Dollar Tree Notepads

Had seen the decorated 4 x 6 notepads from the Dollar Tree altered by Sherry at the PoshPaperLady and Wandy's Sweets on YouTube but first trip to a Dollar Tree I could not find any the paper pads they used.... But made a second trip there this week and I was able to pick up some of these pads they used. Here is a photo of what the pads look like:

Decided for my paper pads I would use fall card stocks from my stash. I also used decorations from my stash from last year. Here are my two decorated paper pads

Card stocks are from the stash and different manufacturers. The pumpkin card stock on the left is by Carta Bella and the turquoise top is by Recollections. For the pad on the right I used a pumpkin print by the Paper Studio @ HobbyLobby and the beige print at the top is also theirs. Here is each a photo of each pad:

I cut a scrap piece of light turquoise card stock from my scraps to put across the top of the pad. I wanted to decorate the top of the pads so I pulled out my baggie of "autumn" parts of left over pieces from projects I work on each year:

Dumped it out on the work table to see what all was inside the bag of pieces:

For both my paper pads I pulled out two "Thankful" banners I had made using solid card stock and foiled card stocks from the stash. They were made using a die from FranticStamper for past fall and Thanksgiving projects I have made. The pumpkin 'bling' are from HobbyLobby. Here is a photo of the second pad I decorated:

This paper pad I wanted to use a ric rac die by Impression Obsession (IOStamps.com) and the designer of that is Anna Wight and she is also on YouTube. I used a scrap piece of pumpkin coloured card stock and die cut the ric rac piece out and put that across the top part of the paper pad. Here is a closer photo of this to show the stitching the die cuts on the ric rac:

Sherry, the PoshPaperLady, has an easy to follow video on decorating these paper pads. I used her measurements - pumpkin prints are 4 x 5 1/2 and my top pieces are 4 x 4 and I rounded the corners as she suggests. (I used my ATG to add my adhesive). She shows a pen with her paper pads but I do not have any decorated pens for my pads yet so I will have to look on Amazon for those and add them to my pads later. These pads are the right size to keep in your purse and for both of my pads I used a darker card stock for the backs:

I have kept the decorations on the front of my pads flat since this could be in a purse. I made the ones for Autumn first and you can write a holiday grocery list, keep recipes in there, lists of holiday projects, or anything else you would want to write down to help you remember. But.... these are addictive to make and super fast!! Three pieces of card stock and add a pen and you are done! Will be working on some for Christmas next! Thanks to both ladies for their videos and inspiration for a cheap and fun project!