Back To School Notebook and Messenger Bag!

The summer has gone by too quickly, and now I am drowning in the misery of thoughts of going back to school. Okay, not "drowning in misery", but you get what I mean. It seems like summer break only started yesterday. But now school is beginning, and I decided that I needed to be a little more organized this year than last year. So I asked Mother for one of her Planning Books that she receives. What it looked like?

Corny, right? There was no way that I was going to school with a notebook like this! So I gathered up the scrap denim I had saved from making the Swirl Skirt. To check that out, scroll all the way down to my very second post.
First I cut card stock to fit perfectly on top of the cover.

 

 

 Then, I cut scraps out of the saved denim, and using rubber cement glue, pasted it onto the card stock. Using different shades of denim help to add character.

 The finished plan book. Compare it to what it used to look like and decide which one you like better. Adding hearts, flowers, stars, or something like that can give it an artistic touch.

 

 

 I also needed a bag for carrying my books, since my backpack is ripping and also has the strong scent of ham in it (please don't ask why). Plus, it hurt my shoulders, so I decided that a messenger bag would be better. I found a complete, burlap one at Hobby Lobby. Not the most attractive.

This bag needed serious spiffing up! So I dug through a box of my mothers old lace. Along with that was some very old, fun things, like buttons.

These buttons looked like chains coiled around. They were pretty cool. And inspired some dorkiness, since they were bigger than my eyes :)

So I pinned the lace on...

And then sewed it on.

Then after sewing on lace, I painstakingly hand-sewed the butterflies and buttons on. And then voila, I now have a beautiful messenger bag!