Today we’re focusing on making a gift that’s fun, easy and as individual as you care to make it! The main ingredient in this gift is not money but time – something we all feel short of sometimes and we all appreciate when somebody gives us a little of theirs to make our lives sweeter.
This little book can contain any kind of promises you like – a dozen freshly-baked cookies or muffins, a girls’ night in with a weepie movie and snacks, a picnic at the river… anything you can think of that your recipient will enjoy! I made six gift “coupons” for this book but you can make as many or as few as you like.
Using classic black and white means you’ll need minimal supplies to complete your book and the smart row of brads makes an easy and practical binding as well as a design element.
Let’s get started!

Supplies:
Haute Couture stamp set from the All Things Considered line
Simply Smooth White cardstock from CHF
Simply Linen cardstock black
White copy paper
Versafine ink by Tsukineko in Onyx Black
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger in Weathered Wood
Scoring tool
Paper trimmer or ruler and blade
Crop-a-dile or hole punch
Silver mini brads by making memories
Adhesive
Your chosen wording – I printed mine out from the computer, you could hand write, use rub ons or alpha stamps if you prefer
Step 1:
Stamp the frame and the ladies and trim to 2 1⁄2 x 3 1⁄2 to make an ATC for your front cover. I like to stamp the ladies so that the solid colour of her hat just overlaps the top line of the frame – it gives the impression of them walking out from inside the lines.
Add words for the title of your book. I find it easiest to use a glue stick for this – wipe your little word cutting over the surface of the adhesive and then stick it into place, using tweezers if you find it easier to handle them that way (if you use your fingers, make sure you wipe off any adhesive before you handle the next word!).
Step 2
Cut black cardstock at 6 1⁄8 x 3 5⁄8 for your cover. Score at 2 5⁄8, 3, 3 1⁄8 and 3 1⁄2. If you have decided to make a book with lots of pages, you will need to increase the length of the cover – try adding 1⁄8 and increasing the central “spine” to 1⁄4.

Step 3
From copy paper, cut inner pages (I made six) 2 7⁄8 x 3 1⁄2. Using a sewing machine with no thread, “stitch” 3⁄8 in along one long edge to make perforations. I did three pages at once with no problem. You can draw a faint pencil line to guide you if you’re not confident about keeping a straight line.

Step 4
Line up your pages and use a couple of office clips or clothes pins to hold them together securely while you work on this next step. Measure the mid point (1 3⁄4)along the perforated edge and mark with a pencil. Mark at 1⁄2 intervals out to each end. You will have seven dots. Use a Crop-a-dile to punch through all the pages at each dot.

Step 5
Add stamped designs to your pages. I used black ink to stamp "accents" on three of mine and gray ink to make an all over pattern on the other three. Have fun experimenting with the stamps to see what patterns you can come up with!

Step 6
Add your chosen wording for each gift "coupon" - again, I used words printed out from the computer and snipped into individual blocks. I used a mixture of UPPER CASE and lower case words for extra interest. I decided to outline each block - just run a fine line marker around the cut edge if you decide you'd like to do the same.

Step 7
Line up all the pages and clip them inside the front cover. Use something pointy (the tip of your scissors will do if you don't have anything else to hand) to pierce through all seven holes. You are piercing through just one side of your cover in this step, the other side will be the back and will be used to cover up the binding brads. If you hold your project exactly as you see it in this picture and push your pokey tool through the punched holes you'll get the right result!

Step 8
Stick your ATC in place on the front cover (the side where you just made the holes.)

Step 9
Push brads through the holes and open up the legs. Keeping them parallel with the "spine" of the book will make it neater as they won't stick out into the back of the booklet or the fold of the spine.

Step 10
Add a line of adhesive inside the back cover and shut the booklet, pressing the spine firmly to make sure the adhesive sticks and the brads are neatly covered.

Finished project
All done, just wait for the recipient to "cash in" a coupon when a treat is needed!

Don't forget there's still time to participate in this week's blog hop - just leave comments on Monday's post here and on the blogs of the participating members of the Design Team and we'll put your name into the draw for the gift certificates. If you have All Things Considered stamps, share a project with us in the special gallery before midnight tomorrow (Thursday) to be in with a chance of winning this week's DT Favorite prize - a stamp or stamp set of your choice up to the value of $16.99!
Thanks for stopping by today!
Happy stamping
Joanne