Easel Calendar/Notepad with integrated Penholder - Tutorial

Hiya and welcome to my Blog - this week I have been making gifts for the teachers from my children I created these cute little Calendar/Notebook's but I thought what do i never have to hand when making a note?? A pen lol so i added a little penholder and mini gel pen to the gift

I have made a few of these already and have quite a few left to make but while posting a pic of them on my Facebook to show what I have been doing I had a few frends ask how I made them so I thought I would do a little tutorial for them on my Blog so you can see and maybe make some for yourself

Tutorial

First you need to choose a cardstock it needs to be quite strong but not too heavy - I chose Centura Pearl its so pretty to use and I had a lot of offcuts from boxmaking so this was a perfect chance to use them up

You also need to pick some pretty paper to decorate your Calendar/Notepad, I chose some pretty glittered cardstock from Studio Light

You also need:

Paper Trimmer

Scissors

Ruler

Bone Folder/Score tool

Score Board (inch measurements with eighth's)

Postit Pad (3 x 3 inch square)

Calendar tab

Mini gel pen

Strong Glue

Extra Strong Tape

Foam Tape (1mm deep)

Scrap of Mirror Board

Scrap of white paper

Border punch

Ribbon (& Ribbon slider if using)

Small paper Flower

Gems or Pearls

Next we have to measure and trim the Cardstock and Papers

Cardstock:

Base: 9 6/8 inch x 3 1/2 inch

Front Easel Panel: 3 1/2 inch x 4 1/8 inch

Paper:

2 of    3 3/8 inch x 1 7/8 inch (short panel)

3 3/8 inch x 3 7/8 inch (back panel)

3 3/8 inch x 4 inch (front panel)

3 3/8 inch x 3 3/8 inch (panel under note pad)

make note of which panel is which (details in brackets) just so you don't mix them up later

Take the Base part of Cardstock and Score at 4 1/8 inch, fold the score line and burnish with bone folder, butt the fold line right up against the edge of the score board and then score again at 4 1/8 then score at 4 1/2, 4 7/8 & 5 2/8, fold and burnish all score lines.

Next fold up the end on the 3rd score line

We now need to make 2 cuts in this fold up to the first score line see photo's below...

Put strong tape on the back of the 4 scored parts avoiding the cut out see photo below

The next part is a bit fiddly but I have taken a few photos to help we need to stick the taped parts together to form the pen holder

Stick the first fold straight down but pull out the untaped part like in first photo, stick the next two folds together to form a wall see middle photo, stick the last panel down to the base part like in the last photo - you now have a penholder and a wall for the notepad to rest on later

Fold the back panel in half to the middles score line and burnish to form the moving part of the easel see photo below

Next we start to attach the backing paper panels to the corresponding panels on the base of the project

Stick the paper labeled front to the front panel, flip the large base panel over and stick the paper labeled back to the large section, take one of the small pieces labelled short panel and stick to the bottom half of the scored flap - see photo

Stick the front panel to the undecorated half of the scored flap as shown in photo below

flip the project over to the back and take the last short paper panel and glue to the reverse of the front panel this hides the plain white part so the project looks neat even from the back

You have one last paper panel left its the one for under the postit notepad glue this in place

Using a strong glue (i use collal all purpose) to stick the postit notepad in place right up against the wall we created earlier

Next take a scrap of mirror board in a colour that co-ordinates with your papers and trim to 3 1/16 inch x 2 1/16 inch and glue the calendar tab to it leaving a tiny border. Stick the foam tape to the reverse and set aside for later

Use a scrap of white paper and punch along it using a pretty border punch, trim this border to 3 1/2 inch

Glue the Border to the front panel and slide the pen into the penholder

Attach a ribbon with ribbon slider if using or tie the ribbon round the panel and tie a bow

Then fix the calendar tab to the front

Decorate with paper flower and gems or pearls

Your Easel Calendar/notebook with penholder is finished - these make lovely gifts for teachers or stocking fillers

I hope you have enjoyed my little tutorial and that you will enjoy making these cute little gifts

Krafty Hugs

Kerrie xxx