TEACHER'S GIFTS ALL READY

Well where oh where have I been this week - it's over a week since my last posting - not good enough if you ask me! Hey ho I'm here now and showing off the completed teacher's gifts that I've made pending the end of the school year. They are A5 academic planners - dismantled and reassembled as per last Saturday's posting below, together with some tiny note books that I've covered and bound with my trusty bind it all! All colour co-ordinated! I'm really pleased with them, just need some gift bags now and they'll be all sorted!

I love the spring colours of this one, from the DCWV Spring stack - there's no way I'd use this paper in a 12 x 12 layout - but for covering books its brilliant!

Bright and breezy colours of the next one - almost didn't fit the name in LOL!

This one's got a bigger notebook with it that I bought!

Finally a huge academic planner I bought, as per Liberty Chance's posting a few weeks ago on UK Scrappers, it cost about £4 and I had to take it off it's original wire, cover etc and then rebind - I'm quite happy with the finished effect and this one is for my son's main teacher! Hope she likes it!

So what now, well been to the school fair yesterday, bought a pink circular framed mirror and a square partially frosted glass frame - both screaming to be altered. My little boy bought me a clock - I did a double take when I saw it - it's not the prettiest clock I've ever seen, made with clear plastic with beads inside and it's discoloured - he saw the look of slight apprehension on my face and said - "I bought it you to alter Mummy!" - Phew sigh of relief followed by "And it only cost 10p" - glad he thinks big when buying me presents!

I'm also making a waterfall book - and to be honest this almost got launched out of the door last night - the instructions I had were appalling and the first three attempts were dismantled frequently on the way to being assembled. Finally asked my other half to sit down and try and phathom out what i was doing wrong, now I'll grant you it was just one fold - but my goodness doesn't that make a difference. I then proceeded to write my own instructions and can now put one together in 12 minutes woo hoo - half a chance of getting this sorted now - I'll post once I've got some piccies!

ACADEMIC PLANNER

After a stressful morning at the cardiology clinic having an echo cardiogram I decided to have a bit of retail therapy around the local shopping centre. I happened into my favourite cheap bookstore for a thorough browse and came across some academic planners. Now there had been a great post on UK Scrappers recently for Teacher's Gifts including one for academic planners. I bought one a few weeks ago and dismantled it, it was on a spiral wire, however, the spiral was set at a different width to my bind it all wires so my plan of using a new wire went out of the window. I had to reuse the wire that I'd taken off and I was less than impressed with the finished article - hence the fact it never appeared on my blog LOL! However, I am a lot happier with this one - you won't believe what I did! See photos below!

This is how the book started out, it's an A5 planner costing £1.99 and had a leatherette type finish.

I quite literally cut the book out from the inside using a craft knife, be careful not to be over zealous with the knife, you don't want to be chopping into the pages.

As you can see, this left the back cover to play with in peace!

Now the book stretched out was touching the 12" mark, so I tore some paper and added it to either side of a sheet of 12 x 12 paper and stuck with DST and glue stick. This made the paper around the 14" mark so I knew it would go around the book with some overlap to the inside. I then stuck the paper to the outside of the book with double sided tape and glue sticks, folding it to the inside and sticking down on all four sides, to get the finished article below.

The outside was a lot prettier, as you can see, I tore the paper and inked the edges. I also went back over it with a bone folder to get rid of bubbles after I'd taken this photo!

Once this was complete I had to deal with reattaching the inside of the book. Basically the original book had had a sheet of paper twice the size of the book folded in half. The right hand side was stuck to the book's insides and then the left hand side was stuck to the inside of the hard cover. This was then replicated in the back of the book. I also replaced the rather cheap ribbon that had originally been in the book. The photo below shows the double the size paper attached to the inside of the book and ...

This now shows the left hand side attached to the inside cover.

This shows the back of the inside cover once it's reattached, I'm sure you'll agree a lot prettier than the original book!

I then put the letters PLANNER on the outside of the book, cut on my big shot, added some stickles and used glossy accents on the cupcakes. I think I'll make a matching notebook to go with it and that should hopefully make a great gift for a teaching assistant. As my little one attends not only school but also breakfast club and after school club on a couple of days I've lots of these to make - I can see me returning to said shop later this morning! I'm going to have a busy day of it!

ALTERED FRAME

I love it when you come across something in a shop that makes you think scrapbooking immediately! I was in our local town at the weekend and realised that one of the many shops that has closed in recent months had reopened so I went in to have a wander. The shop was full of all sorts of things from cushions and duvets to food stuffs but it was definitely the area of picture frames that I was drawn, I found three frames costing £1.99 each.

I immediately fell in love with the three dimensional lettering and the way your eye was immediately attracted to it! So once home it was taken (quite literally to pieces), the frame had been given it's three dimensional insides with some rather poor quality plastic etc, but the letters were deep foam letters easily removed from their backing, so I literally disposed of everything bar the frame, glass, backing board and letters!

On the grounds that I knew i would want to display the frame in my home I opted for a colour co-ordinated look (it'll match our bedroom), set to with a plain piece of cream card, stamped a script stamp on the background in black stazon, stamped some red hearts which I decorated with stickles, some black star stickers, a piece of black scrap paper on the left, found a Tim Holtz swirl which I stamped in red and edged in places with glossy accents and found a film frame sticker. I've had the film frame sticker an absolute age and never found a way to incorporate it, but it was ideal for this, found three photos from a trip out of me, hubby and little one and before I knew it it was done. I glued the glass into the frame with glossy accents and put in a couple of tiny chipboard offcuts that I coloured black just to keep the backing board in place. I taped the picture to the back board and then it was done.

The photo below is what one of the frames looks like prior to being altered! This one is friends and the other I've got is Memories and the letters for that are in white, I altered got hold of a bigger frame with the word MEMORIES in it in white letters. So plenty more to go at.

MINI BOOK RANDOM GENERATOR!

My addiction to mini books recently seems to have continued to grow, but the biggest dilemma is how many pages and what kind to include when I set out. To create a random book I decided to make this little creation, based on one my son brought home from school. I decorated the outside with plain, striped, spotted and circled paper - so you call out the name and spell it out, move your fingers underneath to reveal...

Either one set of numbers...

Or another ...

Once you stop your fingers, you need to call out your number again and once again move it back and forth until the number is revealed. Select a number again and then open it up

And look at the corresponding page link - the outer triangles have types of pages to include , envelopes, acetates, tag, tag in holder, pockets, pages, shapes and fold out pages. Then you can do it all again to decide on a type of embellishment, which can be seen on the inner part of the folded out section - die cut, stickles, stickers, chipboard, buttons, glossy accents, stamping and ribbon. It was easy to make and I'm pleased with the finish result, might make a dice now to go with it to decide how many of each type of page I'll use.

ALTERED WATERING CAN AND MINI BOOK

I couldn't resist this little metal watering can I saw whilst out shopping last weekend, it was screaming for altering! I set to with some stazon inks, but slippy enamel curved surfaces and stamps don't exactly go together, so I set to with ribbons placing a large strip around the can, but eventually decided I didn't like the ribbon I'd chosen. Never defeated I just kept adding layers until I was happy, I used blue awning paper but my template for around the spout left a lot to be desired!

So I found out some leaves I had in stock, they were leftover from some cheap fabric flowers I had dismantled after buying. To be honest I've almost got rid of the leaves on more than one occasion, then suddenly they have come into their own. I added them over the top of the ribbon that I didn't like around the can and then around the spout, where my template had failed. A large quantity of ribbons in various colour later and it's done - there were several points where I didn't think I'd be happy with it - but now I am.

A large flower on top of the can, made from a combination of paper and fabric and it was done. Then onto the mini book, initially I thought it would just be the can as a piece of altered art, but to be honest my art tends to need a purpose, so housing for a minibook seemed appropriate.

I had the blank book already in my cupboard so it was simply a matter of adding photos and memories. It documents a couple of water fights we had last summer during a few very hot days, I also cut some of the blue awning paper into the shape of the book, with it being double sided it seemed a shame to stick one side down, so I decided against that and just cut the paper into the correct shape.

Now what to do next? Hope everyone is having a great Saturday.

SNOW BOOK - ANOTHER TAKE ON VOODOO VIXEN

Well I couldn't resist the Voodoo Vixen book one more time! Yes I know it's glorious sunshine outside so why am I do a wintry book? Well basically this year was the first year, that we got some decent snow and so despite having done a double page layout already I couldn't resist a mini book to document the rest of the photos and what better project than the project designed by Voodoo Vixen http://scraphappenshere.blogspot.com/ as mentioned before this was originally deemed an organiser but I decided to use the design to turn it into a mini book, I'm amazed at how many surfaces it creates that you can write or put photos. The snowflake on the front is covered in Tim Holtz distress inks and then I've sprinkled glitter on top - I'm unsure whether the glitter was a good idea - but it's done now!

You can see just how elaborate the book looks from this angle!

View of the inside cover, you can see the BIA mini book open on the left and the tag in the first pocket is shown on the right. In addition the front of the pocket has a further pocket and tag in it!

Simple embellishments, blonde moments stamps for the background stamping and a little bit of ribbon.

Now next project? I've altered a watering can - just think I might make a mini book to go inside it - now where's that paper.... hope you're all having a great weekend.

VOODOO VIXEN'S ORGANIZER - NOW A MINI BOOK

Well after a busy weekend (scrapping wise anyway), I was left yesterday with no ongoing projects! I spent some time trawling through a lever arch file I have containing lots of different instructions that I've downloaded over a period of time, I just didn't know what to do, with the end of the school year looming I'm still trying to come up with teacher's gifts.

On Voodoo Vixen's blog (Annette) when I was blopping via UK Scrappers recently, I came across some instructions for a gorgeous organiser she had made http://scraphappenshere.blogspot.com/ and so decided to have a go. I made the book using Blue Awning - K & Company paper - a pad of which I've had for quite some time but only stroked LOL. The instructions were great, except I think the spine piece should be 10" long not 9" to ensure you get enough places to put 4 envelopes, mine with the 9" only managed 3 of the envelopes but overall was still effective. I also changed mine from an organizer to a mini book!

When you open the book, you have a BIA minibook on the left and an envelope on the right, with a pocket at the front with two tags in. I've stamped the tags with both brown and blue ink (I love my blue roses) and used complimentary brown ribbons.

A shot of the mini book open (on the left) and the tag in the pocket on the right pulled out from its housing.

This is my favourite shot because of the way the spine works, you get glimpses of all the envelopes as well as the inside back cover - genius Annette!

Stood upright you see how effective this whole book is, I'm unsure of its suitability as an organizer for a teacher that would be used daily (Voodoo Vixen uses hers as an organizer for receipts and conversations but don't think it's an organizer used daily) I'm unsure if it would withstand the vigours of school life but as a mini book or something for yourself to be used at home, it is absolutely fantastic.

So finally can I thank Annette (Voodoo Vixen) for sharing her design with us - it is the most exquisite book, with great photos and instructions!

MIXED SHAPE BOOK - WITH ONE EVENING TO MAKE IT!

Well the question is why do I do it to myself, despite starting the process of this book two weeks ago (I requested input from friends and family two weeks ago), it was Wednesday night before I even considered asking my other half to cut out the shapes for me, which meant Thursday night was spent putting it together! The book is yet another mixed shape book (these are definitely addictive) I used primarily pale pink papers coupled with black and have to say the overall effect was stunning. It was extremely well received by my sister on her birthday and the letters, notes and wishes included made her laugh, cry and smile and I got big hugs in return - mission accomplished!

A view from above showing all the shapes inside

Sometimes it's the detail that makes the difference, I put the handle through the chipboard cover and used a metal heart I had in 'stock', but in addition to this I also added some shrink plastic charms that were something of a family effort a couple of weeks ago. I've had the shrink plastic about two years and never been brave enough to use it, but once I'd bought the stamps I just had to try it out, used some sparkly pens and hole punch then other half did the shrinking really pleased with the results - even remembered to write the words backwords. We couldn't believe how rish the colours were!

On the inner cover, I used the same stamp that I'd used for one of the shrink plastic charms, which has an empty scroll and filled that in with words used to describe my sister in the messages I received, my favourite being 'fiery little dragon' - from an incident when she was little!

The heart shape has now become a favourite in these books, although next time I may ensure that both sides are the same paper and I used it to put some great rub ons.

As well as the pale pink pages I also used some flock paper that I got in a papermania pack recently, to be honest when I got them I wasn't sure I liked them - but they worked so well!

Different shapes - I love including loads of different shapes!

The back pages from me, war and peace as usual. I love the circle pages because with the addition of stamping around the edges they are so effective!

MIXED SHAPE BOOK FINALLY FINISHED

Finally my mixed shape book is actually finished, not only finished but full of photos and some simple journalling. The majority of the photos are architectural detail captured on film at Portmeirion with only two shots of me and my family within the 'heart pages', this is mainly because I've scrapped the family pictures elsewhere, but wanted to record the fantastic architecture there.

I love the overall effect, I was inspired by some great projects on UK Scrappers when I asked for help. Initially I started with 2.5mm thick chipboard pieces, but if I'd have continued with those I wouldn't have been able to get the whole thing bound with my my bind it all LOL, so having been inspired I managed to add some pockets, envelopes and cardstock to really bring it to life. The majority (bar one tiny piece) of the patterned paper is the Jesse Edwards Papermania range, not my usual taste in paper but used together it works really well - I hope you agree!

Hopefully the view from above gives you a feel for how the inside looks altogether.

A few simple flowers and some faux stitching, inked edges adds to the detail.

My heart pages!

The star on the front of the book was initially cut to go inside the book as a page but I hadn't considered how that was going to work with binding the points, so I thought it would have to be omitted thankfully I managed to bring the front together with it. The ribbon on the star were cut out of a dress, (you know the ones where you use them to help with hanging the garment but then spend all day tucking them back in, so I always cut them out) bought for a wedding at the weekend which included a star shape and the word star on the ribbon - a bit of credit crunch scrapping to boot!

So that's it all my lovely projects that I had on the go now finished, what am I going to do next?

ANOTHER FRAME BOOK - THESE ARE ADDICTIVE

Well I can finally put on one of my favourite frame books that I've made, it was a gift for a wedding so didn't want to divulge it on here until the happy couple received it! I loved doing this I followed the wedding theme of gold, cream and butterflies and used black as the accent colour! I even managed to use the butterfly cut outs that came in the invitation and attaced them to the back sheet on the front cover. I used a triple embossing method on the hand cut heart on the front, taught to me by the wonderful Sandra http://pilgrimart.blogspot.com/ at the Craft Box http://www.thecraftbox.biz/ in one of the many project classes that I've attended there!


Inside the book there are five pockets, all hand stamped with either basic grey stamps or textured stamps onto cream card stock,

Inside each pocket a hand cut tag, decorated to match the book and each pocket had a little bit of paint, cut outs of an old book and a prompt!

The tags were made in black cardstock and I used complementary papers and my favourite glossy accents as well as a gold ink pad!

I even managed to do a bit of wire work on the pocket although my attempts at a butterfly weren't brilliant! - forgive hubbies big fingers in the way, he was trying to photograph it for me - bless!

The happy couple were really pleased with the finished item in its own custom built box (courtesy of my dear husband), apparently Paul, the groom loved the sound of the box lid when it went on the box! Scrapping with soundeffects - fantastic!