It's amazing what one can achieve when the planets are in alignment and the family leaves you to your own devices for a few hours!
Already, I've made 17 personalised notepads, 2 bottles of Redskin Vodka, and some headbands which have been swiftly snapped up by my daughters friends, so I know they're going to be great gifts.
I designed the notepads according to peoples hobbies or personalities, just using Clipart. I then bound them in the following way.
I bought a packet of 'C' clamps, a tube of No More Gaps and two old style wooden rulers from K-Mart...total outlay of $13, which I think will bind about 200 notepads.
I then lined up the block of notepaper, with the edge I wanted to bind facing, and right up against the front edge of my desk. The wooden rulers went top and bottom, along the edge of the wad of pages to protect them from the clamps. I clamped the notepaper to the edge of the desk, and tightened it. This is simply to compress the notepad for binding, and to keep the pages neatly lined up.
I used my fingertip to apply a couple of pea sized amounts of No More Gaps to the edge that I wanted to bind. I allowed the No More Gaps to dry, and hey presto...perfectly bound pretty notepads!
Then the redskin vodka. Tip about 150mls out of a new bottle of vodka (this just makes room for the redskins)...drink it if you like or freeze it to make vodka slushies later... pop in 13 or 14 unwrapped Redskin lollies...you know..those gaudy strawberry pink sticks we all loved as kids....and leave to dissolve for a few days, shaking every now and again. When dissolved, carefully filter it through cheesecloth or a new, rinsed Chux, to get rid of the foamy gunk on top. Fantastic chilled with soda or lemonade or ginger ale...or as a shot...no responsibility taken for hangovers!
Here's mine...pretty bottle...and already a gorgeous shade of hyperactive pink...
Onward and upward....only about 55 gifts to go!
