Disclaimer: this post is sponsored by DecoArt. All opinions, ideas, and images are completely my own.

Sometimes it just takes a little personalization to take something ordinary and make it fabulous. And with all of the back-to-school shopping I have been doing with my daughter recently, I spied these pretty but plain paper cardboard notebook binders at my local Target. They were the perfect surface to add a little custom design and extra glam or flair to.

To make these gorgeous personalized notebook binders I used:

• Americana® Stencils (Split Angles, Classic Letters)
• Americana® Multi-surface Satin in Soft Jade, Peach Silk, Yellow Gold)
• Makeup sponges
• Painters tape

The notebooks already had a cool cardboard colored background, and I wanted to add a little color and design to the front. I love chevron patterns, so I started by placing my stencil on the front and securing with a little painters tape.

With my handy makeup sponge I then applied a layer of color on top of the stencil using an up and down stippling motion. You need to make sure there isn’t too much paint on your sponge though. I would dip the end of my sponge into the paint and dab it onto paper or my paper plate palette to remove excess paint. You don’t want big globs to sneak behind your stencil.

The makeup sponge is one of those really cool items that can be the perfect stencil tool.

Stenciling a pattern or graphic does not take long.

Once you have filled your desired surface from your stencil design, you can immediately (but carefully) remove the stencil to reveal our personalized design.

And if you really want to get fancy, wait for your first stenciled layer to dry and add another stencil design on the top. For this notebook, I applied the pretty mint paint color on first, let dry, and then moved my stencil up a little bit and added another layer of gold paint on the top of that for added detail.

And then for even more personalization I used my stencils to add either a big initial letter on the front or even spell out a name or a word.

These are definitely one-of-a-kind notebooks now—perfect for back-to-school or even the office!

What would you personalize with a little paint and stencils?

Disclaimer: this post is sponsored by DecoArt. All opinions, ideas, and images are completely my own.