Love You Much Bundle Bonus!

As promised, here's another project using the Love You Much bundle. You might have guessed I would create another CD folder mini scrapbook. How could I not, when these are so easy to put together and look so cool when they're done?

To make this book I used card stock in close to cocoa, riding hood red, pink pirouette, regal rose and very vanilla. I also used the Candy Lane designer series paper, the love you much stamp set and the three hearts punch from the Love You Much bundle and riding hood red classic ink (yup, you read that right -- only one ink color throughout the book).

To accessorize I used a variety of ribbons, punches plus some felt fusion too flowers and rhinestone brad.

Of course, the book can be accessorized further, especially as photos and journaling are added to the pages, including the pull out tabs that can be decorated on both sides, if desired!

I like this little book so much I want to share it with my Love You Much Bundle customers. So if you'd like one for yourself, all you need to do is place an order for the Love You Much bundle with me.

To make the book you will be using the Candy Lane designer series paper from the bundle as well as your own adhesive (I recommend sticky strip and snail or the tombow mono multi glue) and riding hood red ink. It would be helpful for you to have the scalloped circle and 1 1/4" circle punches, but these are not necessary. Other than the above mentioned products, you ill receive all pre-cut, pre-scored and pre-punched card stock and all other materials you need to finish your mini scrapbook. And you will not have to pay for the materials or instructions -- the only cost will be $4.80 for priority USPS shipping (no charge for local customers who choose to pick up their materials from me directly).

The Love You Much bundle is $41.48, which reflects a 20% savings over the price of individual items in the bundle if purchased separately. If you choose to have the bundle mailed to me your cost would be $41.48 + $4.15 shipping + $3.54 tax + $4.80 shipping the bundle + materials for the CD folder mini scrapbook back to you for a grand total of $53.97.

If you prefer, you can have the bundle (and any other merchandise you might need) shipped to you directly, in which case your cost would be the total of your order + applicable shipping and tax + 4.80 to ship your CD Folder mini Scrapbook materials.

To order your Love You Much bundle and bonus CD folder mini scrapbook materials and instructions just e-mail me at stampwithdiane@comcast.net and we can work out the order and payment arrangements (I accept paypal, master card, discover, visa and checks). Please note that right now the Candy Lane designer series paper is on back order, so it may take a little while for your bundle to ship to you. I will keep everyone who orders updated with shipping status!

Edited to add:

The Love You Much bundle and this bonus mini scrapbook kit will be available now through January 31. This specific kit is not and will not be available for sale as a stand-alone product -- it is an exclusive bonus available only to my Love You Much bundle customers.

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.

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!

Conventions Swaps - Squash mini album

Tonight's project is a squash album I made for a mini-album swap. This was my first time making this type of album and I was surprised at how easy and how much fun it was.

I used the cutie pie designer paper and card stock in all coordinating colors -- bashful blue, certainly celery, rose red and so saffron. I also used a variety of Stampin' Up! punches, round fire rhinestone brads and the Many Hapy returns set to decorate the album.

Lunchbag Album and Stewie Update

I know I said that today I would show you the clear envelope album that we're going to make at the Mommy and Me Father's day Class, but I didn't have time to finish my prototype, so instead I want to show you this lunch bag album. I made it with white lunch bags and since the sides of the bags are naturally a bit crooked, I didn't even try to measure my card stock to cover the pages edge to edge. Instead I cut all pieces (except the covers) just a little smaller so that the white edges would be exposed. It looks just as good with a heck of a lot less hassle.

For this album I used 2 white lunch bags. This creates 6 pages inside the album plus 3 pull out pages which can be scrapped on both sides (so 12 pages total). That's actually a lot of scrapping space, considering the amount of materials used. And you can make bigger albums by adding more lunch bags -- Cool!

I used the Taffy alphabet and Year after Year to stamp the title and - how embarrassing - because I'm not used to the taffy alphabet yet I made a mistake. can you tell what it is? Well, I won;t make you guess. I used an upside down exclamation point instead of the I. Understandable, but silly nevertheless.

I haven't had a chance to decorate the inside pages yet, so this is the only photo so far. but more will definitely appear down the road.

In the meantime, I thought I would give you all an update on Stewie. Somehow the little bun managed to get all better and is now totally back to his old self! And here are a couple of pictures to prove it.

In the first one he's "devouring" his favorite book (I think it's John Grisham's The Client). I know some of you will think this is what made him sick, but he's been eating books all his life (this particular one for oever a year) and he's alwasy been fine with it. Bunnies needa lot of fiber and their digestive system is completely different from our, so paper and cardboard are actually good for him.

In thi ssecond photo you can see him snacking on something more nutricious -- parsley. What you see on the ground here is about 1/5 of what he eats in fresh greens in a day. At his last vet visit he weighed 6 lbs, and that's just about what he consumes in lettuce every week (that's not counting the paper, cardboard and hay). Can you imagine? I don't even want to think of what I'd look like if I ate my weight in food every week, even if it was all salad. For those of you who are interested, Stewie typically eats Romaine, Red Leaf, Green Leaf, Endive and either Escarole, Parsley, Cilantro or Kale every day (2 different types of lettuce for breakfast, one for dinner and then 2 right before bed). He also gets a baby carrot at bedtime and 1 or 2 pellets (bunny kibble) at dinner. On occasion he'll get a strawberry, a small piece of apple, plain cheerios or a yogurt treat, but not too often because his digestive system doesn't handle too much of that very well.

Anyway, tha's probably way more than you ever wanted to know about bunnies, but if you have any questions feel free to as and I'll try to answer as best as I can. I'm certainly no expert on bunnies' medical ailments, but I can tell you more about Stewie!

scrapbook on your wall

I don't mean that you should literally turn your wall into a scrapbook page, but pretty close. Keep reading to see the project we'll be making at my May 28th class.

Yesterday I mentioned that now is a great time to become a demonstrators because new demonstrators can register for Convention on Tuesday. Great, you say, but what's so special about Convention? Well, Convention, just like all the other Stampin' up! events, is a great place to pick up loads of inspiration and creative ideas that will keep you stampin' all year long! I just looked over my notes from last Convention and I haven't had time to use half of the ideas I picked up there. So for a busy demonstrator or for a hobbyist who wants to see the latest and greatest trend and projects, this treasure trove of creative ideas is priceless!

One of the trends we were introduced to at last Convention was using stamping in home decor. This idea was reinforced in January at our Leadership meeting, where we were shown this adorable scrapbook wall hanging made with our new small On Board Book Basics. I filed this idea for future use, and now can happily offer it to you in a month that features a fantastic special on all of our chipboard products and is the month in which we are supposed to celebrate scrapbooking.

While I loved the project shown to us at Leadership, I wanted to create something a little brighter and perhaps a bit more unisex. So I decided to use the Summer Picnic Double Sided Designer Series Paper from the Occasions mini catalog. Here is my final result. No pictures yet (I guess I always leave the hardest part for last) but you can get the idea where they will go from the placement of the mats.

I used a whole bunch of different accessories to decorate the panels, from jumbo eyelets, to chipboard, to build-a-brads to a wide a variety of ribbons. I really like the way it turned out. It's just a perfect thing to hang during the summer months that really don't have too many decorative occasions of their own.

Since this is a wall hanging for my home, I made it "couple" themed. So read in order, the captions say "you and me, happy together, just because." At class participants will have access to these and all my other stamps, so they will be able to use whatever theme best suits their needs. This Summer Picnic designer paper is so versatile, both on the sides I chose to feature and the reverse sides, that it will go with just about any theme.

Here is a close-up shot of the first panel. Here I used a stamp from the Text and Texture set (stamped in versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder), some old olive poly twill ribbon and bashful blue striped ribbon, circle punches, pewter jumbo eyelets, chipboard discs and build a brads. In retrospect I might have skipped the build a brads which, using the designer paper I chose, reminded Bill of eyeballs. At class participants will be able to alter the design and skip the build-a-brads entirely or use them in a different manner.

This is a photo of the second panel. The sentiment (heat embossed in white) is from the Happy Everything set. I went light on the accessories for this page, using only a bit of the twill old olive ribbon from the Jersey ribbon originals assortment. The bashful blue mat (purposely cut in funky angles) if popped up on dimensionals.
And here is the last panel. I heat embossed another sentiment from the Text and Texture set, used some red zig-zag stitched ribbon from the Jersey ribbon originals assortment as a boarder between the designer papers, used some pieces from the On Board Accent assortment covered with more Summer Picnic designer paper as both accents and the main mat for the photo, added some punched stars and more striped ribbon and yet another ribbon from the jersey ribbon originals assortment. I attached the chipboard tag to the base with pop-up glue dots to accommodate the thickness of the various ribbons.

So there you go -- the May chipboard scrapbook home decor class project. If you would like to make this project be sure to register and pay the $20 class fee by May 16. The class will take place on may 28, 6:30-8:30 in Itasca. Please note that due to the nature of chipboard assortments, not everyone will be able to duplicate this project exactly. However, there will be plenty of chipboard for everyone to be able to personalize their projects! And, as I mentioned before, all of my stamps will be available to help with the personalization as well.

it's so transparent

Yes, you guessed it. Tonight I'm featuring yet another card from my clearly delightful acetate techniques class. This one turned out well, but was a bit difficult to photograph. When I put the gray background behind it the acetate reflected the camera flash. Without the background you cuoldn't see the stamped images. So I'm posting both bad photos in the hopes that you can see beyond the photograph and imagine how cute this card looks in person.

The card is really very simple, using my favorite baroque motifs set. It's been more than six months since I first purchased this set and I still love it just as much as I did in the beginning. It's just so darned versatile!

This card featured the acetate base technique so, obviously, I started with a 5.5x5.8" piece of acetate and folded it in half. This is where a bone folder really comes in handy because you want a nice tight crease at the fold line.

I stamped the swirl image twice on the back of the card. After the acetate dried I layered the groovy guava and whisper white squares over the back of the base. For the front, I stamped the flower image in groovy guava on whisper white and trimmed it out with my craft and rubber scissors. I colored in the center with my apricot appeal stampin' write marker. I punched the little holes with my 1/16" handheld punch and added a flower punched with the new boho flowers punch to the center. I finished this off with a brad and used a dimensional to mount it to a really rust scalloped circle.

I stamped the Happy Anniversary sentiment on the apricot appeal card stock and mounted the flower on the outside of the front of the card and the sentiment on the inside of the front of the card. To finish off the card I stamped the little flower image from Baroque Motifs on the outside of the card with white stayzon ink.

This was the first card I ever made using this technique and I really like it! I can't wait to try it out again!

Oh No Another flip book -- and I've been tagged!

It just occurred to me that we have an awful lot of December birthdays in our family. And my cousin and his wife just contributed to the bunch with the birth of their first baby -- a beautiful little girl! Of course any new baby in our family has to have a flip book of her own (find the flip book tutorial here), so I made one for her as part of the baby gift. I've already seen lots of gorgeous pictures of her, so I know her parents will not have any problem filling out the book!

And on another note, my friend Julie from the Pixieshire blog tagged me the other day, so I thought I would tell you yet another 7 random facts about me -- and hope I'm not repeating myself. Here goes:

1. I really dislike olives -- but I love olive oil. go figure!

2. I am so very envious of that guy who makes a living building sculptures out of legos. I adore! legos.

3. I'm not a big jewelry person. Most days I just wear my wedding band, engagement ring and a watch. It takes a really special occasion to see me wearing a necklace, bracelet or earrings.

4. I liked I Am Legend, but for my "end of the world virus" movies I prefer 28 days later.

5. I never, ever, thought I would say this when the announcement came out that Daniel Craig was going to be the new bond, but he may just be the very best Bond ever.

6. I have recently become addicted to the show Top Chef and can't wait for the new season in Chicago. Utensils Down, hands up!

7. One of my New Year's eve traditions is having Chinese food for dinner. Yum!

So I'm off to each some fried rice and eff rolls. I hope you all have a very Happy new Year! I still have to figure out who to tag, but that will have to wait until tomorrow!

A new little something

Later today (I can't believe it's Sunday already!) I will be attending a friend's' baby shower. She just recently gave birth to two little girls. I wanted to make her something very personal and special as part of the gift, so I made her a flip book.

I won't bother showing you every page, because you've seen plenty of these on this blog already, but I thought I'd show you the cover and a couple of pictures of the inside. I'm really happy with how it came out, especially with the double stitched grosgrain ribbon stem and leaves on the cover.

To make this flip book I used the Special Delivery Girl Simply Scrappin' Kit. Pretty much everything I needed to make the book (actually, to make up to 2 books) was included in the kit. I only added some ribbon and a couple of brads. I also used a couple of our brand new punches -- the scalloped circle punch on the "flower" on the cover and the 5 petal flower punch to make the flowers that help keep closed the little "file folders" that will hold the journaling notes.

All of the other card stock, designer papers and adhesive die cuts came from the kit. And I have to say I really like this kit, and not just for baby girls. While the kit is clearly intended for scrapping baby girl photos, the fact that the colors are not necessarily traditional baby colors and that the adhesive die cuts are not all geared towards babies makes it possible to use this kit for other occasions as well.

Each Stampin' Up! Simply Scrappin kit kit includes 2 sheets each of 3 different designs of adhesive die cuts, which was also for this project, because it allowed me to create identical little data pages for each twin. Note also that on the front cover, where the adhesive die cut that is used for the center of the flower normally says girl, I actually changed it to say girls. This was my friend Jojo's brilliant idea -- she suggested that I simply use the Signo white gel pen to write in the letter "s" at the end of the world girl. I did that, but the "s" seemed a little disjointed, so I solved that problem by outlining all the other letters in the white gel pen as well. Now you can't even tell that the word "girls" wasn't there from the beginning.

So did you notice anything else about tonight's project post? How about the photos? Yup --I have a new camera! Yay! This means that tomorrow I will be able to finally start sending e-mails to the GiftRAK whiners and also that I will no longer have to upload "flat" images to the blog. It also means that I am assured of being able to take lots and lots of photos at Convention, which I will be able to share with you upon my return. I can hardly wait!