Paper Whiskers

Happy Birthday Tag Book

This is the little tag book/gift card holder I made my sister, for her birthday this year. Her gift was a day out, lunch then fabric shopping, so I needed a way to make that into something tangible, not just a gift card. I used a bunch of Heather Bailey (also a fabric designer) scrapbooking products. Plus, it's cute!

Details are after each photo. To make it easier, consider all products to be from the Heather Bailey line, unless I note otherwise.

The little green hang tag is a KI Memories softie frame, backed with a scrap stamped with a PaperTrey Ink stamp. I added a pearl bead with a flower rubon. The cover is an acrylic frame (Page Frames, I think) that I added rubons to. The book is bound with a binder ring and held together with an elastic attached from the back cover.

The letter stickers are velvet (fuzzy!) from American Crafts.

I backed this peek-a-boo tag with shimmery white Bazzill ("Bling"), then added a rubon, stamped it with my favorite PaperTrey Ink letter stamps, added the three black rhinestones, and backed the whole thing with a giant paper flower (Prima).

I glued that to the back of the orange letterpress printed frame (Etsy find from Sycamore Street Press) on the left. I stamped it with a birthday sentiment from PaperTrey Ink. Perfect fit! The pink frame tag on the right is chipboard that I covered with leather paper (K&Co I think) and backed with a piece of clear acrylic. You can see the paper flowers (Jolees by You) I used on the other side in the last photo below.

This tag was fun to make, but took forever to work out properly. I needed a way to include the gift card and wanted to use these silk adhesive ribbon strips somehow. I started with a coin envelope that opens on the top, rather than the side. I wrapped the ribbon around, and trimmed the ends. But then I needed to attach it to the binder ring. This chipboard butterfly was perfect. It's KI Memories and is very sturdy.

In this last photo, you can see the chipboard piece I used as the back cover. I backed it with more of the white shimmery Bazzill and added my maker's mark.

This is the kind of fiddly stuff I love to make, and I'm really really wishing I was out at the scrapbook retreat playing, right now!

Pink, pink & pink

A couple weeks ago I heard about a fundraiser crop being held for a little girl who has recently been diagnosed with leukemia. I went to school with her parents, and felt a strong need to do something to help. I can't attend the crop, so I decided to make a couple of things for the silent auction being held.

This is a set of drawers (by Maya Road) that I painted and mod-podged patterned papers (some of which I also stamped) on. I used a coat of the glitter mod-podge last, which turned out way cooler than I expected. Really sparkly. The flower on top is a silk flower with a piece of feather boa curled underneath it. The center of the flower is a bunch of rhinestone brads. I added stickles 'highlighting' to the petals as well. The drawers don't come with drawer pulls, just two holes, so I made my own with wooden beads. I also rubbed wax across the top edge of each drawer to help it slide - they are quite a tight fit after painting, etc.

This is the goody jar I put together, loaded up with random scrapbooking and card-making things. Brads, buttons, lots of ribbon and twill, some scalloped diecuts, white signo gel pen, MM edge distressor, and so on. I used a canning jar from Michaels, painted the rim, and made my own paper cover for the top. I covered a coaster for the tag and designed/printed the label myself.  (I took this picture before I realized I misspelled 'goodie' so the final one is slightly different.)

And last, but not least, a covered mini book. I did this last night, and used some tapestry fabric I've been hoarding. I found the perfect ribbon to match it in my stash, and decided for sanity's sake, not to try and cover the binding edge. I think it turned out pretty cool, regardless. And I added an insert paper to the bookplate before I wrapped it up. Whoever wins it can pull that out and use it to make their own title insert.

Another 30 Days

Yep, I'm doing it again. 30 Days of Scraps. So far, I have some interesting things collected, some of which are quite large, so I'm glad I picked a larger book this time.

(click the photos to enlarge)

The fabric on the front cover is what I think is silk (possibly a napkin, because the edges were all finished). It went perfectly with the batiked fabric I found at Pine Needles recently. I embroidered the flowers with variegated thread,which turned out cool. Although not so much on the back (see below). The smaller flower is embroidered with fun fur, too. That took some doing, and I'll probably not try it again. I almost ruined the fabric a couple times, trying to pull the yarn through. And it's not as fuzzy as I'd hoped.

It took a while to figure out what to do for the title, but when I positioned the MM letterbox numbers and they fit perfect, everything else kinda fell into place.

The inside cover is handmade paper that I've been hoarding. I bought it back in the early years of 2Peas when handmade paper was a big deal. I pull out my stack periodically, but it doesn't always fit. This time, it's perfect. The color is a really good match the the batik fabric. The stamps used here are from the new clear acrylic sets by Fancy Pants Designs. The scalloped circle is stenciled on.

Another piece of handmade paper (this time, embossed) for the back inside cover. I used the Fancy Pants sets again to stamp a border, then overstamped in a darker indigo. The chipboard swirls are by Maya Road, and are covered with a paper from Scenic Route's original line. I inked the edges with the same indigo ink.

The fabric used to cover the back piece is another remnant, some kind of polyester canvas, I think. It was very easy to stitch on, as opposed to the silk. I wish I'd been able to get more color variation in the thread for this; it doesn't quite match the front, stylewise. But, them's the breaks. I'll keep it in mind for next time.

Overall, I'm really happy with this book. It looks way better in person, and I'm looking forward to having lots of room on the pages to play with.

"26 Reasons Why I Love Star Trek"

I started this book back in April. I finished the box for it at the Spring retreat. As I worked on this, I got the idea to make the cards like baseball cards, sort of. Each letter has a card, with one person, thing or phrase associated with that letter. The fronts are finished, with the letter and a picture. I'll be adding a description to the back at some point (maybe). But for now, it's done. :)

Click on the photo to see the entire album:

30 Days of Scraps

This is my most recent project, all put together. It's another 30 Days of Scraps mini book, based on a mini book in Rebecca Sower's book, Scrapbooking Life's Little Moments.

The pages are all black cardstock, sewn together in several signatures, then glued together and to the covers. I then glued a strip of orange bubble fur to the outside signatures, to cover the knots and also to act as a kind of binding. I used Helmar glue, which is flexible when dry, and it worked great.

The front cover is a mishmash of fun stuff I've been wanting to use. Heidi Swapp (orange flower, number stickers, plastic word "days," plastic letters, and ghost letter "a") Making Memories velvet stickers "days" (I added purple gel pens dots to them), a new scalloped square punch, Technique Tuesday stitching and date stamps, Basic Grey papers (Oh Baby lines), favorite bit of crocheted lace, Lil Davis green label, and a chipboard swirl from one of the Jenni Bowlin kits. Whew. Lots of stuff! But I like it. And I've got more ideas for the inside.

WIPs

Now that bridal shower prep and planning is over, I can concentrate on a few works-in-progress that I've got going. As soon as I have pictures of the things I did for the shower, I'll post those.

• I'm doing another 30 Days journal. I've collected stuff for every day of this month, so far, and the book it will all go in is halfway finished. I need to finish the cover design and glue the innards to the book covers. Then I can start adding in the daily stuff.
• I'm behind on an ATC swap for a message board I'm on. I know what I want to do, it's the execution I'm having trouble with. I need to get cranking, though, because it's due soon.

Those are the two priorities right now. I'm really enjoying working on the 30 Days book. I am trying a sorta-sewn binding, that I realized after I covered the book boards that I should have done differently. But I came up with a solution involving fun fur that I think will be cute, too. :D

Trever's Little Book

A little book I made for Trever's birthday bag. He can't read yet, (he's 2) but I'm sure he won't care. :)

 

The book is a wallet-sized album from the dollar bin at Michaels. I used one of the new Sweetwater paper lines (Small World) and Making Memories alphabet rubons. I used metallic gel pens to add a little sparkle to the patterned papers. (Hard to see in the photos.) There are pages for his immediate family, their dog, his grandparents, and me and Eric.

"Lyrics Book"

This book doesn't have a title yet. I also don't have a photo of the cover, but I think I need to add something to it first, so I'll post it later.

The book is pieces of matboard, bound together. Papers used are Basic Grey (the Black Tie line); the blue flower is a Jolees felt flower on top of a Making Memories paper flower that's been chalked; the little blue flowers are Doodlebug I think. The lyrics are all from Quote Unquote, Vol 3. I added the black border after scanning, to make it easier to post the facing pages of the book.

The photos are part of the series I took last Summer, of the kids. For some reason, the ones of Torie and Tayler are really out of focus and blurry. So frustrating, when the ones of the boys are perfect! But, as you can see, it's okay. They still capture the girls, beautifully.

Covered Mini Book

One of the things that makes CKU fun (and slightly more stressful for procrastinators like me!) is doing the 'get-to-know-you' stuff with other attendees beforehand. Especially if you're not in a dorm. This year, I participated in a secret sister swap with other people in my album track. I love to shop for other people, and especially love to create coordinated kits of stuff so this is right up my alley. Christine was the girl I sent to, and in her questionnaire she said her favorite color is pink. She also likes mini books, and I had just picked up some crushed velvet and matching plaid to make wee bunnies from (hasn't happened yet) so I got an idea.

I sat down that night, popped in Bewitched, and made this:

It started life as a 7Gypsies mini spiral book. I replaced the pages with pink Bazzill and pink vellum, covered it with the velvet and plaid, then made a little charm to hang from the spine (stamped with a Savvy flower and MM initial stamp, then filled in with Glossy Accents).

I'm supremely happy with how it turned out, and just need an excuse to make another one. :D

Beyond the rim of the star-light . . .

Yes, you are correct. I succumbed. I picked this little baby up last night after work (no, I did not pay full price) and am extremely pleased (to say the least).

It's season 2, but as I told Eric there is no continuity to speak of in TOS (The Original Series) so it doesn't matter if you watch them out of order.

The set starts with Amok Time, one of the. best. episodes. ever. with kibbitzing from the peanut gallery (Eric, on his computer behind me) and stellar interaction between the Big Three (Kirk, Spock and McCoy). From there we went to Who Mourns For Adonis? (complete with giant-hand-in-space-crushing-the-Enterprise and the obligatory 60s space beehive plus taped-on dress costume), skipped The Changeling (space robot takes over the ship) in favor of The Doomsday Machine (space robot tries to eat ship) before we started speculating about the storm. Actually, we may have shut it off after WMFA?. CSI was supposed to be on at 8. Instead, we ended up watching local weather radar for 2 hours.

Right before the tornado sirens went off. Next door. It echoes off the buildings in our complex, making for an interesting effect when the weather service guy is talking about where the warnings are. At one point, I actually wondered if we'd get something serious, but we just got big hail and heavy rain. We didn't lose power, either, although the lights flickered right before we heard the sirens.

I knew everything was over when Kahlan finally came out of hiding and settled on the back of the couch behind my head.

So, it was an eventful night. I even got most of the rest of my book done, too. I'm hoping all the pages will fit, because it's already a pretty tight fit and I still have to add a bit more. There may be a last-minute switch of container. We'll see.