My first altered item

I tried my hand at altering something this past week. I had made up the other 4 pirate card kits I had (see this post) and decided to make a "Captain's Log" notebook to go with it. I tried to find composition books, but wasn't willing to pay $2 for one of them, so decided to try it just using the spiral notebooks I have at home. I was at Micheal's to pick up mod podge to coat it with and found a set of 3 cute pirate foam stamps for 50 cents. My husband designed a "Captain's Log" logo to cut out on my craft robo.

I attached a piece of black paper to the notebook, cutting a little tab at every spiral piece along that side so I could put it through the spiral and cover that part of the cover also. I then folded it over to the back, and covered the folds with a black piece of cardstock on the back of the front cover. I stamped the foam stamp on the paper and another smaller skull stamp I had. I then attached the "Captain's Log" logo and then mod podged over it so that the paper wouldn't tear as easily (mog podge is a paper sealer that makes the paper stiffer and thicker basically). It looked good, but it was really hard to see the skulls. So the next day I took the big skull stamp, stamped it on the paper again, then covered it with embossing powder and melted that. I did the embossing powder so the stamps would be protected but I wouldn't have to do another layer of mod podge and possibly have them be muted again. I think it turned out well. Unfortunately, I only sold one at the fair, but my boys are thrilled about that because it means they each get one instead of having to wait for me to make more of them.