm officially an "empty nester," I have more time on my hands. So I'm starting to get back into crafts again.

My son recently had a birthday, and as those of you with older kids can probably attest, it gets more difficult to think of good gift ideas as they age. This year, my son's looking for a new car and mentioned getting a notebook for, well, notes and information.

So I decided to get him a notebook and do something crafty for the cover.


This is the finished product.









Here are the supplies I used, only one of which I had to purchase, namely the notebook. I found one with pockets inside (for brochures) for $1.99 at the discount store. The other items are glue, scissors, the newspaper section about cars (which, my contacts in the newspaper racket tell me, pretty much keeps the newspaper afloat these days), a couple of car ads from magazines (not nearly as easy to find as in the past, I note) and a transparency for overhead projectors left over from a workshop, to protect the cover and keep the loose edges from fraying. Not pictured: wide transparent tape usually used for preparing packages to mail, to hold on the transparency in place.

You'll also notice my cup of tea. I firmly believe crafting goes better with tea.

It took me about half an hour. I could have taken more time and fussed more over the placement of pictures and "wheels," but the cover was intended mainly to amuse my son, not be a work of art.

He was suitably amused and is using it his quest for a new set of wheels.

Next up in the craft corner: as soon as it's finished (nearly done), making a baby quilt without quilting.