We have discovered the awesomeness that are notepads.  Not just any notepad;  I'm talking specifically about the handcrafted, designed just by us, paper good-ness variety.  This was such a good experience I'm seeing a massive production day in the not so distant future, from which, many a notepad will surely find their ways to other good and deserving homes.  In fact I think I'll dub 2011 The Year of the Notepad!

I started out by planning this project, or some version of it, many months ago.  In typical Corie fashion when faced with the decision of which size of padding compound to buy, I ordered up the gigantic, you'll have enough of this stuff to stick paper together for… oh, just about eternity, size.  You know becuase per ounce it was cheaper, more is better, and I certainly don't know how I've managed all these years without this wonder product!

Start out by deciding what sized pad you want.  I ended up with some sort of crazy, approximately 1/4 sheet of paper size.  (It's a long story that I probably don't need to go into).  You'll also need a heavier piece of cardboard or chipboard for the back.  We used cracker and cereal boxes.  Cut these all to the same size.

Find some scraps and design away.  Most of the girls dug out the largest scraps I offered up and covered their box piece with a single fabric.  However, M went her own way and did a little striped patchwork version that I think is great.  Cover the box with mod podge, or other glue like medium, lay down the fabric and smooth out any air bubbles.  If you've got seams or raw edges I suggest adding a layer of podge on top to keep everything stuck. 

While this drys get out your stamps and markers and embellish your notepaper.  We were pretty random and used stamps of all sorts for the paper, but I think a single theme would be dandy too.

When your backing and your papers are ready sandwich them and level up the edge you want to join together, using clamps to keep them nice and tight.  Spoon out some compound and lightly brush on making sure you get a nice smooth layer that touches all the papers.  A tip here is to add an extra blank paper to the top so that you can rip it (and any excess compound that might have got brushed on it) off leaving a neat and tidy cover sheet.

We all wanted the experiece of brushing on the 'magic glue' but if your in quantity production mode you could certainly stack multiple pads together as thick as you have clamps for, pad them all together at once and then take them apart when dry.   I did 2 or 3 thin layers of compound, letting it dry between layers, and it worked perfectly.

Of course you can use any kind of decorative paper for this project, but the fabric gives it a cool texture. 

I even padded my business cards.  No more fumbling around to find one, for me.