Owl Be Back...To School

Although there may be some little people out there that don't want to think about it, it's gettin' to be that time...back to school! I created this gift ensemble for Papertrey Ink's monthly Guest Star Stamper contest. The set consists of several unique back-to-school supplies - not your usual scissors, paper and glue! Included in the set is a journal, Post-it-Note holder, bookplate labels with holder, and colored pencils (those will come in handy later, stay tuned). I will go through each item included in the set, but will do so in seperate posts because of the amount of detail in each item. First up is the journal.

This journal started out as a plain composition notebook. You know, the black-and-white ones that are on sale everywhere right now. They make great projects to customize, especially since the book's cover is nice and sturdy and can be covered in paper and sanded, as I've done here. I used Basic Grey's Recess collection for this project - it is just perfect as is, and needed very little embellishing. And since my goal was to incorporate the Wise Owl set from PTI, I thought the botanical touches on the paper were perfect! Of course, I needed a title for my journal. I really wanted something more creative than "Journal," so I came up with "For My Thoughts." I used this theme for naming all my other items, as you can see by the first picture ("For My Notes," etc.). Now, because I loved the paper so much and didn't want to cover it all up, I decided to print my title on acetate (transperancy) and adhere it to the cover. The trick here is to not get my glue to show through the acetate. I did that by first covering and adhering chipboard photo corners to the acetate title. Once those were in place, I strategically placed glue under the photo corners, where it wouldn't show. And because I knew I'd be placing my pencil and owl in the right-hand corner, I liberally applied adhesive there. And presto, it stuck!

And now for more embellishing! (Wait, didn't I say I didn't need much of that? Oh, well...) I created a little pencil for my owl to "ride on." To do this, I used two pieces of rectangular shaped chipboard from my stash. I taped them together to make one long rectangle and cut the end to resemble a sharpened point. The shapes were already rounded on the edges, which was perfect for the eraser end! I covered the pencil with scraps of paper. I adhered some kraft at the end, some pink at the top for the eraser, and then a piece of yellow in the middle. I tore the end of the yellow piece before adhereing it, to make it look like a real pencil that has been sharpened. The band below the eraser is a piece of scrap paper that I inked with my Cooper pigment ink pad. I scored a few lines on it with a paper piercing needle, to make it look more realistic. Finally, I drew lines on the yellow piece with a fine tip brown pen, added some black ink to the top of the pencil, and inked all the edges with brown ink. I know, a lot of work, but I think the outcome was worth it! I'm so proud of my little pencil!

I then adhered the pencil to the acetate title, lining it up with the "pencil" mark I had printed on the acetate. (When I created the title in Photoshop Elements, I "freehand" drew a squiggly line just below, for the pencil mark.)

And now let's talk about the owl. He was stamped on Kraft paper and colored in using this technique. But I couldn't leave it at that. Since this is a back-to-school projects, and it is called Wise Owl, I had to add some eyeglasses! I used gold pigment ink and gold embossing powder for that. I applied Glossy Accents on each eye to make it look even more like real eyeglasses. After it dried, I cut the owl out, inked the edges, and adhered it to the journal with foam tape, making sure his claws (feet?) rested right on the pencil. That's it, just a few simple steps and you're done with your journal (Ha!). Now you can see why I'm making this more than one post! Tune in tomorrow when I'll go through the Post-it-Note holder!Supplies for Journal:

Ink: Dark Chocolate by PTI, Dune pigment by ColorBox
Patterned Paper: Teacher’s Lounge, Elementary from Recess collection by Basic Grey
Stamps: Wise Owl by PTI
Other: composition notebook, Acetate (transparency), chipboard corners from SU!, 2Peas Evergreen font

Supplies for Owl:

Ink: Dark Chocolate by PTI, Dune and Gold pigment by ColorBox, Pumpkin Pie and Cranberry Crisp by SU!
Cardstock: Kraft by PTI
Stamps: Wise Owl by PTI
Other: gold embossing powder, Glossy Accents by Ranger

Supplies for Pencil:

Ink: Dark Chocolate by PTI, Dune and Copper pigment by ColorBox, Black StazOn
Cardstock: Kraft by PTI, yellow, pink
Other: chipboard rounded rectangle shapes by SU!, Pigma Micron 01 brown pen by Sakura