Fast and Easy Christmas Present Idea

If you’re like me, you need some ideas for people you need to give a gift to, but you’re on a tight budget, and don’t have loads of time, ether.  Here’s an idea I had recently: Recover a NoteBook!  All the hard work (binding the paper, cutting the paper, etc) is done.  You only need 2 sheets of paper.

First, you’ve got to find some notebooks that are spiral bound, but the ones that aren’t actually spiral, but that funny type you can open.  I’ve found these lovely 6×6 notebooks at ASDAS (UK version of WalMart) for only £1.50 each.

Once you open the spine, you can pull the covers off.

Once you get the covers off, line up your new covering paper.  I’ve cut the paper to be 1 inch square bigger than the cover.  So, this is a 6×6 cover, and I’ve cut the paper to be 7×7.  Figure out which direction you want your paper to run, and mark the holes of your spine to match.  This is really only important if you’ve got a pattern that has a definite ‘up’.

(If you want to use your printer to do lettering, this is the point to do it.  I hand calligraphy my paper, so I skip that step.)

Once you’ve got it laid out, smear the top of your cover with adhesive.  I’m using plain old white craft glue (like Elmer’s).  If you smear the whole cover, you’ll help avoid air pockets and rippled paper.

With the paper upsidedown, with any up markings lined up correctly, place the cover on the paper, squaring the corners.  I try and get the binding edge as close as possible so that the paper doesn’t overlap the holes on the back later.

Next, put a tad of adhesive on the corners, and fold over.

Now, make sure you get enough adhesive on the edges so that there won’t be any loose bit to catch and tear later, then fold the paper edge up and affix firmly.  I use a popsicle stick to make it tight.

Once you’ve got the edges all folded over, add a tiny dot of glue into each of the holes for the spine.  This serves two purposes.  1 – it softens the paper to punch through, minimising over tearing.  2 – it adheres the edges to the insides of the holes so it doesn’t pull up later.

Then, once you’ve got the holes touched with adhesive, flip it over.  If you’ve got a light box, it’s useful in for the next step.  If not, just hold the cover up to the light to find the hole.  Then, using  a thin tool (long needle, or other tool), punch through the front of each hole, and wiggle around.

Once you’ve done that, you’ve finished the main body of the cover.  All that’s left now is to repeat the process on the back (if desired), reattach the covers to the spine and close the links back up.

And you’re done.

Decorate to taste, and enjoy the results.  Looks very impressive, but doesn’t take much time at all.  I’ve used the big flowers from this post to decorate the books.

Enjoy, and Happy Christmas Crafting!

Christmas Cards

I’m really not much of a card maker.  I kind of feel that you can get sufficiently cute cards for reasonable prices, and it’s not like it’s something that’s going to be treasured for years (mostly), so for me, a store bought card means just as much as a hand made one.  That’s just me.  I realise that a lot of people enjoy making them.  Great.  Go right ahead.

However, I’m in charge of the monthly activities for the Women’s Organisation at my Church.  As it’s November, people were more or less making noises about wanting to do something Christmas Crafty.  Ok.  Meaning . . . ?  So my assistant and I put our heads together and came up with these goodies to eat:

This decoration:

This gift idea:

(*Note* None of the above photos are mine.  Didn’t manage to get photos of all the finished products.)

This advent calendar:

And I worked out these Christmas Cards:

The cards use Cricut Carts: Storybook for the plaques, Doodle Charms for the trees and Home Accents for the snowflakes.  The Christmas bobble is a printable stamp from The Cutting Cafe.

All the feedback I’ve had so far has been very positive.  It’s tough, though, because usually you don’t get to hear much of the reactions.  However, we had 25+ ladies come, which is the most yet!  When I was first called (assigned to do this task), there were maybe 3 or 4 sisters coming out every month.  After 2 months, we had about 9.  After 3, 17.  Last night, I lost track after 25.  So, I guess we’re putting on good activities.  Would be nice to have something really concrete said, though, so we can continue to improve.

If you’d like any directions, feel free to leave me a comment.

Large Paper Flowers

Aren’t these adorable? They’re super easy, and so eye catching.  I just learned how to do them yesterday.  That blue one up in the right hand corner is my very first attempt.  Cute, eh?  That’s how easy it is!  Success in one go.

First of all, let me clearly state, I did not create this technique.  But, I don’t remember where I got the instructions from (which is pathetic, considering I only learned yesterday).  So, here’s my version of the tut for these large paper flowers:

1 – Take a sheet of PP 5×5″

2 – Fold it in half diagonally once

Twice

Three times.  I use a Popsicle Stick to help make the crease sharp.

3 – Holding the triangle with the cut edge up, cut a semi-circle along the top, rather like you would if you were making a paper heart.  Sharp scissors are essential for this, as you’re cutting through several layers of paper.

( If you want to ink the edges, I suggest doing so at this point.)

4 – When you open the paper, you’ll discover this lovely flower taking shape.

5 – Crinkle the paper up.  This does 2 things: 1 – gives it a lovely vintage feel.  2 – makes the paper easier to manipulate for the next steps.

(If you want to do any additional distressing/inking, this is the point to do it)

6 – Flip the flower upside down, pattern down.  Set your jumbo brad in the centre.

7 – Gather the petals behind the brad, pinching along the tines of the brad.  Wrap a small elastic (1″) 2-3 times around.  You want to leave it as elastic as possible, whilst still cinching the paper in.  You should have something that resembles a Badminton Shuttlecock at this point.

8 – Spread the petals back out, and set the tines of the brad.  This is where the elasticity of the rubber band is important.  The more stretch, the flatter your flower can be.

9 – Ta da!  Now your flower is ready for any additional decorative touches (I quite like using a bit of bling/glitter).

10 – Use on a project.

If you need further instructions or additional clarification on any point, feel free to leave me a note here, and I’ll get back to you.

Wish I’d Known Then . . .

I know, you probably think I’ve fallen off the edge of the world.  It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  It’s not actually true.  I just got swamped with PhD work.  But, I’m back on top of things, more or less.  I’ll be dropping out again in a couple weeks due to lecturing duties (Midterm essays are due.  I hate marking essays.  It’s shocking how often I say something to them, and they still get it wrong.  *sigh*)  But, for the moment, I’ve managed to finish the mini album for Grandma!  I’m really excited about it.

I made quite a lot of mistakes on this album.  For example, all the pages are the same orientation, ‘up’ is always where the holes are for the ribbon.  Now, if I’d been smart (or experienced) I’d have done every other page with the holes at the  ‘bottom‘.  That’s because as it stands, you have to flip the book around.  If I’d done it with alternating ‘up’, you could have seen both pages at the same time.  Oh, well . . . never mind.  I know for the next time!

One of the other things I learned was an accidental discovery.  About halfway through the process I inked the edge of my paper.  What I noticed was the punch that had.  Really gave a ‘finished’ feel to the page.  So, I went back and inked the edge of every page.  Love it.  Not only does it leave the page looking complete, but also, it adds to the thematic nature of the entire album.

That’s one of the other things I learned, though that was more or less planned.  When doing a mini, if you choose a colour pallet, stick with it.  For this particular album, I used the DCWV Latte Stack.  On one page, quite early in the album, I didn’t use that colour scheme.  And it stuck out like a sore thumb.  So, I had to go back and pull the page apart and start over.  NOT EASY when you’re using a permanent liquid glue.  Ended up having to use a craft knife/exacto blade to cut the top level of the chipboard off as well.  And managed to slice my finger open.  No fun.  So, I learned that if you’ve got a theme, don’t drop it.  Random colours work fine if the whole album is random.  But if you’re going for a theme, stick to it.   And, I quite like the thematic idea for a mini.  After all, you’re choosing a very small number of photos for a very specific reason.  They’ve got a theme, so you might as well augment that.

Something else I learned, though I haven’t had a chance to do anything about it, is that if you print the photos off in wallet size, that can help.  I’m not sure that it’s completely necessary, though.  But, it might be fun to have a play with.  I quite liked off centering the photos and letting them run off the edge of the page.  I also think that it will work with some photos better than others.  But, it’s something to keep in mind for the next mini.

So, that’s what I wish I’d known when I started.  Now on to the bits that you’re really interested in.  Photos!!

Guest Scrapping

I’m a hard-core dancer.  Like, I’ll travel huge distances and dance for insane numbers of hours til silly o’clock in the morning.  I go every Monday when I go into London to teach my class at Queen Mary University of London.  The other week, one of my online Scrapping MB friends sent me a link to her blog.  It had this darling video of her DD and Nephew doing a Cha-Cha at the school’s talent show.  They were so adorable.  So, obviously, being scrapbookers, the first question I ask is, ‘Have you scrapped these photos?  I wanna see!’  And I was amazed when she said that she just hadn’t been able to figure out something to do.  So I asked if she’d mind if I gave it a shot.  I’d taken one look at the photos and thought of the old Gershwin song ‘I Got Rhythm’.  So Miss Thang agreed and sent me the files to print off.  I got bogged down in PhD deadline stuff for a bit, so today’s the first day I had a chance to do anything with it.  I’m really pleased with the results!  It’s an 8×8, and it’s very simple, but just so much fun.  The font is ‘Gatsby’ which fits the same era as the song lyrics, and the sharp angles and clean lines are also very Art Deco, as are the strong colours.  I went over the red lettering with a red glitter pen to give it just a bit of punch.Thanks, Miss Thang, for letting me play in your photos!

Covered!

A bit of additional progress on the mini-album of the road trip with my Gran.  I’ve done the front and back.  The album is now officially called ‘Road Trip’.  The papers are all from the DCWV Late stack.  Really like that stack.  Great papers in fabulous colours.  They’re all good patterns that are pretty easy to use.  All the shapes/words are off ‘Going Places’ Cricut cart.  The squiggly arrow has been stretched from the one on the cart (Design Software.  LOVE that thing!)  It goes from Florida to Michigan, as we did, though we went via Canada.  Yeah.  Long story.  Watch this space!

Anyway, still waiting for the photos to arrive.  Don’t think I’m brave enough to cover the pages before handling the photos.  I totally admire those ladies who can.  Not me.  Just don’t have it in me.

Progress for Christmas

I’ve been practicing on the chipboard cutting thing. I think I’ve just about got it sorted. Some of them are actually looking pretty good. Others, a little shaky. However, because I’m going to cover them, I figure that it doesn’t matter if they’re a bit scared in the preliminary steps.  Basically, what I’ve learnt was, start off with the blade length on 3.  Cut.  Unload mat.  Reload mat.  Increase blade length to 4.  Cut.  Unload mat.  Reload mat.  Increase blade length to 5.  Cut.  I’ve not had success in cutting on either 5.5 or 6, but that might be just me.  After I finished cutting with the Cricut, I had to go in with a straight blade (Stanly/Exacto Knife) and finish the cut.  That was hard work, but because the Cricut did the first 1/2, I was able to follow the line, and the cut was (mostly) smooth.  It needs some sanding, though I’ve taken the worst of the edges off already.  When I cover them, they’ll need to be sanded, anyway.  So.  That’s how things stand on the Technique end.

For this particular project, they’re shaped like the US Rout Shield (like, Rout 66). It was a road trip with my Gran, from Florida to Michigan. I could have used the Interstate Shield, but the US Rout has that cool swoop, whereas the Interstate ones are just rounded. I cut them with the Cricut ‘Going Places’ Cart. They’re 6×6. I’ve currently got 16, but I’ve got 4 more sheets of chipboard, so if I need to, I can double them. But 16 sheets = 32 sides, which really means 30 pages, because the front and back won’t be normal.

Anyway, this is what it looks like so far:

Happy Halloween!

I’d love to have some fun activity planned for this evening.  However, England doesn’t really ‘do’ Halloween.  But, I saw these really cute witch shoe treat holders that a friend (the lovely Gilroy Gal!) on one of my Scrap Message Boards made.  Thought they were worth sharing!

If you’d like to make your won, check the instructions here.

Enjoy!  Hope you have a happy, slightly spooky day!!

Trial and Error

So, the chipboard for the mini-albums I’m working on for my gran has arrived.  And the deep cut blade.  And today the Cricut Cart ‘Going Places’, which is what I’m hoping to use for the chipboard shape arrived, despite the best efforts of the Royal Mail (they’ve been on strike for weeks now!)  So, I thought, great!  I’ll have a go at this.  And . . .  completely failed.  I only tried cutting one shape on the chipboard, but so far, it’s been defeating me.  I’ve got to do some more research on how to cut chipboard with an original Cricut.  Suggestions welcomed!

Christmas Is Coming!

I love doing Christmas presents   This year I’ve got 3 going.  Two for my gran and one for my mother.  The two for my gran are mini-albums from our trips this year:  May road trip from Florida (her winter home) to Michigan (her summer home), and September Russian Cruise.  Mom’s is an 8×8 album of our April Arches camping trip (Mom, Dad and me!)

At the moment, I’m working on gathering the supplies.  The chipboard and Cricut deepcut blade for the mini-albums arrived today.  And I’m weeding through the photos from all the trips.  I’ll order the photos in the next couple days.  I’m really anxious to get started!