I saw this tutorial on Mary Janes and Galoshes and thought it would be a perfect project to do with my kids and their artwork. The total cost was right around $4 for three pads and I still have a ton more silicone for future pads and other projects.
You can also have your local print shop print, cut, and seal them into notepads for not much money. I might go that route in the future.
Okay…This is what we did.
We had a little drawing session. I then snapped photos of their art work.
I uploaded the pictures and added a “threshold” filter.
I then increased the threshold level until it looked how I wanted it.
I opened it in picasa and made a collage with it in the right hand corner (remember to uncheck the box that says draw shadows) of a 81/2 x 11 sized picture. Save that.
Open Word. Make a 2×2 table and open it to fill the whole page (with margins at narrow or the smallest they will go).
Open images inside the table and adjust to your liking. Fill all four cells.
Remove lines {go to borders and shading and highlight the “no lines” box…or you can color them white}.
Save this and repeat with all images you are using.
I got them printed on colored paper at my local university printer (cheapest place around here is 6 cents per print and they print from a jump drive which is nice).
At home I cut the paper as even as possible…as you will see at the end…I don’t have great cutting skills :).
MJ&G says that you should use clamps. We don’t have clamps. So…we used heavy books. We also don’t have padding compound so we used all-purpose silicone. This stuff is super thick. I had to spread it on with a popsicle stick. It was really uneven looking but worked. I let it dry and it all stuck together like it should. Clamps would be WAY easier and probably produce a cleaner look…but books did the job.
Ta da…done!
See the uneven cutting…adds charm right? 🙂 …crickets…chirping…
My oldest son loves coloring on his own little pads. I thought he would breeze through a pad in a day but… even without one single reminder from me, he has used the papers front to back and sparingly because he doesn’t want to waste them. If that doesn’t say he loves it…I don’t know what does.
Your pads turned out great! And how fun for your kids I bet they feel very special. And you can let them enjoy them without feeling like it was an investment! Just think of all the scrap pads you can make with that silicone. Glad to see you put plastic over the tip to save it. I always shove a screw in the end to plug it, seems to work well.
I love these! I am making one for my mom for Mother's Day with a smiley face my 3 year old drew. 🙂
Wow! It really did turned out wonderful. It's a very nice and creative idea. – <a href="http://www.notepadsyourway.com/