Fingerprinted Notepads

For all of Ayla's grandparents gifts this Christmas/Hanukah, we made a handmade (literally) project that was very easy to do and turned out to be a great afternoon activity for me and Ayla to do together. 

We used Ayla's fingerprints and stamping ink to design three flowers.  Then I went back with a pen and outlined the fingerprints to define the flowers a little better and signed her name. 

Next, I scanned each of the flowers and created a Word document for each design that could be cut into 4 to make little notepad pages.

I printed about 25 copies of each flower (making 100 pages of each design).  Next, I cut the printed pages into the individual pages (which ended up being 4 1/4" x 5 1/2").  With all the designs printed and cut, I assembled 7 booklets (one for each set of grandparents and great-grandparents), alternating red, blue and pink flower designs.  The final booklets had about 40 pages each. 

To make the notepad more sturdy, I cut pieces of cardboard to 4 1/4" x 6 1/2" and scored and folded the top edge at 1/2" and 3/4" to create a little cardboard flap to fold around the stack of pages and cover the entire back of the notepad.

I used a stapler to staple the pages together and then hot-glued the pad inside the cardboard flap, but I think a heavy-duty stapler through the cardboard AND the papers would have been a better choice...I just didn't have a heavy-duty stapler to use at the time!

Next, I added a thin yellow bow around the top edge, glued a piece of patterned paper to the back, added few magnets and finally a little "made by" square, including another fingerprinted heart by Ayla.

Great handmade, easy project!