Design Team: Denise O'Connor Week 4 Term 3

Personalized Kindle Touch Cover!

Every artist needs a canvas and today, we find that you can do more with a canvas, than just painting! See how Denise created a beautiful kindle touch cover, using materials found in her craftroom!

Follow the tutorial below:

Well, I hope all of you are prepared for a long post…if not, take a moment and get comfy and your beverage of choice. I have an extra-special project to share with you today. This may even be my favorite Design Team project to date. Normally when I make something, I make it for someone else and I rarely make something for myself, but today’s project is just that. I made something that is just for me, and it is something that I will use just about every day.

I am an avid reader. So much so that over 3 years ago, my husband surprised me with a Kindle 2. At the time, the Kindle 2 was incredibly expensive, but he said that we needed it because we had completely run out of room for books. He was right, and since I cannot bear to throw out or give away a book that I enjoyed, the books had piled up. So much so that we have boxes full of books stored in our garage. Since getting the Kindle, I have read over 100 books on it and fell in love with it. Well, a few weeks ago I celebrated my birthday and my husband and kids got me a new Kindle Touch. My Kindle 2 still works just fine, but my husband said that he would like to read some books every now and then, but couldn’t bear to tear the Kindle 2 out of my hands. So, now he gets to read on the Kindle 2 and I get to use the Kindle Touch. I had to laugh at this because is it a present for him or me? I am not complaining though, because I am loving the Kindle Touch. So, after getting the Kindle Touch I started searching for a cover for it and was getting discouraged. Most of the covers were not very pretty and the ones that were are crazy expensive and none of them really felt like “me”. So I decided to make my own.

Don’t have a Kindle Touch? No worries, you can do this with any eReader or Tablet. So the first step is to start with the basic structure. Using medium weight chipboard, batting, canvas, and elastic, I constructed this.

To do this, I measured my Kindle Touch and cut one chipboard piece that was slightly larger than my Kindle Touch. I ran this piece through my Xyron 9” Creative Station and covered it in the canvas and I attached the elastic strips in the corners to hold my Kindle Touch. Now I made two covers that were slightly larger than that base layer for the front and back of my cover. I also cut a piece for the spine. I covered the front and back pieces in batting (again running the chipboard through my Xyron, attaching batting and then just trimming) to provide a little cushion just in case I should drop my Kindle Touch and then I proceeded to cover both covers and the spine in one piece of canvas so that all three pieces were connected. I left a gap in between each piece to allow me to be able to fold the front back. Once this was done, I added a strap piece that I sewed in my sewing machine that also has a Basic Grey magnetic disc in it. The other magnet will be added during the decoration of the covers so that this strap can hold it all together when not in use. I added more canvas on the inside that had been hemmed with the sewing machine to prevent fraying. Now that that was done, I could add my base unit on the inside. I have to give it up for my Xyron, it worked overdrive on this project for me. Love how much easier it made this part of my project. With that, the basic construction was done and now comes the fun part…

Using Glue N Seal Matte (Michaels’s), I added some Dearest Jane patterned paper from Papertrey Ink. I then cut some Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back Canvas in my eCraft (pressure of 8, blade cap on, no stabilizer, no tabs) in my eCraft for the spine. I just used a rectangle and added a border from Lettering Delights Scalloped Border set. I also used some Frayed Burlap ink refill watered down in a mini mister to dye that canvas to coordinate with the brown in the paper and added that on the spine once dry. Next I found some images online for some of my favorite books. Since I had a vintage feeling going with this, I stuck with some of my favorite classic novels. I added these on the front and on the back of the cover. I also adhered my Basic Grey magnetic piece in a spot where I knew it would be covered by my focal point. Here is the back cover…

To complete this project, I knew I needed something really special. I contacted one of the designers over at Craftwell and asked them to create an Ella image of her reading a book. I was so thrilled when they not only created one, but that it was exactly what I had wanted! Thank you Craftwell, I think it is absolutely perfect and I know that I will be using it again!

Now, I have a little surprise for you. I asked Craftwell if they would please make this image available to you on eCraftCentral.com, and they agreed! Starting today you can get this image. Just so you know, I flipped this image, the original has Ella facing the other way. This is another great thing about these images, the versatility.

So head on over to eCraftCentral.com and get this image available HERE! While you are there, take a look around and see what else you might like, there is a ton of images available!

Denise O'Connor

www.PurplePaperParadise.com