Christmas with Bind-it-all

I've been busy trying out some new ideas for the craft show on Saturday. If you're in the area, I'll be at the Chassell school (Google map) from 9-2pm. I've been trying to get in the holiday mood, which is a bit tough for me. I firmly believe that the Christmas season shouldn't begin until at least mid-November (it used to be after Thanksgiving, but it's creeping a bit earlier on me!). I also love little notebooks, and I've been exploring some new things with my Bind-it-all. I really love this tool for making little books. It's fun to be able to use sheets of paper instead of folding and stitching. My first book uses some of my favorite Christmas colors and the herringbone technique from Club Scrap. I know I've used this technique before, but I just love using these little strips of paper. These old-fashioned colors feel very warm and cozy to me.

Next, I've been thinking about modifying the Quick Jot journal I made from the Club Scrap Cruise in a Box earlier. I love the idea of a little folder for a notebook, and being able to slide the notebook in and out. I also like being able to replace the notebook with a new one so the folder can be reused. I find these little books very useful when traveling for keeping a travel journal. This is a picture of the closed book. These handmade papers are from Club Scrap, and the black elastic will keep the book closed if it's in a bag or purse.

Open, the book has an old-fashioned holiday spirit. I love these tree stamps, and the rich colors. This is a handmade book created with my bind-it-all, but it's about the same size as a 3x5 notebook, so that could be used as a replacement when the book is filled up. It also has a place for your pen!

Hope to see some of you on Saturday, and if you're not in the area, have a great holiday season! I can't wait to post some of the great gifts I've been working on for my family and friends.

Graduation cards

A friend of mine from work recently graduated, so I made some cards in celebration! Our school colors are gold and black, so in this first card, I used those colors with teal and maroon as accent colors. I love this graduation hat punch - it comes in very handy! I also really love using my spellbinders die cuts. I think layered cardstock looks fantastic, and the textured paper with the deep colors really works well here.

On the second card, I went a little wilder. I took a piece of gold cardstock and coated it with my xyron adhesive. After coating, I applied a variety of scraps to the paper. The exposed cardstock was still sticky, and I covered it with clear embossing powder and embossed. I learned this technique as part of the Club Scrap "carpet tape chronicles." I would recommend using the carpet tape for this technique, because I get the feeling that it is tackier (to hold more embossing powder) and more heat resistant. While I was embossing this cardstock, the scraps lifted off (but did reattach nicely when everything cooled back down).

The saying on this card "Another brilliant day life today, is just waiting on the wings" is from the Club Scrap Retreat kit 2008. I think it's a perfect saying for a graduation, since it is just the beginning of many wonderful days ahead.

Friendship Swap

I recently attended the Club Scrap Retreat (see Paul and me wearing cowboy hats!), and about 50 of us signed up to swap pages about ourselves. It's a great way to learn more about each other, and have a lasting memory of the friendships formed through scrapbooking and crafting together. I decided this year to make my books from the kit made especially for the Retreat. This year, it was called Bandanarama. Although it technically has a country-western theme, the colors and designs are completely adaptable to any project you have in mind. I love the post-bound album I created. The colors are rich, and lots of fun. This is a great memory of the weekend, and something that I will really enjoy.

My page for the swap is below. One photo is from our trip to England, while the other is from our snowshoeing adventure earlier in the year. I love pictures of me on snowshoes for some reason!

We also swapped "twinchies," or two inch square pieces of art. I decided to put these in little pockets, so I could pull them out of the pocket to see the text on the back. Most of the ladies wrote their name on the back. My twinchie is in the upper left corner, and uses a really cool herringbone technique that everyone at Club Scrap has gone cuckoo over. This is the cover page for the second album.

I don't often do swaps, but I love doing these swaps for retreat. It's nice to have so many memories, and learn more about all of my Club Scrap friends. It's really touching that so many of us took the time to share a bit of ourselves with each other.

Craft show season starts

This weekend I began my craft show season at the Bluffs. I don't do many shows in the summer, since I work with paper and don't have a tent. Also, even with a tent, cards don't stay on tables too well in the wind!

It was nice to see some familiar faces and meet some new folks. If you're looking for me this season, I'll be at the November 14th show in Chassell at the school on 41. The show is 10am - 3pm.

If you'd like to get notified when I have a show, drop me a line at liftbridge@charter.net to get added to my mailing list, follow me on Twitter (liftbridgecards), or become my "friend" on Facebook. I promise on Twitter and Facebook not to let you know every time I make a sandwich!

Have a great week!

Thank you!

I had the privilege of working on a project for a dear friend. They just dedicated a new space at the university, and wanted to thank the donors. There are many people impacted by the donation, so I came up with the idea of a book (what else!). The book itself is a standard hand-stitched book for me with a pocket page in the back for some photos.

Inside the book, I cut pieces of light grey cardstock so that they could be signed by all of the people, and matted in interesting ways inside.

The cover uses a herringbone technique I learned from Club Scrap. These are the same colors that are used in the book as mat colors, so it was a nice way to bring the inside outside. This is a fantastic technique to use up small scraps. I coated the end product with some bookbinder glue (watered down a bit) to give the final piece a bit of stability and sheen.

The papers are from the Science, Music, and Mosaic Twist collections from Club Scrap. I'm running low on all of these papers, so I have to choose my projects carefully!

The resulting book was stuffed! But, it will stand easily on its own! I also made a coordinating box to go with the book. All in all, a very rewarding project.