Another CD Folder mini scrapbook

I know I said there wouldn't be anything new here for a few days, but I did have this CD Folder mini scrapbook that I used in the directions for this class-by-mail project. Obviously it's very raw and unfinished, and I'm really looking forward to adding photos and journaling to these pages and to decorating the front cover.

This is a bird's eye view of the scrapbook. Just a view I haven't shown before that I thought was kind of cool. Keep in mind that there is a pullout page with both the front and back page to decorate inside each of the three center "pages."

Also, I have a reminder. Tune in tomorrow for a special Holiday extravaganza bundle sale from Stampin' Up! I'm not sure what bundles Stampin' Up! has put together for us, but I'm sure they will be fabulous.

Panic!

That's the feeling I always have at the end of the day when I haven't had a chance to stamp anything new for the blog. Sometimes, like Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week, I just plain give up and don't post anything. Other times I try to find something, anything, really, that I haven't posted in the past.

That's exactly why you're seeing a photo of a May scrapbook layout in the middle of November. This was the May layout for my book of me club. I think the pinwheels make it look really cute!

And yes, as you might have guessed, still no stamping for me. And, in all likelihood, there won't be any stamping in the coming days either as, once agian, I must pack up my stamping supplies to make the party room ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. So I guess this is just to let you know that if there are no updates here for a while, it's to be expected. I may be taking a stamping holiday. But no worries -- I'll be back in December with more fun stuff!

Simply scrappin' again

Sorry I've been gone for so long -- the closer we get to the holidays the crazier and busier my life gets. So while I usually really look forward to writing my daily log entries, this past week there just wasn't any time to do so.

And, of course, while I'm back to blogging, I still haven't returned to stamping, since this is yet another design I made with my left over pieces from the I wish simply scrappin' kit. The images you see here are either adhesive die cut borders form the kit or rub-ons form the Old Saint Nick assortment.

If you'd like to get your own I wish simply scrappin' card kit with enough materials to make 20 cards + plenty of left overs to make more with just the addition of some of your own card stock and envelopes, click here for details. And if you don't need a kit but just want to play with the different rub-on assortments, be sure to take advantage of the current special: Purchase $20 of Stampin' Up! products and get 20% off all rub-on assortments. You can shop right now by clicking on the link in the box at the top right hand corner of this blog and then following the "shop now" link.

On Board Scrapbook Centerpiece

Tonight's project is a sample of the scrapbook centerpiece we'll be making at my December Itasca Community Library class. I love this project for so many reasons. First, it takes scrap booking out of the album and into home decor, allowing us to share this craft with everyone who enters the home. Second, it's decorated on both sides, so it's pretty from any angle. And third, because one side is seasonal, it can be kept out long after the other Holiday decorations are put away.

To make this project I started with one piece of the large on board book basics (they come 4 to a pack, so you can make one for yourself and give three away or make one for each season of the year). For the Christmas side, I covered it with riding hood red card stock and old olive patterns designer series paper, with a piece of the riding hood red striped ribbon from the holiday mini covering the seam. I used an image form the Big on Christmas set as my title, stamping it in basic black on naturals ivory card stock and coloring with a blender pen and stampin' write markers. I added a riding hood red mat to make the title stand out. I then punched different shapes out of riding hood red card stock, stamped them in encore gold with images form the Winter Post set, added pieces punched with the word window punch out of brushed gold card stock to look like ornament tops and used the elastic gold cord to make the "ornaments" look like they were hanging form the top of the page. The photo mat is a 5.25x7.25 piece of naturals ivory card stock, just perfect for a 5x7" photo.

On the reverse side I used baja breeze card stock and pacific point patterns designer series paper. I stamped the baja breeze card stock with various size snowflakes form the Snow Swirled set in baja breeze ink. I then stamped the title (again, from the Big on Christmas set) in basic black on whisper white card stock and colored it using a blender pen. I added a pacific point mat and punched a horizontal slot in both layers, which enabled me to tie on a piece of baja breeze striped grosgrain ribbon. I added a 5.25x7.25" mat of pacific point card stock, wrapped with more of the pacific point striped grosgrain ribbon. As a final decoration I added two of the felt flurries.

The best part of this project was that even though it involves two separate scrap layouts, it really does not take long to put together. Which is a good thing, because the class is only scheduled for 1-1.5 hours! I just hope everyone who attends will enjoy making this holiday project.

Recycled layout

OK, I admit it, I took an easy way out tonight. I had a few of these pre-cut card elements left over after last week's library class, and I wanted to use them but did not want to use the same stamp set as the one I used at class, so I just substituted the image from the Sleigh Bells Ring set for the image from the Home for Christmas set. I also decided to use the striped grosgrain from the Holiday mini instead of the riding hood red striped ribbon from the main catalog. And I substituted the greeting from the Sincere Salutations set for the sentiments in the sleigh bells ring set.

It's not a fancy card, but I love this image and I like the way it turned out. Hopefully the folks who receive this version of the card will like it too!

CD Folder Scrapbook

Lately a lot of stampers have been making scrapbooks out of CD folders. In fact, a CD folder scrapbook was one of the projects presented at this year's Stampin' Up! Convention by a top SU demonstrator. And I had a chance to work on a version of the CD scrapbook at our Stampers in Stitches November demo meeting.

Of course, as neat as the scrapbook sample at the meeting was, I couldn't just leave things there, so I decided to make my own version. My version uses just one CD folder and instead of tabs and mini envelopes inside, it uses CD envelopes as inner pockets/pages to maximize large spaces within the book.

This is the first two pages you see when you open my book. I decorated the CD envelope with designer paper, but I cut out a circle with my coluzzle template to correspond with the clear window in the CD envelope, so that it's possible to see through the window the photo on the front of the page that slips into the pocket. The back of the slip-in page can also be decorated, though the back side can only be seen then the page is pulled out of the pocket.

In this photo I pulled out the pink pirouette page that is slipped into the CD envelope so that you can see a little better what I meant above, just in case it wasn't clear.

This is the last CD envelope page. All in all, counting the front and reverse side of the slip-in page as well as the back of the CD envelope, there are 11 surfaces to decorate. Four of them are 5x5", the pull out ages are 4.75x4.5" and the back pocket pull out is 3.5x4.5".

In this sample book I included some photo mats, but these are merely there to show what potential layouts might look like. The nice thing about the size of this mini scrapbook is that it can actually accommodate a wide variety of sizes of photos or other memorabilia.

So now that you've seen the scrapbook, maybe you'd like to make on of your own? If so, you're in luck. Now through December 15 I will be selling these CD folder mini scrapbook kits. You can either get one in the color scheme shown above (using the Parisian Summer designer paper as well as card stock in so saffron, bravo burgundy, pink pirouette and sahara sand) or you can request a color scheme that corresponds with another current designer paper. I will accomodate requests on a first come - first reserve basis, so if you have your heart set on a specific designer paper place your order sooner rather than later.

Each kit will include the card stock, designer paper, CD folder, CD envelopes and ribbon as well as instructions needed to create the mini scrapbook. All the pieces will be pre-cut and, where required, pre-punched and pre-scored. The only thing not included in the kit is adhesive (I recommend using sticky strip and SNAIL). The cost of the kit will be $10.00 for 1, $18.00 for 2, $24 for 3 or $7.00 each for 4 or more kits. Shipping will be an additional $4.80 for 1-4 kits and 9.60 for 5 or more kits shipped to the same address.

To place an order for the CD Folder mini scrapbook kit, just contact me at stampwithdiane@comcast.net. These mini scrapbooks make a great gift, too, so get one for yourself and for everyone on your Christmas list!

Holly Wreath Christmas

Here's a pretty traditional card using the holly stamp from the sleight bells ring stamp set. I stamped the image five times in basic gray ink on whisper white card stock in a circular pattern and watercolored it using a blender pen and real resd and handsome hunter ink. In the center of the "wreath" I added a large oval punched out of real red card stock and a sentiment form the Best Yet Level 1 hostess set stamped in handsome hunter on whisper white and puncehd out using the designer label punch.

I punched the corners of the whisper white card stock and did the same thing with the handsome hunter mat. I then added handsome hunter and whisper white strips decorated with 5/8" real red grosgrain ribbon to a real red card base and added the matted image.

photo holder ornament

Does this ever happen to you? You find something in a store that you think is neat and the price is right and you're certain you can turn it into something really fun and useful but when you get it home it just goes into a box or a back of a drawer and you never realize its true potential? I hope someone out there answered yes, because I sure would not want to be alone on this one.


Anyway, a couple of years ago I found these round white photo holders. They were kind of plain, but nicely finished in the back (with a velvet backing, no less, as shown in this photo) and I just knew I could alter them in some way with stamping that would punch them up a bit. But then I set them aside and, frankly, completely forgot about them until the other day, when I was cleaning out a closet and came across them again.


Not wanting to forget again, I decided to decorate one right away. I was thrilled to find that one of the coluzzle circles was a perfect for to cover the front of the photo holder. Even though the space for the photo on the original holders was square, cutting out that square would be really difficult so I opted to go with another circle in the center cut out with the coluzzle. For this holder I used a piece of scrap decorative card stock from an old simply scrappin' kit (sorry, I can't remember the name). I colored the dots and some of the stripes with my gold painty to add some shimmer. I then added some small stars punched out of the brushed gold card stock and a sentiment from so many sayings stamped in real red on whisper white, punched out with the word window punch and layered on top of a large oval punched form the brushed gold card stock. I threaded some real red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon through the pre-drilled home at the top of the photo holder. I then adhered the decorated designer cards stock over the front of the photo holder. Finally I found a photo to insert on top of this week's TV listing book -- the chick form King of Queens. I would have put in a photo of someone I knew, but there wasn't time to get the size right.

So there you have it. A fun photo-holder ornament for the Christmas tree. I can't wait to make more.

Snow Season

Here's a super simple holiday card. Start with a confetti white card base and randomly stamp the card front with three different size snow flakes in brocade blue ink. Clean off the smallest snow flake and stamp it again with versamark ink, then emboss with silver embossing powder. Take a strip of brocade blue card stock and tear it. Attach to the top of the card front. Stamp sentiment on the brocade blue strip in versamark ink and heat emboss with silver embossing powder.

That's it. Pretty simple, huh? You have to love a card that uses only 1 stamp set (snow swirled) 2 colors of card stock, two colors of ink and one color of embossing powder. It doesn't get any easier that this, and the card is flat, too, so no worries about extra postage. Woo hoo!

Brilliant Happiness

I know you're all probably really tired of faux cloisonne, but I love how this card turned out and I just had to post it. I promise it's the last faux cloisonne card you'll see for a long while!

Anyway, this design kind of came together on the fly during tonight's technique class. For our first card we made the leaf card that I posted yesterday. I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do for a second card. I briefly toyed with the idea of letting each person choose her own page from a magazine on which t stamp and then tailoring the card around the colors on that page. I also tore out this page with a cool image and lots of blue hues, because I thought it was really pretty (in real life it's an ad for a cruise line.) As we were stamping the first card in gold, it occurred to me that we could use silver embossing powder on this blue page, stamp 3 flowers from the Embrace Life set and set them off against a shimmery white background, and a card was born! After that all I did was choose two complimentary colors for the base and mat (brilliant blue and tempting turquoise) and a sentiment (everyone chose their favorite sentiment -- I chose this one from the Happiness Always Level 3 hostess set, which I just love!

The cards turned out great. They are actually better in real life than in the photo. We used dimensionals to pop up two of the flowers so in person the card has more of a 3-d finish and the shimmery white background goes great with the glossy magazine paper and the silver embossing. It's so cool, even Bill liked the design! When I asked why he liked the card, he said "it's shiny." And then he said something even more funny. He said "I must be a fish -- I'm attracted to shiny things." LOL! Only a guy would think of something like that.

Stitched Exotics Christmas

This card is a perfect example that just because a stamp set is not Christmas related, does not mean that you can't use it to make a holiday card. On this card I used the Stitched Exotics stamp set. I first stamped the kiwi kiss swirls using the stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up in a circle. I then stamped the flower on whisper white card stock in rose red, first full strength and then stamped off. I cur out both flower images and layered them, with the full strength flower on top. I attached them in the center of my swirl "wreath" and used my signo white gel pen to color the center of the top flower.

I then stamped the sentiment from the All Holidays stamp set and added some double stitched rose red grosgrain for decoration. I attached the whisper white card stock to the kiwi kiss mat and then to the rose red card base and the card was finished.

Deer Friends with Chocolate!

Today's project is a little box filled with Hershey's miniatures and decorated very simply using only the Deer Friends stamp set, some punches, ribbon and a brad. What an easy way to make someone's holiday!

I started by wrapping the bottom of a closed box with a strip of real red card stock. I kept the box closed to make certain teh card stock would not interfere with closing the box later. that's it for box decoration.

For the belly band I used a piece of 5/8" wide chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon. I measured to make certain the ribbon was a good fit and stapled the ends together. I then punched a scalloped circle out of real red card stock, punched a 1 3/8" circle out of chocolate chip card stock and layered them together. I used my real red and chocolate chip markers to color the deer friends image and stamp it on whisper White card stock twice. I punched the whole image with the 1 1/4" circle punch and the reindeer with the 1" circle punch. I layered these two images together with a dimensional and added them to the real red and chocolate chip mats. I punched a small hole in all four layers and added a real red brad, which I also used to attach the image to the ribbon.

Inside the box I placed 8 Hershey's miniatures. I have the fall assortment with the shiny foil wrappers, so I just left them as is, but if you have the everyday package you can always make them prettier by wrapping each nugget with a scrap piece of card stock or designer paper.

Holiday Peace

Tonight's card is an outright CASE of the card we stamped at Glenda's demo meeting last weekend. I copied the same layout and used the same stamp set (though a different image and stamp set. I also used different colors. But the credit for the card still goes to Glenda. Here's the recipe:

Stamps: To you and Yours, Merry & Bright

Paper: Brocade Blue, Basic Gray, Whisper White

Ink: brocade blue, whisper white craft

Accessories: basic gray taffeta ribbon, 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches, dazzling diamonds.

Number 22

Here's another card you can make with the I wish simply scrappin' kit and 1/2 a sheet of kraft card stock for the base. It looks easy, but actually it does require a little more work than the other ones because this card really uses the scraps of the scraps. See the loop on top of the hanging "ornament" and the red frame around the square sentiment? Those are the outlines that are left on your adhesive die cuts sheets after you use the die cuts. They're still adhesive and pretty, so I just took my scissors and put the outside out by hand (the inside is die cut). I love cutting stuff out, so I didn't mind a little hand-trimming for this cute lacy scalloped border effect.

The rest of the card is just the die cuts and designer paper on the kraft card base. Super easy! And if you don't want to cut out the border you can always trip a piece of the red textured card stock from the kit to make a mat for the sentiment.

See this post for my make-a-stack by mail kit of 20 cards made from 1/2 of the I wish simply scrappin' kit and 1 sheet of the Old Saint Nick rub-ons.

Seasonal Flurries

I love winter and I love snow! I know most people do not share my enthusiasm for cold weather, but I get positively giddy every time there's even a chance of a snow storm. I know it can be a pain to drive in and shovel, but to me there's nothing more beautiful than the world covered in a fresh dusting of snow!

Of course, as luck would have it, it's November and 70 degrees in Chicago. It was great for the kids on Halloween, but not so great for winter lovers like me. So since nature won't give me any snow, I decided to make my own!

For this card I started with a naturals white base and added a baja breeze mat stamped with the mid sized snowflake from the Snow Swirled set in baja breeze ink. I added a square layer of riding hood red card stock stamped with the small snowflake and sentiment from the snow swirled set in whisper white craft ink. Next I added a piece of riding hood red patterns designer paper adorned with a cheater bow made out of striped baja breeze grosgrain ribbon. Finally I layered three sizes of felt flurries in whisper white, baja breeze and riding hood red, threaded all three onto a clear rhinestone brad from the pretties kit and attached the snowflake to the card front using a dimensional.

So there's another easy Christmas card that took no time to put together. I think the felt flurries are a particularly nice accent, especially with the clear rhinestone brad in the center. If you haven't purchased the felt flurries yet, what are you waiting for? These are too much fun to play with -- you have to get your own pack!

And on a more serious note, tomorrow is election day. This is not the right forum to get into the politics of this election, so without going into details and preferences I would just like to encourage everyone to vote. Too many Americans take their democratic rights for granted and do not take their citizenship responsibilities seriously enough. Just because voting is not mandatory does not mean that it's right for voters to stay at home. With all the problems in the US and the world right now, we owe it to ourselves to do more than sit on the sidelines -- we have to actively participate in resolving these problems, and the first step is to exercise our right to choose our government representatives. So head on out tomorrow and vote! Thanks!

Scrap & polish

I am so excited! Not only did Bill and I manage to take down and put away all of the Halloween decorations today, we also managed to squeeze in a trip to Target!

Post-Halloween shopping at Target is a family tradition -- it's mostly how we get new decorations and prizes for next year's pumpkin carving contest. But this year, before we hit the Halloween aisles, we ventured into the Dollar spot, and guess what I found? These adorable micro bottles of nail polish. Three .07 fl. oz bottles for just $1.00! They were so cute! I just knew I had to pick some up and think of something to do with them for Christmas.

It took a little trial and error on the measuring and scoring part (the snowman version was my first trial and is very much less than perfect) but I now have all the measurements and I can hardly contain myself because in addition to being totally adorable, this project used nothing but scraps! Woo Hoo!

Want to know how to make these nail polish holders? Easy Peasy! Start with a 5.5 inch long strip of card stock in the color of your choice between 3/4 and 1 1/4 inch wide (for reference, the red strip in the photo is 1 inch wide and the pink is 1 1/4 inch wide.) Score the strip along the length at 3/8, 3/4, 2 3/8, 3 1/8, 4 3/4, and 5 1/8 inches. Use a pop-up glue dot to secure the nail polish bottle to the center of the strip. Fold the strip around the bottle along the score lines so that the top two tabs meet in the center.

Use a 1/8" hand held punch to punch two holes through the center of the top tabs and secure closed with ribbon that coordinates with the colors in your selected image. Stamp and color your image and punch out using the shape of your choice (I used the scalloped square, but most other shapes would work as well.) Stamp the same shape for the tag in the back, attach both punched pieces to the front and the back and you're done.

I think this would make a perfect stocking stuffer for a tween, teen, best girlfriend or female co-worker. It's a fun, hand-stamped present and the recipient need never know that you made it from your scraps! I know I'll be making a bunch of them this Christmas!