Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Christmas Cards on Wednesdays

Well, since it's the last day of November, it's fair to switch over to Christmas projects, right?

So today I bring you a quick and simple little card to make it easy to whip up enough for your entire list!

Supplies: Pattern paper, chipboard accents - Teresa Collins; Kraft Cardstock - DMD; Black - Bazzill; Circle Punch - EK Success; Stamp - Inkadoo; Ink - VersaFine; Pen - Copic; Jute twine - May Arts

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Easy peasy!

...lemon squeezy?

I have no idea how that really goes, but let me tell you. I've found a new product that I'm totally in L-O-V-E with!

Well... if you love it so much, why don't you marry it?

Well... I just might! :)

Recently I had a little bit of a run-in with the Bind It All machine when I was making the Teresa Collins Christmas planner. To make a long story short, many planner pages were ruined, explatives shouted, and the tool cursed. It went back in the box and straight back to the store. (Honestly, I'm not sure it even made it a full 24 hours in my house!) "There HAS to be a better way to do this, "I thought. And it turns out there is!
The Cinch from We R Memory Keepers, MSRP $109


The Cinch binding tool from We R Memory Keepers! This thing is slick! Cuts through chipboard like buttah! Holes are easy to line up when you're doing longer runs of binding. Everything lays flat while you're punching so there's no ackwardness as you try to keep the pages level and punch the holes. The punch-fetti goes straight into the little tray-it doesn't sit in the paper area blocking the pages from sitting even (unlike the Bind it All). The holes are a lovely circular shape (hey, little things make me happy) instead of rectangular like most wirebinding punches. The tool sits nice and stable on the table while you are punching and binding. You push in or pull out the little pegs to punch exactly the right number of holes and to center them based on the length of your binding run. They even put the punching instructions right on the tool so you don't have to worry about misplacing the instruction booklet. Plus, if you destest wire binding like I do, you have the option of spiral binding as well.

Oh, and if you don't want to use
 spiral or wire binding this tool works great to create you holes for other binding styles too. Because the Cinch lets you push in the peg to select which holes you want to punch and pull out the peg for the holes you don't want, you can punch holes spaced apart for binding rings or ribbon and they'll be perfectly aligned. How cool is that!?

I've purchased several We R Memory Keepers tools over the years (the Crop-a-Dile, the Big Bite, the Corner Chomper, and Sew Easy) and I have to tell you, they have never disappointed me! Their product quality and design have always been top notch!

FTC Disclosure: This is an independent, uncompensated product testimonial.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Crate Paper Card

Hello blogosphere! Sorry to have neglected you these past few weeks. I've been under the weather :(

Here's a cheery little "everyday" card for you. I have started making card bases up so that when I'm in a pinch and in need of a card I can just add a quick sentiment and be on my way.


Supplies: Kraft paper - The Paper Studio; Patterned Papers - Crate paper 6x6 pad; Flowers: Prima; Button - vintage find; Scalloped Card Die - Sizzix.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Let it Snow!

Whew! It's been a flurry of activity in my world lately. Last week I worked 40 hours in 4 days at the real job, hosted a scrapbooking retreat, attended an all day auction, and traveled a whopping 400 miles. That's just plain crazy!

In typical Iowa fashion, it was 76 degrees yesterday and now there is snow in the forecast for today! Since the flakes will be flying, I thought it was only fitting to share the a spread from a series of layouts about a blizzard we had two years ago.

One of the great things about technology is our ability to take photos and video pretty much anywhere. The challenge to documenting the videos is finding a way to include them in your scrapbooks too. This layout features a series of stills taken from video of my husband leaping the drift at the front door in order to get out of our house so we could start digging out. There were some crazy drifts at our house that day! The one at the front door was about knee high at the threshold and our front door is about 2 ft higher than the front yard. Crazy, huh?

Design Team Project for The Scrapbooking Studio.
Click to bigify.
Supplies: Patterned paper, chipboard shapes, small letter stickers by Basic Grey; die cut snowflakes and banner by Lifestyle Crafts; cardstock - Bazzill; large letter stickers by Bella Blvd; snowflake punch by Martha Stewart Crafts.