Cheap, Cheap...

A few weeks ago Paula spotted these rolls of packing tape at Michaels in the dollar aisle.

Of course we loved the numbers and letters and at a dollar each I loaded up and purchased several rolls for me, Paula, sisters, etc.  Maybe some of you have gotten an envelope or package from us that we have used it on.  It takes anything you ship up a notch....I’m sure I had the coolest packages standing in line at the post office.  I might mention that it is pretty thin and probably best used just for decoration, but it was cheap so that was okay with me.  

So fast forward several weeks later I find these darling journals and pencils that match my packing tape....quite good for a dollar!

I think it would be very cute and perfectly acceptable to give as a gift as is.  

Just do a cute wrap and you are good to go.

But, I have a hard time not doing a little something to spiff it up, so I decided to cover the inside cover and following page.

Here's what I did.....
Mark the paper using the end papers as a guide, then cut the paper to size.  

Horizontally

and vertically

Save the piece that you trimmed off.  We will use it after the next step.

Cover both pages thoroughly with glue stick and adhere paper, making sure you get the patterned paper all the way in the crease.

 Fold the strip that you cut off in half lengthwise and glue to the edge of the page so that it covers both the front and back edge of that page. (This paper is double sided so it makes a nice coordinating print)  

I left the back side of the page blank except for the folded over band.....

.....I made several journals, some of them I ran a sticker strip along both edges of the band.

I thought it would be nice to have a book mark in the journal.  I used a couple of different styles of tabbed dividers that I had on hand, but you could easily make your own. 

I added a pocket, tag, and some 7g stickers and rubbings.

Wrap it up with hemp and an old button, or a fun ribbon.  Slip an old postcard or ephemera under the bow with matching pencil and add a tag.

Don’t you think this is a great little thank you gift or teacher gift.....and fast! 

A Girl with NO time on her Hands...

I have been home for 4 days and have had little time to rest (let alone clean my house) before packing up for a trip I am taking for 7gypsies.  My husband is going along as my traveling companion this time and really it's the first time he has ever traveled with me into scrapbook world, so this should be interesting.  The only reason he would take the time off work in the school year is the sheer fact that I am teaching here.  Cool right?  Deb and I taught there in 2007 and had the most fabulous time so I am excited for him to be able to go with me.  

So what does a girl do who had little or no time to get the final things accomplished before setting out tomorrow night? 

this....

harebrained |ˈhe(ə)rˌbrānd|
adjective
rash; ill-judged : a harebrained scheme.

Last week I came up with a hare-brained scheme to make something to give away in each of the 6 classes I am teaching.  I thought of a tote bag at first but settled on aprons.  I ordered the aprons on Monday night when I was at Debs house from here.  Super, super cheap but great quality (I was pleasantly surprised).  The company is located in San Francisco so the aprons were on my doorstep when I arrived home on Thursday night (after a darn 3 hour plane delay in PHX!)  Debbie kept reminding me, "at least you're in air conditioning!".  Thank goodness.


I used scraps of fabric that I have saved from various projects.  Some fabric I have never even used like the pink bird print that I was going to use to make a lamp shade back in the 90's (still love the fabric though) but I digress, I added trims and vintage lace, buttons and some stamping.  Each of the 6 aprons are different, I am not very good at making the same thing over and over.  My one stipulation was that they each had to be sewn with creme thread so I didn't have to keep changing the bobbin.

I used Thermoweb Heat n Bond (Walmart) to adhere the fabric in place before sewing...sometimes I turned the edges under and sometimes not.  I really just did what looked good to me.  The biggest challenge was decorating the pocket since it is sewn in three sections.  It took a bit of thinking but I figured out how I could stitch over the same seams and no one would be none the wiser.  For the stamping I used Ranger Archival Ink in black and coffee (my favorite color) since it's waterproof, then heat set it just because it makes me feel better. 

I didn't photograph each apron, just the details of each.  Some I like better than others...some colors speak more to my sensibilities and some have words that I thought people might like. 
Hope you do too. 
ps) Christmas is a coming...I'm just saying.

Apron No. 1- Little Bird

Stamp from Pink Paislee/House of Three: Daily Junque

Apron No. 2 - Grace

The yellow fabric was left over from covering shades for the chandelier over my kitchen table.  And the blue fabric is one of my all time favorites...just one small fat quarter left.  I ironed HeatnBond onto the creme fabric, turned it over and traced the butterfly on the backing paper using a chipboard cutout.  I cutout the butterfly then ironed it on the apron and stitched around the edge.

Faux yellow pocket sewn right on the large front pocket.  I stitched the trim on by hand so the pocket is still usable.

Apron No. 3 - Fly away

So now I am laughing because I just realized the large rose fabric is from yet another lamp shade I made a million years ago.  You may notice the 7 tab?  I decided to give a nod to 7gypsies by creating a tab made from twill tape and stitching it into some part of the apron.  Bird stamp - Cavallini.

Some lace I picked up a Farm Chicks back in June.

Apron No. 4 - Best of times

No lampshade fabric here, just fabric I like.

Apron No. 5 - Crafty Girl

I picked up this stamp at the ever fabulous Red Lead Studio.

Apron No. 6 - Courage

I love the shape of a shield (and they are easy to cut out)

On the side of this apron I stitched part of a hankie to mimic a pocket.  What I love about the delicate hankie is that the owner wrote their last name in permanent marker. 

I decided to stamp each of the aprons so the winner might remember it came from this event.  Because it is a clear stamp I was able to curve the stamp on the acrylic block to follow the edge of the apron.  Word stamp - October Afternoon, Number stamp - 7gypsies (love this stamp because it has large numbers down to tiny ones!

Well that's all for tonight...I still have things on my list that have to be completed before I go tomorrow.  And just in case you're thinking about wanting to climb into my suitcase, here's the itinerary starting tomorrow night:

  Husband gets off work at 6:00pm

Drive to LA, check into hotel (try and go to sleep)

 Check out of hotel at 4:20am

Arrive airport at 4:45

Fight to Washington DC at 6:40am

Flight to Johannesburg 5:20pm with one stop

Arrive Johannesburg 5:20 pm THE NEXT DAY!  

After 31 hours of travel.  Oh, lordy!

cheers!
paula

"It's an Adventure"

Paula has been in town this week.  We have been working on a project that we will fill you in on sometime soon.  We have stayed on task all week, working hard so that we could carve out one day we could actually leave the house and have a little fun.  We had a long list of places to go, some old favorites and a few new places to check out.  I had planned a route that started in Mesa then onto central Phoenix, and if we moved quickly, a possibility of ending in Scottsdale.....ambitious yes, but we were up for the task.  

One of our first stops was Scrapbooks Etc.  Not only a great scrapbooking store, but they have the best fabric selection of the trendy modern prints of anyone we have seen.   We ALWAYS find fun stuff here!

Next stop -  Domestic Bliss and Found.  

Found was closed, but Paula got these beauties at Domestic Bliss. 

We stopped for our usual lunch at Sweet Cakes....

Their 5 layer brownies and cookies are divine!

  Now we head toward some shops in Phoenix.  All was going well up to this point...we were having such a good time.  That is, until the air conditioning in my car decided to quit.  I remind you that we are in Arizona and it's August.  So, you would think that probably the smart thing to do would be to quickly head back home and call it a day.  After all the temperature is hovering around 112 degrees, but no, we decided in all our wisdom that "we will be fine", "just keep the windows open", "yeah, we can do it".   So on we go.....after awhile on the road....first stop off the freeway - SONIC

PROOF:  Paula took this picture....but we still go on....

We wanted to check out Frances Vintage, we hadn't been there in awhile.  

They have added a shoe and handback section to their store.  Entering the store, I'm sure we were quite the sight....wind blown hair, sweaty, disheveled and red in the face....but we carried on.

I had seen this picture online and wanted to see the artwork on the wall.  We were disappointed that it was replaced with something else....maybe it will go back up sometime so we can see it in person.

Love the clocks

Lots of fun jewelry....

Cute water bottles....we would have taken hose water at any point during the day, we were so hot!

Hanging vases with fresh flowers around the check out counter.

Interesting wire tote

Lots of Orla Keily....

Always a fun place to stop...

By this time we start skipping some of the places that we usually hit in the Melrose area, 

but we stop at Rust and Roses.

Fabulous metal letters....someone needs to buy these!

We weren't sure what the lines are showing on this globe, but very cool.

Great display with the map in the background.

More fun metal letters.

Just around the corner from Rust and Roses is Zinnia Antiques.  

We had never been there before and wanted to check it out.  Just a word of warning, this store has one "swamp" cooler that is suppose to cool a very large area....this maybe a better place to visit in the cooler months.

Motto for the day:

What a day, we did finally make it home.  Paula kept saying, "it's an adventure!".....that's no kidding....BTW, we didn't make it to Scottsdale...another time.

  Have a great weekend!

deb