Allison at Hambly Screen Prints offered to send me some of their awesome rub-on sheets after CHA. I’m extremely embarrassed at how long it’s taken me to play with them, but 2009 has been, shall we say, a bit of a ride.
Anyway, I had a blast customizing this little notebook, which (I’m also embarrassed to say) is my extremely-analog system for organizing future podcast episodes.
If you have a dime-store spiral notebook lying around, play along! First you need to bend the ends of the spiral wire so they can move freely through the holes in the notebook.
Use pliers – this wire is hardened! The end of the wire may break when you do this, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
Then, roll the spiral around and around to pull it out of the notepad.
That’s one dismantled notepad! Set the pages and spiral aside. It’s time to play with the cover, and the Hambly rub-ons.
I glued some cool paper over the cover, and then began searching out some good rub-on motifs to adorn it.
If you haven’t, check out Hambly’s amazing range of rub-on designs. They’re all screen printed by hand, right here in the U.S.
They’re super fun to use. Just cut out the motif you want…
The plastic sheet has a light sticky-back on it, so you can easily move the motifs around until you get them where you want them. Also makes it easier to apply the rub-ons to curved surfaces – something I’ll blog about later.
Anyway, then you just rub the plastic backing to release the screen print to the paper. I found an aluminum crochet hook to be a dandy tool for that.
Peel up the plastic, and the design is on there for good!
Back when I was a graphic designer, before computers and when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we had to painstakingly create “comps” – or. mock-ups that would show a client what our design would look like in print. I spent many late-night hours wrangling rub-on-type. These Hambly sheets are much, much easier to use.
With the cover all decorated, flip it over and place it on a cutting mat. Use a craft knife to cut the paper away from the binding holes.
Then, stack the cover and pages together, matching the holes. Wind the spiral back through the pages. This may be a little fiddly at first, but quickly gets easier.
Give the ends of the wire a little bend with pliers so they can’t get back through the holes. And you’re done!
These super-cool pillows were on display at the Hambly booth at CHA. I’m totally trying these rub-ons with fabric next!
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