I finally finished a project I’ve been working on for a few days now.  I have a trip coming up and decided that I would like to have a small notebook to keep with me to jot down any notes or things I wanted to remember.  I need all the help I can get when it comes to remembering things . . .  actually, I should have one of these in my car, by each computer, one in my purse and probably one in my pocket at all times.  Wonder if that is why I made 5 of these?  OR, could it be that I have 4 that are gifts?  Maybe!  Whatever the case, I love making these notebooks!

The outside of the notebooks are some rectangle coasters that I picked up from eclectic Paperie some time ago.  For the inside, I cut down college ruled filler paper to the size I needed, 3-1/4” x 5”, and punched the pages with my Bind-it-All.  The paper on the outside covers I found at Archiver’s a few weeks ago and I definitely need to pick up more. I used Ranger Matte Accents to adhere all the paper to the coasters and then for the embellishment on the front and inside.  Matte Accents is an excellent glue when working with items like coasters, chipboard and Grunge Board.  Once Matte Accents is down, nothing moves!

The sentiment panels were die cut and embossed with Spellbinders S4-138 Petite Oval and S4-190 Labels Four Nestabilities.  The flourish was stamped on the main panel in Old Paper Distress Ink and the sentiment in Vintage Photo.  Vintage Photo is also the ink that everything is sponged in.  The button is from the vintage button collection that my Aunt Linda gave me, and is tied on with embroidery floss.  Thank goodness I saved all the floss from m cross-stitch days . . . it sure comes in handy now!

After binding the notebook and finishing the front, I felt something was missing.  Since this is something that will be kept in a purse or bag, I didn’t want ribbon that could possible catch on something.  After playing around with initials and other stuff, I decided to die cut and emboss a border with Spellbinders Grand 12” Classic Lace Borderabilities.  On the inside of the back cover, I placed a 7 Gypsies pocket that could hold a few business cards.

• Stamps:  463 Flourish Set and 461 Scraps and Scuffs from Rubbernecker Stamps
• Paper:  K&Company Ancestry.com Tea Floral and Newsprint and Life’s Journey Layered Script; Prism Sage Dark; Bazzill
• Ink:  Ranger Coffee and Jet Black Archival, Old Paper and Vintage Photo Distress
• Accessories:  Spellbinders S4-138 Petite Oval and S4-190 Labels Four Nestabilities, and Grand 12” Classic Lace Borderabilities; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Ranger Matte Accents; College Rules Loose Leaf Paper; Vintage Button; DMC Embroidery Floss; 7 Gypsies Tag Pockets; Bind-it-All and 3/4” O Binding Wire; Rectangle Chipboard Coasters

I hope you enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend and have a great 4th!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy Friday!  I hope everyone is staying warm and cozy with all this cold weather across the nation.  We’ve had no accumulating snow here, but the highs are in the teens . . . .  Good days to stay inside and stamp!

Yesterday I mentioned that I had a second project in mind and believe it or not . . .  I got it finished!

When I was making the monogrammed notebooks at Christmas, I used lined filler paper for the inside pages.  When I trimmed the paper down, I kept the sides that I cut away (3-1/4″ x 9-1/2″).  As I stood there looking at this pile of paper I was making, it occurred to me that I could make my book with it instead of tossing it in the garbage.  While I had the Bind-it-All out, I went ahead and punched the pages and put them to the side.

When Mallory took the 2008 calendar down from the fridge (one of those medium size desk calendars), I had her put it on my desk.  While cleaning off my desk last week, I realized that the cardboard on the back would be the perfect outer covers for my own book.   WOO HOO!  Take a look at what I did with some of my favorite papers, stamps and embellishments!

I cut the cardboard to size, then covered both pieces with some of my fave 7 Gypsies paper.  I have learned that the best way to glue anything down to cardboard or chipboard is Ranger Matte or Glossy Accents.  I used the matte for this project - it dries clear, quickly and the matte doesn’t have that sheen.  I sanded away the excess paper from the sides (so I would have a worn look) and then sponged everything down with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  Once I had the sentiment panel the way I wanted, I die cut the panel out using the soon to be released Spellbinders Large Deckled Rectangles.  To finish off the book, and since I was using some of my favorite things, I decided to layer a number of Tim Holtz idea-ology embellishments.  Way too much fun!

To give you an idea of the size and the filler paper, here are a few pics of the inside:

• Stamps: Tim Holtz Nature’s Discovery by Stampers Anonymous from Rubbernecker Stamp Company
• Paper: 7 Gypsies Angelo and Classic Paperie; SU Very Vanilla
• Ink: Ranger Vintage Photo and Antique Linen, Cranberry Pigment
• Accessories: Spellbinders  Large Deckled Rectangles, DIE SKU #S4-202; Bind-it-All and 3/4″ Binding Wire; Tim Holtz idea-ology Game Spinners, Sprocket Gears, Philosophy Tag, Swivel Clasp, Trinket Pin, Jump Ring and Long Fastener, and Tonic Distress Tool; Ranger Matte Accents; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Cardboard; Filler Paper; Ribbon

That’s all I have today, but while working on this project and idea came to mind for another.  I know.  It’s scary!  I hope you have great adventures today . . . whatever they may be!

Happy Friday!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  We had Christmas Eve here with my family and lots of food.  Once again we over did it with the food . . . but oh my was it good!

As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, I had made some gifts for my sister, aunt and mother that I couldn’t show until after they had received them.  Today, I get to show you!  You have to bear with me though, there’s a lot of info to share.

These are the notebooks that I made for them.  Each one has their initial that was covered in Ranger Glossy Accents and then sprinkled with glitter.  Once the first layer had dried, the initials were covered again with another layer of Glossy Accents.  I love how it made the initial thicker and more durable when the books are handled.

I used heavy weight chipboard coasters for the covers, painting them black with acrylic paint.  The inside pages were made from loose leaf paper that was cut to size, and then all was bound with 5/8″ O wire binding and the Bind-it-All.  For the front panels, I used Spellbinders Labels One Nestabilities and layered them all, with the monogram raised with foam tape.  The background was made by stamping my image on white paper, clear embossing and then inking in Black Soot Distress Ink.  After I had the black color I wanted, I ironed off the embossing using the Faux Bleach Technique (you’ll see more on this later).

• Stamps: Tim Holtz Nature’s Discovery by Stampers Anonymous from Rubbernecker Stamp Company
• Ink: Ranger Black Soot and Emboss Distress
• Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Basic Black; Heavy Weight Chipboard Coasters, Loose Leaf Notebook Paper
• Accessories: Spellbinders Labels One Nestabilities; Clover Craft Iron; Bind-it-All, 5/8″ O Wires; Ranger Adirondack Pitch Black Acrylic Paint Dabber, Glossy Accents, Clear EP, Ink Blending Tool; Venture Foam Tape; Black Glitter; Ribbon

I needed something to wrap the notebooks in, so I decided to make my own boxes using Jen del Muro’s mini pizza box template.  Of course, I needed to make the box larger so I added 1″ to the dimensions.

I made a band from the coordinating cardstock and put velcro on the bottom to make removal easy.  I made the snowflakes from the same paper, die cutting them with Spellbinders Snowflake Wonder Shapeabilities.  I covered each snowflake with Ranger Glossy Accents and sprinkled each with glitter.  The layers were put on a pearl brad, and to hold the wire embellishments in place, I wrapped the wire around the brad before I flattened the prongs out.    The snowflakes and sentiments were put on labels made with Spellbinders Petite Oval Nestabilities.

• Stamps: Holiday Script from Lizzie Anne Designs
• Paper: BasicGrey Fruitcake; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
• Ink: Ranger Antique Linen Distress and Juniper Pigment
• Accessories: Spellbinders Snowflake Wonder Shapeabilities and Petite Oval Nestabilities; Ranger Clear EP, Glossy Accents; Venture Foam Tape; Diamond Dust and Sea Sprite Vintage Glass Glitter; Sulyn Crystal Glitter; Pearl Brad; Making Memories Wire; Velcro

Oh and by the way, here’s a closeup of the monogram,

and of the gift box.

I hope you all have a great day!

Good morning!  I found out two things yesterday.

First, it’s Trick or Treat night here in my city.  Now in the past when the city has done this – declare Trick or Treat night earlier than the actual date, we have the little spooks both nights.  Their reason . . . its football playoffs and they didn’t want Trick or Treat to interfere if any of the local teams were in the playoffs.  I need to get with Daughter #1 today and see what her plans are.  When my girls were at home and out running the streets on this night, I always made a pot of chili.  My door was open to all their friends and this was the hang out house.  They would come in, grab a bowl of chili and just have fun hanging out doing their thing.  I haven’t made chili in a few years now and believe it or not, one of Kate’s friends asked if I was making chili this year.  I was actually somewhat amazed that one of them remembered and asked for chili!  I guess it wasn’t sheer torture for them after all.

The second thing I learned yesterday, was that I will be demonstrating in the Rubbernecker Booth at the Fall Rubber Stamp Show in Albuquerque, NM on November 8 and 9.  So if you are attending the show, please stop by the booth and say hello!

Remember earlier this month when I told you I went to Nashville, Indiana with the women in my family?  I just love Nashville.  It’s an artisan colony with little shops lining the streets and always so festive for the time of year.  I wanted to go to the stamp store there, so my sister and I took off walking by ourselves.  Needless to say I wasn’t so impressed this year, and didn’t buy anything.  Earlier we had spied another stamp store I had never seen before, and that’s where we went.  WOW - what a store!  It’s called Papertrix, and the owners are Cindy and Wayne Hawrys.  I had actually seen the Hawrys at Summer CHA and recognized them.  They also recognized me from CHA.  I believe we were all in the Hanna Stamps booth at the same time actually.

I couldn’t leave the store.  I actually believe I might have been drooling a little.  Their assortment is amazing and I actually purchased some stamps for the first time in a few years.    My point?  Well, I have a project to show you with some of the stamps I purchased that day.  I saw these fabulous images from Magenta and some how, they jumped off the shelf and landed in my little (I can dream can’t I?) hands.

I made this notebook for a dear friend recently.  Of course, I couldn’t just stop with the notebook and added a bookmark to it.  Ah soldering!  What a booger that was, but it finally worked out the way I wanted.  Yes, this is the project I was working on when I groaned in a post one day about attaching those darn little jump rings!

I suppose this is all I have today.  I’ve babbled on for long enough and it’s time for me to get up and get moving.  Chores are calling my name . . .

Good Sunday morning! It’s that time again, time for another Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen Challenge. This challenge is open to all current and alumni Dirty Dozen, and one that I enjoy participating in each month. This month the challenge was to make an Inspirational Journal using the following picture as inspiration.

The inspirational photo is from BH&G 100 Decorating Ideas Under $100 magazine. We could choose to be inspired by the color pallette, the composition, or any other element of the photo that grabbed us. The restricted element for this challenge, was NO markers (including Copic, SU or any other brand) or watercolor crayons. I was immediately taken with the soft blue and white color scheme in the room. The next thing that jumped out at me were the flowers on the table and the oranges on the shelf. I decided to make my journal in blue and white, with just a small punch of orange.

As you can see, I actually was inspired by one of my own creations as well. Yesterday I posted the journal that I made for the Lizzie Anne Designs April Project of the Month, which subsequently became my sister’s birthday present. This time, the journal is for me and the design on the POM Journal was one that I absolutely loved. Not only that, but since this journal is mine, I pulled out my favorite Penny Black floral stamp that I have not used in months and months and months. I won’t go into great detail in this post about making the journal (since I did that yesterday), but I will highlight some of the details.

I inked the flower image by tapping Distress Ink Pads directly onto the stamp. I then misted the image with water, and stamped it out three times on a piece of watercolor paper. Once the image was dry, I went back with a wet watercolor brush and pulled the ink into the open areas of the image. The edges of this panel were then sponged with Weathered Gray Distress Ink, completely into the image. Using a baby wipe, I then pulled some of the color off by wiping from the image out to the edges. I loved the effect I got, more of a watercolor look as opposed to sponging. The image was then layered onto solid colored designer paper and stitched together.

The covers for the journal were painted with acrylic paint, then highlighted with distress crackle paint. Once the crackle paint was dry, I went back and sanded all the edges to give the journal a worn look. As a last minute addition, I added the flourish to the all the covers and the inside pocket dividers. The flourish was stamped in white acrylic paint.

I decided to separate the journal in two sections, divided by pocket dividers. The first section contains lined paper, and the second section is plain white cardstock.

Stamps: Penny Black Blush; Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Anthology from Rubbernecker Stamp Company; and Stampin’ UP! Embrace Life

Paper: Canson Watercolor Paper; BasicGrey Periphery; Stampin’ UP Bashful Blue; Georgia Pacific White; Lined Memo Pad

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold, Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood and Vintage Photo Distress Inks

Accessories: DecoArt Americana Blueberry and Buttermilk Acrylic Paints; Ranger Glossy Accents, Mini Mister, Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabber, Tim Holtz Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint; Sewing Machine; Zutter Bind-it-All, 7.5×5″ Craft Covers, 1″ Double O Wire; SU Hodgepodge Hardware; Tonic Tim Holtz Distress Tool; Sanding Block; Ribbon; Watercolor Brush

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, and that perhaps you are inspired to make your own journal. If you would like to see all the journals made by the Dirty Dozen, all you need to do is click on this keyword, DCI408.