Make One of These Adorable Traveler's Notebooks

Oh my, I am in LOVE with the Sizzix Planner Pages and More Collection! These little notebooks are so cute and they go together really fast.

Don't you just love that embossed cover?  After cutting it out of Peaches and Cream cards tock I embossed it, then I inked it with Rustic Rose ink.  So pretty!

Underneath the cardstock is a sturdy cover cut from paper board.  The inside is covered with scrapbook paper.  Would you like to know how I did it?  Here's a video tutorial:

What you will need for the Peaches and Cream notebook:

• Sizzix - Planner Pages and More Collection - Bigz L Die - Pocket Traveler's Notebook*
• Sizzix - Planner Pages and More Collection - Thinlits Die - Traveler's Notebook Inserts*
• Paper board - a cereal box will work, but I discovered that the box my cat's food comes in is a little sturdier.
• Peaches and Cream card stock*
• Rustic Rose Ink Pad*)
• 12 x 12 sheet of coordinating scrapbook paper.
• Rose Corner embossing folder by Hot off the Press (Discontinued)
• Journey Craft Glue*
• 1 yard of elastic cording (or you could get fancy with Momenta - The Explorer Journal Collection - Journal Elastics*)

The notebook in the video is slightly different so here's the supply list for it:

• Sizzix - Planner Pages and More Collection - Bigz L Die - Pocket Traveler's Notebook*
• Sizzix - Planner Pages and More Collection - Thinlits Die - Traveler's Notebook Inserts*
• Sizzix - Planner Pages and More Collection - Die with Stamp Set - Grace for Today*
• Paper board - a cereal box will work, but I discovered that the box my cat's food comes in is a little sturdier.
• Limeade Splash cardstock*
• Coordinating scrapbook paper.
• Journey Craft Glue*
• 1 yard of elastic cording (or you could get fancy with Momenta - The Explorer Journal Collection - Journal Elastics*)
• Inka Gold - Silver
• Pretty Plaid Embossing Folder*

Cutting it all out

• Cut two covers from paper board 
• Cut two covers, two pockets, two tags and one pen holder from your favorite card stock.
• Cut two 4.75" x 7" rectangles from the coordinating scrapbook paper

Assembly:

• Glue the paper board covers together, overlapping the spine. Make sure you line up the holes.

• Set the cover aside to dry

• Emboss the cardstock covers using your favorite embossing folder.

• Ink the embossed cover to add depth.
• After the paper board cover has dried, score it on either side of the spine where the covers overlap.

• Carefully crease the cover on the scorelines so that that the printed side of the paper board faces out.
• Adhere the scrapbook paper to the inside of the front and back covers so that the inside edges line up with the score lines and the rest of the edges overlap the paperboard cover by about 1/2". (refer to video at 9:00)
• Fold and glue the excess to the outside of the covers, clipping the corners along the curves (refer to video at 10:00 )
• Adhere the cardstock covers to the front and back paper board covers but do not adhere them to the spine. (refer to video at 13:30)
• Glue the outer covers together along one edge as shown in the video at 17:25.
• With the inside of the notebook facing up, lace the elastic through the holes in the cover as follows (refer to video at 19:00) :
• Down the the top center hole
• Up through the top left hole
• Down through the bottom left hole
• Up through the bottom center hole
• Down through the top center hole (this should be the second stitch through that hole)
• Up through the top right hole
• Down through the bottom right hole
• Up through the bottom center hole (this should be the second stitch through that hole)
• Adjust the elastic tension and tie the ends.
• Using about 12 inches of elastic, pull a loop  thorugh the hole in the center of the spine so that the loop is on the outside and the ends are on the inside (refer to video at 24:25)
• Make sure the loop is long enough to go around the Notebook.  
• Tie the ends on the inside.
• Adhere the pocket to the inside front cover.
• Adhere the pen holder to the inside back cover.
• Cut pages using the die, or cut some paper 5 1/2" high by 7" wide and score and fold at 3 1/2".  If you cut your own pages, be sure to put a small notch at the top and bottom of the center fold.

*This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may be paid a small commission if you purchase items using these links - see my disclosure for details.

Back to Basics

I've been making cards for many years now and one of the things that I've noticed is the more toys that I have the harder it is to decide which ones to use. This weekend I took a trip to the beach and as usual I wanted to bring along some paper and crafting tools in case the weather was bad (which is highly probable during March in Oregon). Rather than drag along a bunch of stuff I probably wouldn't use, I wanted to stick to the basics.  Here are the items I put in my bag that I used to make this card:

• A  paper trimmer 
• Scissors (Cutter Bee)
• An embossing stylus 
• A mechanical pencil 
• White, silver and black gel pens (Signo Uniball UM-153) 
• Bib Stencil  (March Simply Stencils Personal Shopper Kit)
• A glue stick (Pioneer)
• Assorted colors of card stock
• Patterned paper (K & Company)
• Design Tool Kits # 2 and #3 (Hot off the Press)
• A light box. (If you don't have a lightbox a window will do as long as it's light outside.  Just tape the stencil to the window and tape the paper over the stencil. )
• 5.5" x 4.25" card blank
• Double-stick foam squares

 

I  used my light box and embossing stylus to emboss around the outside of the bib and the bib details.  I then cut it out very close to the embossed edge leaving about a 1/32 inch border.  After cutting it out I traced around the bib and added the dots with a white gel pen.  In retrospect, that probably wouild have been easier to do before I cut it out.

Next I embossed the duck  pull toy onto yellow, orange and blue card stock, cut the pieces out and glued them over the embossed duck on the bib.  I used a black gel pen to trace the pull-string and color in the wheels.  I added the hubs with a silver gel pen.

I created the bow by embossing around the the top of the bow and the ribbon tails, then I rotated the cardstock 180 degrees and traced the top of the bow again forming the bottom of the bow.  . I drew a white line around the border and cut it out very close to the edge of the embossing.  

The labels and the scalloped mat for this card were made with Design Tool Kit # 2.   I didn't bring any stamps with me on this trip so I used my white gel pen to write the words.  For the flowers, I used the small flower from Design Tool Kit #3 and embossed it on to yellow card stock.  I hadn’t thought of using the design tools for embossing, but it worked very well.  After embossing the flowers I traced around them with the white gel pen and add a dots to the centers.

I chose a piece of the bundled sage textured card stock for the background. I mounted the scalloped Matt on white paper and trimmed around it leaving about a 16th inch border. I glued the mat to the top of the card then added the labels.    I mounted the flowers and the bib on the front of the card using double stick foam squares.  Lastly I flipped the bif stencil over and embossed the duck on the bottom right corner of the inside of the card.

 

Wax Paper Resist With Embossing Folders

I made the purple background for this card using a wax paper resist technique.  It’s a fun technique and is super easy to do.  You will need an iron, an ink pad, a die cutting/embossing machine (or a rolling pin), an embossing folder with an all-over pattern like the butterfly and flower pattern I used for this card.

Emboss the wax paper, then sandwich it between two sheets of glossy cardstock.  Put a sheet of copy paper over the top and iron with a hot iron (no steam).  Once that’s done ink the glossy paper and the pattern will appear.  By sandwiching the wax paper between the glossy card stock, you get two for one.  One piece will be the positive of the embossing folder and the other will be the negative.

After I made the resist background I cut it into suares  and mounted them in a grid pattern leaving 1/8” between the squares.  I made the flowers using the Wildflowers cutting die from Hot Off The Press.

Happy Patterns Flower

Here’s a card I made with the Happy Patterns stamp set.  I received this stamp set in the March 2013 Personal Shopper kit and I’ll have to admit, it wasn’t love at first sight.  But then I started playing with it and I really like it.  There is a lot you can do with this set. 

To make the flower, I stamped four printed and four plain chevrons on the purple batik paper and cut out around the edges.  Then I stacked them alternating plan and printed chevrons to create the flower.  Once assembled, I glued the flower to purple card stock and cut around it leaving a 1/16th inch border.

Made with:

• Happy Patterns stamp set (Hot off the Press)
• Batik paper pack (Hot off the Press)
• Kaleidoscope paper pack (Hot off the Press)
• Anna Griffin Poppy embossing folder set (Provo Craft)
• Silver Jewel Border Dazzles (Hot off the Press)
• Mix ‘Ems Flower Stickers (Hot off the Press)
• Decorative Scissors
• Purple card stock
• Green Card stock
• Light blue card stock.

Birthday Cake

The focal point of this birthday card is done with a technique called reverse iris fold.  It’s really a lot simpler than it looks.  You can find the instructions HERE.

The picture I used is a combination of images from the Birthday Wishes collection at PcCrafter.com.

Pink, Purple and Green, Oh My!

I had some free time last Sunday afternoon, so I visited the Sketches thread over at Just Cards for some inspiration.  I decided upon one with diamond shapes across the top.  Here is my rendition:

The background was made using alcohol inks.  I cut the diamonds using a Coluzzle nested diamonds template.  The embossing was done with a brass template I’ve had for ages.  I was feeling lazy, so I did the embossing by running it through my Cuttlebug with the Nestabilities embossing pad.  It worked very well, but it did curl my template a bit.  I was able to flatten it back out though so no harm done.  After embossing, I used pink distress ink to make the pattern stand out.

Tea Bag Christmas Cards

After figuring out and writing up the tea bag folding instructions for the Open Center Star, I ended up with three completed medallions that I needed to do something with. I wanted to mat them and put them on a shiny background, but didn’t have any paper I liked, so I started rummaging through my gift wrap collection and found several rolls of metallic paper in various colors. Perfect!

Next, I glued the gift wrap to some medium weight card stock, got out my Cuttlebug and embossed it.  I am very happy with the results and it cost a fraction of what it would have if I had run out and bought the “right” stuff.  Yes, I know, it’s not acid free, but I’m using it to make Christmas cards and I don’t think any of them will be saved for long.  I would not do this for photos.

I used silver for the next card…

… and red for the last one.

I have a few more colors to try, so you’ll probably be seeing them here sometime in the near future.

Graduation Card for My Nephew

My youngest nephew graduated from high school this year.  How time flies!  Cards for guys have always been a struggle for me, so I turned to the May issue of Cardmaker magazine for some inspiration and found the perfect pattern.  The only problem was that I didn’t have the die cuts for the diploma or the graduation hat, nor did I have the stamp for the wording.

What to do?  Make my own templates, of course!  I wanted the graduation hat and the diploma to be embossed, so using a coffee can lid, I created my own embossing stencils.  It was really pretty easy as the plastic cuts very easily with an X-acto knife.  Just draw the design and cut it out.  Here’s my stencil.

 

The only marginally tricky part was the swirl on the end of the diploma.

I used my cuttlebug to emboss the cap (Plate A + plate B + stencil + paper + 2 Nestabilities embossing pads + plate B).  It turned out really well.  I finished it off by adding a black brad and a tassle, which I made from black, orange and gold embroidery floss.

The diploma didn’t  emboss well in the cuttlebug.  The paper kept tearing around the swirl, so I used an embossing tool instead.  I finished it off with a gold outline (sorry, I didn’t get a good picture of that).

Next came the wording.  I found a font that I liked and created it on my computer.  Next, I printed it out and then put it on my light box so I could trace it onto some off-white paper.  This is a tricky way to make people think I can actually write well. :)

All in all, I’m pretty pleased with the results.

Christmas Cards at Last!

Now that we’ve “killed the bird,” I’m finally ready to make some Christmas cards.  My sister came over today to work on packaging up some jewelry for a craft fair and while she was working on that, I made cards.  It was so nice to have another female in the house!  I love my boys, but sometimes I need some girl time.

I started out with some iris folding.  I have a rather large stack of pre-cut, embossed cards for iris folding that need to be used up.

 

When I got done, I thought they looked rather plain, so I added some clip art from PcCrafter.  The snowmen are from the Christmas Snowman collection by Teresa Kogut and the bear is by Laurie Furnell and is included in the Christmas Sampler 4 collection.

I haven’t done any dry embossing for quite a while, so for my next card, I got out my embossing board and embossed the border around the card as well as around the oval in the center of the card.  The star was made with a Coluzzle template and the JOY stamp is from Inkadinkado.

I used a stencil to trace and cut out the ornaments for the last card.  The tops and dots around the centers are drawn with a gel pen. I punched shapes for the centers and added a puffy heart, a jewel and a punched snowflake for decorations.

Red Flowers

I splurged on myself this week and bought some craft supplies from CreativExpress.  One of the things I bought was the Sylized Flowers embossing folder.  I had some yellow paper left over from the Card I made Thursday that was just the right size for a 4 1/4” x 5 1/2” card, so I embossed that. Next I broke out my Coluzzle templates and cut some red flowers and green leaves and stems.

It’s a very quick and simple card, but I like the bright colors.  They make me happy.

Fun with Cuttlebug Embossing Folders

The other day one of my friends told me about very cool technique she learned on Split Coast Stampers that is done with Cuttlebug embossing folders.  You ink the folder before embossing for a really nice effect.  You can find the complete instructions here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333398

This birthday card for my oldest son is my first attempt:

I used handmade paper, which gave it a nice texture. 

Tea Bag Folding and Dry Embossing

Two of my favorite things!

So far, I have managed to keep up with my birthday card making goal this year.  Here is a card I made this evening.  The border is done with an embossing board from the Glitter Girls.  These embossing boards are super easy to use.  All you need is the embossing board and an embossing tool. No light box. No kidding!

"No light box was harmed in the making of this card!" LOL

 

I really liked how this particular embossing board, which is part of the Victorian Varieties 1 border set, goes with my background paper (from David Walker Studios Super Slab by Provocraft).  After embossing the design on to yellow card stock, I chalked it using blue Artistic Blending Chalk from Inkadinkadoo.

The tea bag medallion was made using the tile below and the new Triple Star folding instructions from my website.

Iris Fold Birthday Cards

Today, I felt like doing a little iris folding.  I have a huge box full of pre-cut papers and card blanks just waiting to be used.  They are mostly left overs from workshops I have done in the past.  I needed to make two birthday cards, so with the two recipients in mind, I selected the backgrounds and got to work.  I am very happy with the way they turned out.  Both cards are 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".

For step by step instructions that show how to do iris folding, go to:
http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/irisinst.html

The first one has a playful look to it.   

Materials used:

• Coluzzle nested square template
• Square Iris fold pattern
• Gold border peel offs
• Happy Birthday peel offs
• Cuttlebug swirls embossing die
• Tape
• 1" wide strips of giftwrap, folded in half
• Make a Wish stamp from Studio g
• Red pigment ink
• Clear Embossing Powder
• Heat gun

 

The second one has  a more sophisticated look.

Materials used:

• Coluzzle nested heart template
• Heart iris fold template
• Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing die
• Silver border peel offs
• Silver corner embellishment peel offs
• Tape
• 1" wide strips of giftwrap, folded in half

Quick Embossed Birthday Card

This is a very quick card I put together today.

Here is what I used to make it:

• Majestic Embossing Board from The Glitter Girls
• Embossing tool
• Stampendous Happy Birthday stamp
• Paper Shapers flower and circle punches

The little flowers were a cover-up for a slight stamping mishap.  I wasn't about to throw the card out just because of a little ink spot!