gifts from the hart - decoupaged book

here is a wonderful way to personalize a gift for your lovies of all shapes and sizes - decoupage the cover of a book.

materials needed:
a book - homemade or storebought
stuff to decorate the cover - scrapbook paper, magazines, fabric scraps,etc.
mod podge
foam brush

this cost me about $5 for the book and mod podge (which i did not have on hand - gasp!).  i used papers and stickers from the stash. 



for my project, i bought a story telling journal for luca.  this will be a surprise for him to celebrate the beginning of our homeschooling journey.  but i think this is a great activity to work together with kiddos.  they would have a blast cutting out pictures from magazines and designing the layout of their covers. and the mod podge is easy to work with too.

just apply the mod podge on the cover, place your materials on top and cover with more mod podge.  you will want a few coats, but let it dry in between.   i have been wanting to do this project for awhile, but was reinspired when i saw this post on design mom.

it is so neat to put your own stamp on something storebought.  but you could easily decoupage a homemade book as well - just give it a cardboard cover.  i put together one of the ever popular coupon books for jesse several years back and this would have been a neat touch to that as well. never made a coupon book?  keep the design simple and it may be the easiest gift ever.  i printed out my IOUs and tied them together with ribbon.  lickety split.  and so fun for the recipient to use.  ;)