Doodle Book

Laura from Diary Sketches posted how to make your own doodle notebook awhile back, and I thought I'd give it a shot. 

I hand stitched mine together instead of stapling it cause it was kind of thick. It was also pretty hard to sew, but it helped to wiggle the needle back and forth when trying to get through all of the layers. 

I used Canson Mixed Media paper in case I wanted to do some light watercoloring inside. It's supposed to handle wet media anyways, but you can see the paper wrinkled a bit on the cover where I painted it. 

The tape I used on the spine is hot pink duck-tape (so fun!) and some of my washi tape. 

I wrote "make more mistakes" to encourage me to use it, and not worry about "mistakes." 

Head on over to Laura's blog to check out the instructions (which are illustrated!)

DIY Valentine's Day Wine Labels

(Gingham pattern from Pugly Pixel)

For Valentine's Day I created some wine labels that you can download and print out for the adult Valentine in your life.

Here are some steps and tips in case you need them:

1. Print labels out. They are designed to match up with Avery 5168 3-1/2" x 5" labels if you can find those. If not, you can just use a full 8-1/2" x 11" sheet label and cut them out (which is what I did). If you are a slacker and doing this last last minute I think plain ol' paper and rubber cement would work.

2. Buy some wine. I bought two buck chuck (no one will know! lol) which I happen to like and especially good if you were giving these to the whole office or something. If it's for your sweetie, you might wanna upgrade.

3. If your label is pre-scored, score! Pull off just part of the back and position your label. Smooth out the section that is applied. Unstick the rest of the back. If it's not you just have to be a bit more careful positioning.

4. Smooth out from one side to the other, trying to get rid of any air bubbles that might come up.

5. Gift bottles to your favorite Valentines!

6. You're done! I recommend celebrating with a glass a wine (not from the bottle you just labeled preferably). 

Note: The label size was perfect for the red bottle but the white bottle slanted a bit earlier so I just trimmed part of the top and bottom off of the label.


I made a couple different kinds for the different people in your life.

Download Labels 

 (File is a PDF, but has layers intact if you want to customize in Photoshop) 

I hope you enjoy them! Cheers!