Handmade Planner for 2010, or the Most Overdue Project Ever

Hey everyone!  Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

Are you ready for a long post?  I have a project to share today that truly took me about three months to complete — a ridiculous amount of time.  It had so many components, which might explain the time a bit, but mainly it’s due to my going off in too many different directions to simply get the thing done.   Might as well be honest.

So here it is – my 2010 planner, which has been in the works since December.  A labor of love.   Here’s a look at the front cover of the book.  I found the fabric that covers the front and back covers of the book late last yea and fell in love with it immediately (I’ve mentioned my fixation with blues many times here).  I knew just how I wanted to use it.  

This book is really quite large, about 8×10.5 inches.  To figure out what size I needed to make, I first tracked down the calendar pages that I wanted to use. And to get a full month’s calendar on one page (and be able to actually write stuff on there), I really needed to make things pretty big.  In case anyone is interested, this is where I got my 2010 calendar.  It’s a cool site – you can customize the calendars in all sorts of ways.  Here’s a view of a calendar page, along with the pocket on the inside of the front cover.     

And here is a close-up look at the fabric – I wanted to show you the detail on it, since it’s got this silvery, shimmery outline around the flowers. I love this stuff! And to give you a LOL – I spent a LONG staring at pieces of hardware, trying to determine which had a pewter finish, since that would match with the silver in the fabric and the antique silver of the binding wires. And I finally went with this piece pictured here. And is it pewter? NO, it’s gold-toned! And when did I finally figure that out? When I saw these photos! The hardware all looked so similar to me that I could not even tell them apart, but yet, it’s so OBVIOUSLY gold in the photos!  So weird!

But at the same time, my perfectionism and fussiness know no bounds, so I will most likely switch out that hardware. It might just bug me all year.

And finally – here is a view of the book when it’s closed.  It’s the size of a phone book, true?  I actually measured it – it’s about an 1 1/2” tall.  After the calendar pages are a ton of blank pages.  Since adding pages to a bound book like this involves taking the entire thing apart, trashing the binding, and then re-binding, i thought I would err on the side of caution and make the book enormous.   For the tabs with the months, I used a Stampin’ Up! tab punch along with a set of date stamps from Making Memories.

So what do you think – was it worth all of that work?  I am pretty much happy with it, gold hardware and all. 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

Friends Having Fun and Some Little Cards

Have you heard the news about Friends Having Fun yet? It’s a brand-new challenge blog that is just about to debut!  And this one will be a little different – fun is the first priority for this site!  Challenges will be weekly, and will rotated among four teams – see below for the challenge themes and the team leaders:

Alison – Color Challenge (week 1)

Dani – Sketch Challenge (week 2)

Sarabeth – Recipe Challenge (week 3)

Erica – Pop Culture Challenge (week 4)

In addition, each team is looking for 3-4 friends (design team members) who would like to have fun!  All the details can be found here and the deadline for submission is this Friday, March 12th.  Details are still being worked out for the debut of the challenges, which is now tentatively scheduled for late March.  I will be sure to update here! 

Now, feel like seeing some little cards?  There are times when I seriously love making smaller-scale cards like the three pictured below.  They come together quickly and the size forces me to really keep them simple.  

This first one is my fave of the bunch – I absolutely loved using that sentiment stamp (by Verve Stamps) and that designer paper (by Pink Paislee).  Putting them together just made me happy!   I think I need to use that stamp again really soon – as a matter of fact, an idea is coming to me as I type this….hmmm….

The Twilighty card below went to the winners of blog candy prizes from the recent Twilight Tuesday Farewell Blog Hop.  It was a bit bittersweet making this final Twilight-themed project, but I HAD to use that sentiment from Beth’s StampInsanity Stamps set (called Otherworldly Loves).  Although I may very well make more Twilight-themed projects in the future, this definitely felt a bit poignant since I was officially done with my Twilight Tuesday duties when I mailed out the blog candy prizes and these cards.  I hope that the prize winners liked them!

And this last card also resulted from that Twilight-card-making session – exactly the same as the card above with a different sentiment and die cut shapes in the center. 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

What I Used:

Anything is Possible Card:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Ruby Red cardstock, Pink Paislee designer paper

Stamps:  Verve Stamps

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Ruby Red

Accessories:  Stampin’ Up! ticket corner punch, Kaiser red pearls, dimensionals

Twilighter and Thank You Cards:

Paper: Papertrey Ink vintage cream and black cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Riding Hood Red cardstock; K & Co. designer paper

Stamps:  StampInsanity Stamps Otherworldly Loves set (“Twilighter”); Verve Stamps (“thank you”)

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Riding Hood Red

Accessories:  Spellbinders Nestabilities labels dies, dimensionals, K&Co adhesive jewels

Wildflower Kids New Stamp Release

Two new Wildflower Kids stamp sets are being released today and are available at the Stamp Happens Shop!  Check out these little cuties – the girls’ set is called Pretty In Pink and the boys’ set is called No Girls Allowed. 

And here is my card that features the Pretty in Pink set – this little one is Ivy.  

This card is also loosely based on a Twilight Tuesday Sketch Challenge (TTSC9, to be specific).  We’re doing a review of all 15 of the past sketches this week – click here to check them out!   And while you’re clicking away, be sure to visit the members of the Stamp Sistahs Design Team to see what they have created for today!

Jen, Deconstructing Jen; Owner, Wildflower Kids Stamps

Tonya, Stamp Happens

Alyssa, My Addiction

Donna, Donna’s Diary

Gayle, Little Bird Design

Leigh Ann, Stamping With Annie B.

Sarabeth, Scrap Happie

Stephanie, A Paper Buffet

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white cardstock; Bazzill Bling (peach) and Bazzill cardstock (pink); Chatterbox designer paper

Stamps:  Wildflower Kids Pretty in Pink stamp set, available at the Stamp Happens Shop

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black and Stampin’ Up! Cameo Coral

Accessories:  Cuttlebug:  Floral Fantasy embossing folder & Spellbinders Nestabilities flower die; dimensionals; ribbon; Prima flower

Create, Inspiration Will Find You

I have a project to share with  you today, but first, a quick note about New Moon – Friday’s the day for the movie release (of course) and also the day of the Twilight Tuesday New Moon blog hop! Visit Twilight Tuesday for all of the details and join in!

And here’s my project for today — a journal that I made for the lovely and talented Alison, one of my fellow Design Team members for Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge. Alison very kindly sent me a package of gifts, including a beautiful necklace that she made herself, and I wanted a way to thank her.   So this journal is for her!  Alison is very creative so I could just imagine her sketching or writing away in this journal.  Here’s a look at the front cover of the book.

And a closer look at the quote on the front cover, with a quote that I love and thought was suitable for Alison: 

Create – follow your heart, inspiration will find you.  Find your heart.  Be yourself.

What I Used:

Paper:  Anna Griffin designer paper; Stampin’ Up! Rose Red & Pink Pirouette (on inside covers); Bazzill grey

Stamp:  Hero Arts

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Rose Red

Accessories:  Zutter Bind-it-All machine and o-wires; Spellbinders Nestabilities long rectangle and scalloped long rectangle dies; Prima flower, Dew Drops

New Stamps! StampInsanity Release Day

It’s a big stamp release today for StampInsanity Stamps!  StampInsanity owner Beth Schultz has come up with three, count ‘em, three, new rubber stamp sets, available today!  They’re sold exclusively at the Stamp Happens Shop – go and grab yours!  The three stamp sets are called Morgan’s Star, Henry’s Snowman, and Naughty and Nice.  I used the latter wicked cute set on my card for today – more on that below.

The Stamp Sistahs Design Team will be displaying their projects using these stamp sets today as well – check them out!

Senior Design Team Members

Tonya, Stamp Happens; Owner, Stamp Happens Shop

Beth, Stamp Insanity; Owner, StampInsanity Stamps

Jen, Deconstructing Jen, Owner, Wildflower Kids Stamps

Design Team Members

Alyssa, My Addiction

Donna, Donna’s Diary

Gayle, Little Bird Design

Leigh Ann, Stamping With Annie B.

Sarabeth, Scrap Happie

Stephanie, A Paper Buffet

And here’s my project – my first holiday card of the season!  It was FUN to break out that red and green combo for this one!  The two stamps used on this card are from the Naughty and Nice set.  And the cheeky nature of these images informed the design of the card.  The designer paper that I used, from Bo Bunny’s Tis the Season line (also from the Stamp Happens shop!) is a bit distressed, and I was just about to start distressing away on everything else on the card.  But I realized that using the “Jingle Bell Rock Star” sentiment called for some bling on the card, so I went in that direction, with lots of glittery touches on the stamped images, rhinestones, and glittery red snowflakes.  You know, that classic sign of Christmas.  And Morgan is SO fun to color – look at her cute little winking expression! 

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink Rustic Cream and Vintage Cream cardstock; Stampin’ Up! Riding Hood Red and Garden Green cardstock; Bo Bunny Tis the Season designer paper

Stamps:  StampInsanity Stamps Naughty and Nice set

Ink:  Versafine black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: Spellbinders Nestabilities long rectangle and square dies; Kaiser rhinestones; Martha Stewart snowflake punch; Sakura Gelly Roll pens (clear, white, red, and gold); Copic Ciao markers; dimensionals

Halloween, Vampire-Style

Happy Halloween everyone!  This is a good day to share a project I made with Beth’s StampInsanity Stamp set called Halloween Henry.   This set, along with all of the other stamps in the StampInsanity line, are available exclusively at Tonya’s Stamp Happens Shop.

And here is Henry himself, in full vamp regalia.  One thing I love about this guy is that he seems so happy to be a vampire!  He’s quite pleased about the whole situation.   Another thing from Tonya’s shop, used in this card – my new of Copic markers!  I’m not sure, but I believe this might be my first Copic-colored card.  It honestly didn’t occur to me to record the information on which colors I used, but I will definitely work on that for future posts.

Have a great weekend, and thanks so much for visiting!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream and Black cardstock; Stampin’ Up! Riding Hood Red cardstock; Jenni Bowlin designer paper

Stamps:  StampInsanity Stamps Halloween Henry set (vampire, sentiments, and bats)

Ink:  Versafine black and Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye

Accessories:  Cuttlebug:  Swiss Dots embossing folder, and Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels and tag dies; Making Memories black brads; black adhesive jewels, Copic Markers;  Sakura Gelly Roll pens

Looking for a Free Broom Ride?

Well…I might just be able to help you out with that.  Or, more specifically, Lily can help  – she is always up for a free broom ride!  Lily is one of the Wildflower Kids, and her stamp, along with the broom rides sentiment, is available in the new stamp set called Free Broom Rides.  This set, along with the other new sets from Wildflower Kids Stamps, is available exclusively at the Stamp Happens Shop. 

I stayed with traditional Halloween colors for this card, and colored Lily with Prismacolor colored pencils.  Lily is really fun to color – go grab your own set and get coloring too!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white and black cardstock; The Paper Company peach shimmer cardstock

Stamps:  Wildflower Kids Stamps Free Broom Rides set, from the Stamp Happens Shop

Ink:  Ranger Archival Ink in jet black; Stampin’ Up! Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Cuttlebug: Boo to You and Swiss Dots embossing folder; Spellbinders Nestabilities oval, scalloped oval, and tag dies; Making Memories brad; dimensionals; ribbon; Prismacolor pencils with gamsol;

Journal for the Breathings of Your Heart

I totally stole those words.  They’re not mine…but I can tell you where you can get ‘em!  That line is from a quote by William Wordsworth, and comes courtesy of a beautiful new stamp from Beth Schultz’s StampInsanity Stamps.  The stamp is from the set called Meet Henry & Morgan and is available exclusively at the Stamp Happens Shop.

Because I am totally obsessed with making Bind-it-All books lately, I thought of using this stamp on a journal as soon as I saw it.   This one is an 8”x8” journal covered with one of my all-time favorite papers from K & Company.   I know from past experience that carrying books around is really hard on any embellishments that are on the covers, so I like to keep books that will actually be regularly used (rather than displayed) really simple.  So to reinforce the die cut labels on the front of the journal, I backed them with a lightweight chipboard and then ran them through my Cuttlebug.  I think I ran them through twice to be sure they cut properly, and that resulted in a really clean cuts and embossing – see below: Here’s a view of the entire front of the journal.  For the labels, I used Papertrey Ink’s Rustic Cream cardstock, which is really nice with its flecks of fiber, and the green shade is Stampin’ Up’s Sage Shadow, a really lovely color. 

The inside covers of the journal were done in Sage Shadow and the back is covered with Stampin’ Up! Creamy Caramel, one of my all-time fave colors.

What I Used:

Paper:  K & Company designer paper; Stampin’ Up! cardstock in Sage Shadow and Creamy Caramel; Papertrey Ink cardstock in Rustic Cream

Stamp:  StampInsanity Stamps, Meet Henry & Morgan set, from the Stamp Happens Shop

Ink:  Versafine in Vintage Sepia

Accessories:  Cuttlebug with Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Four dies; Zutter Bind-It-All machine, covers, antique brass o-wires

Pink!

Not P!nk the performer, but about the color pink.  I just wanted the chance to use that funny exclamation point in her name.  Just to amuse myself.  See below, and my post title will be clear – there is some SERIOUS pink going on on this card!  

This cards is a  5 1/4” square card.  I chose the sentiment early in the process and needed to design the card around its size.  This designer paper on this card is by Anna Griffin, one of my favorite designers ever.  How gorgeous is that paper?!!   Paper like this sort of does the work for me; since it’s a large print in such a bright color, I felt that I should leave it alone as much as possible.  The sentiment is on a Nestabilities Label (Four).  I embossed a strip of Stampin’ Up! Rose Red with a Cuttlebug border embossing folder, and that is mounted on Papertrey Ink’s Vintage Cream cardstock punched with an EK Success border punch.  And I added in a Prima rose and Kaiser pink pearls, and done!

See you again tomorrow – I have another Bind-It-All project to show you!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream cardstock; Stampin’ Up! Rose Red cardstock; Anna Griffin designer paper

Stamp:  Inkadinkado from the Happy Days set

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Rose Red

Accessories:  Cuttlebug:  border embossing folder from the Frills set, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Four die; dimensionals; EK Success border punch; Kaiser pearls; Prima flower

New Wildflower Kids are Coming!

Hey everyone!  Want another sneak peek at a new stamp set?  Well, here you go – Wildflower Kids Stamps is releasing a new set called Autumn Splendor tomorrow and they are as cute as can be!  You’ll find Wildflower Kids Stamps exclusively at the Stamp Happens Shop – go check ‘em out!

And today this post will really feature only a “peek” – my project is still a work in progress.  I’m in the process of making up a little book for myself, filled with info. on the many, many, many steps that I undergo while cooking for Thanksgiving.  I’ve been meaning to collect all of this info. in one place forever – timelines, recipes, various notes, you name it.  And this Autumn Splendor set gave me the perfect image to work with – check out this beautiful cornucopia image!  This will be the cover of my book.  I am waiting a bit to assemble the whole book and to bind it, since I want to take some time to sort out what I want to include so I can determine how many pages the book will need.  I might add tabs for sections, too.  I’ll be sure to post the whole project after it has been completed, but for now, I wanted to give you an idea of the lovely images you’ll find in the Autumn Splendor set! 

The cover of this book was covered with designer paper by 7 Gypsies, and I colored the cornucopia image with Prismacolor pencils.  I used my Cricut to cut the letters for “thanksgiving.”

The Wildflower Kids Autumn Splendor stamp set is a digital set of images by artist Jen Shults, which will be available for purchase and downloading tomorrow at the Stamp Happens Shop. 

Today, the Senior Design Team members of the Stamp Sistahs Design Team will be previewing their projects from the Autumn Splendor set; hop over and take a look!

Beth, owner, StampInsanity Stamps

Jen, owner, Wildflower Kids Stamps; her own blog: Deconstructing Jen

 Tonya, owner, Stamp Happens Shop

The full Stamp Sistahs Design Team will be posting theirs tomorrow.  Visit here tomorrow for links for that.  See you tomorrow!

What I Used:

Paper: 7 Gypsies designer paper; Papertrey Ink cardstock in Vintage Cream and Summer Sunrise; Stampin’ Up! cardstock in Really Rust

Stamp: Wildflower Kids Autumn Splendor set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Ink in jet black; Papertrey Ink in Summer Sunrise

Accessories:  Zutter Bind-it-All chipboard book covers, 8×8” size; Cricut and Storybook cartridge; Prismacolor pencils and gamsol; Cuttlebug and Spellbinders Nestabilities dies in petite oval and scallop oval.