Can you ever have too many journals??...

... I think not if you've been lucky enough to get your hands on the latest Eileen Hull / Sizzix Travel Journal die (ref: #661906).. its such a great die for making a journal - you can see my first one here:

I mentioned in that blog post that when cutting the inside pages I ended up with leftovers - enough to create a couple of books.... I had to do something with those didn't I?! or they would just clutter up the desk.. so I made a 1/2 size journal with them using the same die..

Here's a simple step-by-step of how I made this fabric covered journal...

I die cut one cover out GrungePaper - a good substrate to use because its both strong and flexible (lightweight too), and really easy to die cut! I measured 1/2 way along the length ....

 .... and cut it in half with scissors (you could use a craft knife if you prefer).

This creates two covers half the size of the originals. The binding holes are still visible so I laid the two covers on top of each other so the spines were together...

... and used the holes in one cover to mark where the holes should be in the other cover - this gives the right amount of binding holes in each cover.

I punched the marked holes with a Crop-a-Dile, and also measured and punched the centre binding hole (which was lost when I cut the cover in half at the beginning).

I rounded the corners with the CornerChomper making all corners the same.

Here are the cut covers waiting to be sewn - I ran across the spine a couple of times at the top and bottom, and down the spine (where the covers overlap) between the holes (sewing not shown).

I placed the covers onto my chosen fabric, cutting it flush to the edge.  I also cut and attached a panel of 'bondaweb' to hold the fabric in place {NB if you choose to do this - beware of the heat on Grungepaper!!}.

I sewed the fabric onto the Grungepaper by sewing zig-zag stiches all the way around the edge, and straight stitching randomly across the covers.

The binding holes were set with eyelets and threaded with elastic. On my first journal I tied the elastic with a double (maybe triple) knot because I worried that the knot would be pulled to the inside of the spine if the book became chunky and stretched the elastic ... So I've used a solution Kate Crane used on her version of this journal - which was to secure the binding with a big button - what's not to love about a big button!!

I really enjoyed making this journal - LOVE the fabric: its so 'happy' so this might be my 'happiness' journal - a place to jot down those little things in life that make me smile.

We'll see ....

x

ACP:2 Black + S

This month's colour is Black, and as we all know Black goes with everything! and so for that reason my first project this month is a colour free-for-all -  anything/everything goes - literally!

Each day this month I have spent 15 minutes working on a project  - just a...

• no hassle
• mind clearing
• getting in the mood to create
• clearing the workroom
• using up the scraps

... sort of project... and it fits in nicely with first letter of this month: the letter S, because S stands for scraps,  scrapbooking, sewing... oh and stenciling & stamping!

When I make a project I always cut extras ('just in case') and keep the left over bits and pieces,these end up gathering in a box or clear file... well enough is enough.  I am being ruthless and firm with myself : STOP SAVING THE SCRAPS (ooh look at all the lovely Ss in that sentence)

Now you might think the pile (imagine I'm saying 'the pile' in a deep scary voice with echo lol to give it gravitas) doesn't look too bad - but remember its a PILE there's plenty of bits and pieces under what you can see - and for size perspective - the cards you can see in the top right hand corner measure 6x4inches.

My project/plan is to make a card every day in October, and extras if I'm in the mood... I didn't set myself any rules or guidelines (why make things hard for yourself) (not even deciding on landscape or portrait! big step for me! lol) except that:

• Every card must use at least one piece out of the scrap box/from the pile...
• Nothing new can be bought and used - whatever used must be IN my workroom.

Simple!  I love the challenge of this - making (hopefully) something special out of scraps... and adapting items so they can be used (such as die cutting letters or shapes from the random bits of card that are in the pile..)

Oh, and anything left over at the end of the month will be thrown away.

Here are the cards so far:

I love the little monsters Elena has designed for PaperArtsy (you can find them at www.paperartsy.co.uk), and having used them on my nephew's birthday card I couldn't resist adding one on this page.

The die cut apple above has been in the pile for aaaaages - looks great on this page!  On the right is a ghost print cut from one of the underpapers on my desk - definitely too nice to throw away!

Bit of a motivational page here - and for some reason I seem to have quite a few of these cupcakes in the pile.

Love this page - I wanted to use bubble wrap on a page which has been used to gelli print - always great colour blends left behind so thats what I put on the reverse (on right)

Photos printed out on polaroid style film - I really like the dinky little prints..

A very funny evening watching Nina Conti, the ventriloquist, at the Cliffs Pavilion - really clever too... an evening that was so funny you have tears running down your face.

These shoes are stamps from JOFY43, the 'boy' plate - works really well to illustrate how much walking we did that day!

 There had to be tags and book text in there somewhere!

I wrote on this page but it wasn't important (so I don't mind that it is barely visible) - I wanted the embellishments to be the focus.... it doesn't always need to be about the words..

From the photos above you can see the pages are all bound on BIG book rings... They are in a book I created from a book cover I had in my room - yes I really did have an old book cover stashed under the desk just waiting for the perfect project! (you can see how long I've had it because my name is written on it - my maiden name - I've been married 11 years!)

 I think I had originally used it for altered book techniques.. and removed the pages at some point...

I punched some holes in, made sure the book rings and pages fitted and painted it all over - front and back- with black gesso - LUSH!

Went 'old school' and dug out the hammer and eyelet tools.. which were sadly not man enough to go through the book covers...  This book rin and book cover is a binding method I've used before and like very much (you can see another project HERE) and I found it on Julie Kirk's blog (HERE).

I needed to bring out the big guns! I don't use the Crop-a-dile Big Bite very often but I am very glad I have it- so easy to punch through the book covers and set the eyelets.

Here's the cover in-progress - using a card that I'd painted way back at the start of the project - I thought it would look great on the cover and reflects the contents.  The only number you can still see on the ruler running along the bottom is '22' which made me smile - as that's my birthday! Coincidences like that make me smile!

The cover a little bit further along:  I embossed the tips of the seedhead (WOW, silver sparkle), bubble wrap printed randomly, drew around the edges in grey pencils, added spots of Mermaid to break up the Chalk bubble wrap print.... all glue down but it was still missing 'something'....

I added a title and date and it is finished.

15 days to go....
(and just in case you were wondering - I've used 72 pieces from the pile)


Thanks for stopping by.

x

Bunting!!...

Yes, bunting... I think I may have mentioned on this blog that I like bunting - I do! Its such a happy decoration!

So you can imagine how happy I was when I found the WeRMemoryKeepers Banner Punch Board!!!!
Be still my bunting loving heart!  :o)

I demo'd the board at The Craft Barn's recent Summer Craft Fest (you can find them here on the shop's site). I made bunting in all sorts of shapes, colours and sizes through the day.. and had time to stamp and make a simple bunting for the shop too...

Here's my clean and simple display at the start of the day... showing the basic shapes that the board creates: pennants from 1inch through to 8.5inches...

I think the small sizes would make great flags for cupcakes (or for a coconut macaroon as I used here).
I mounted a strip of bunting onto a bamboo skewer for ease of showing people how to create a phrase/word bunting during the demo day - these are pennants measuring 2.5in top to bottom - great for the top of a bigger birthday cake, or across a 12x12 scrapbook spread.

The Banner Punch Board is so easy to use - 3 simple cuts will create the basic shape and the icing on the cake is that the board also punches the hole need for the hanging thread!  What's not to love about that!

During the day I cut and stamped this bunting for the shop - the flower stamp is from JOFY36, and the 'stitched' scallop border along the top edge is from JOFY31.

     

More bunting! Left to right:
1.  I discovered that I could cut a window out of a flag - would look great with laser cut paper laid across the aperture(attached on the reverse), or vellum so that light could show through... or acetate..;
3.  Stenciled pattern;
2-4. Craft Barn pennants:
5.  another aperture flag:
6.  the final flag on right has a smaller contrasting pennant laid on top - easy to create the mat and layered effect because the board works on the same angle, just different heights/lengths.


While I was experimenting I discovered - a bit by accident - that I could cut chevrons (!!) using the board... and here's a simple step on how to:

Cut a length of scrapbook paper/card -  this one is 1.5 x 12in (you can adapt the sizing to suit your need).

Lay the strip up the centre of the board matching up the 1.5in marks so that it is central and straight- its important that the paper is central or your chevron point will be unbalanced
Cut the first chevron, running the blade across the two top edges.  I discarded this shape as had a straight top - not what I needed.

Now you the strip has pointed/chevron ends - you need a 'measure' point - I used the top 8.5in marked line (shown above) to position my paper for each additional cut. Position. Cut. Remove. Position. Cut. Remove.... this is the result!!:

And this is what I created with the chevrons:

(the card measures 12.5cm/5inches) 'thanks' die cut is Poppy Dies (1118 thanks), flowers are Creative Expressions (Dandelion heads)

I had a lot of fun with this great board - makes bunting soooo simple and people LOVED that fact that it punched the threading holes - a serious selling point! :o)

(nb. I bought this product, all views are my own)

x

Yellow!....

... as in:
1. BANANA Frog Project of the day.
2. a colour I don't 'like'
3. the colour of the page I made for LSNED - Day 15

All the stamps used on the above page are Banana Frog - from the 'circus stories' and 'all about... journaling' sets.  I'm telling you this because Typepad wouldn't let me upload ANYthing over on the BananaFrog blog where I would normally put Banana Frog projects and information. ggggrrrr.

Yellow
I'm not a big fan of yellow.... - I don't wear it, I don't decorate with it and on the whole I don't craft with it... but this week (and last week come to think of it)(lol) I was in a phenomenally bad mood - seriously bad mood but I still had to make a page for my LSNED scrapbook - making a bad mood page didn't seem like a very positive thing to do so I set out to create a page that was so ridiculously sunny, bright and perky that it would be the polar opposite of my mood.  This is how the yellow page came about... it may be the only yellow page in the whole album - we'll have to wait and see...
I like how it turned out - threw on some of my favourite things (Buttons! couldn't resist).. and the page has sort of worked in relation to my mood: the colour is so not me that it makes me smile.
Who knew. lol

Adapting a kit..

Sometimes I buy an on-sale items as a bit of a challenge... and a WeRMemoryKeepers card making kit from TKMaxx was such an item... it has 'everything' you need to create the cards, I thought it'd be a quick way to make a few cards - but I think these can end up looking a bit flat and a bit generic (duh! obviously! lol - like painting by numbers) and so I decided to challenge myself to add some bits a pieces of my own (& change the designs, lol)... make them a bit more 'me'...
In the end it wasn't such a quick way to make a few cards ... lol ... but I had fun!  It was about working with what I had (attacking the stash)
(though sshhh... don't tell anyone... but I may have bought the co-ordinating plain card stock... but ssshhh... thats just between you and me OK?!)

 
 
To make them 'a bit more me' I sewed, I stamped, I added buttons & gems & flowers (oh my!)