Look what I got!

My first official box from Tim and Mario.....

 Tim wanted us to get a feel for some of the new product coming out at CHA.  This isn't the entire line, we will have to wait to see the rest in person at the show.  To see the entire summer release, Tim has been giving sneek peek's this week, so be sure and get the latest on his blog.  

(click on image to see larger)

New product pictured above:

Three paper pads:  Holiday's Past, Seasonal and Kraft Resist-Seasonal

Tissue wrap:  Melange  

Stationary set:  Travel

Paper String:  Strips and solids

Tinsel twine:  So fine and petite in silver, black, halloween assorted, Christmas assorted

Muse (metal) tokens:  all with Christmas words and sentiments

Trimmings:  Ribbon covered with ephemera and nostalgic images

Woodlands:  christmas trees and wreath ready to be misted with colored and glitter

Christmas (metal) adornments:  star, snowflake, wreath and reindeer 

Seasonal Chit Chat:  hundreds of sticker words

Alpha tiles:  lots and lots of vintage game piece type letters

Mirrored:  Adhesive backed reflective material, think die-cutting and stamping..this should be fun to play with!

Mini Lantern

 A couple of my favorites so far.....

Gotta love this tissue!  Beautiful design, this one is called Melange, and good news there are two other new designs,  Composer and Terminology.  It comes in a roll 12" x 15'....I think you could have some serious fun with that much tissue!!  

Can't wait to use it!

This little light, is DARLING, and yes it does light up.  It's little, about 1 1/2" tall.  Won't this be cute hanging in a shadow box! 

....and of course I love the new stationary set!  Cute travel ephemera collage on the front of the cards.  You get 3 cards of each of the 4 designs along with the kraft envelopes in a fun metal tin. 

I will be using the stationary set for sending notes to friends and family...but it occurred to me that since the notecards are made from a really nice heavy weight paper, they would also make a great cover for a mini journal to carry in my purse. 

So, here's what I did:

Inside papers:  

1.  Cut 10 or so text weight papers to fit the cover (no need to measure, just use the cover as your guide). 

2.  Fold all the papers in half and set aside.  

Cover:  

1.  You can leave your cover plain, or add something flat that will be practical inside a purse pocket.  I had some fabric with words printed on it from a previous project and thought it would be fun to stitch a label on the cover.

Pocket:   

1.  Cut one of the cards in half.  

2.  Fold one of the pieces you just cut on the original crease line and cut the top at an angle as shown (the right side is about 1 1/2" from the top).

3.  Since it was cut folded you now have 2 pockets.

4.  Sew or glue the pocket along the outside and bottom edge as shown.

5.  I included 2 pieces of the new Paper String in the back pocket stitching for a closure.

Use the pockets to hold receipts, business cards or whatever.

Binding:

1.  Punch 3 holes along the fold for binding.  I did one an inch from the top, one and inch from the bottom and one in the center.  

2.  Bind together with the new Paper Twine and a simple binding stitch.  To have your knot end up on the outside of the spine, stitch as shown.  If you want the knot on the inside, just reverse it.

Both ends go back through the center hole to the outside.

Tie the knot over the string along the spine.

Knot the ends of the Paper String.

All done!

Here's another option - use ribbon and new Muse Token instead of the tie closure pictured above.

That's it, now I have a place to write stuff down I need to remember and keep all business cards and receipts together for CHA.

Enjoy,

deb

The big clean out

The inspiration for today's project started last Wednesday night when I decided it was time to clean out the old to make way for the new...too much STUFF makes my mind cluttered.  Maybe that doesn't make sense to some, but I does to me.  If things are organized around me it gives me the freedom to think creatively instead of worrying about chores.  The next day I got the automatic feed from Story People that I have been getting for years with this Brian Andres quote, "just went ahead and made room for a lot of new experiences".   With all that has been going around here, I figure that is the perfect inspiration for this weeks project.

I started with an old wood board (about 7 x 12") I found in the garage and painted it with Gesso.

Once it was dry I painted about 1/2 of the board with Adirondack Dabber Paint - Juniper.

 Like this.

I found some other things to add as well.
Eco-Friendly acrylic Paint in Sunflower and Coral
Paper - idea-ology Paper Stash - Lost and Found
and maybe some text paper...we'll see as we go along, not sure yet, just know I like the color combination.

I painted the other 1/2 of the board in the sunflower color. 
Like the paint but I found it was VERY easy to squeeze too much out of the tube.  The nozzle is small so there is no putting it back in!

Okay, keep painting until it looks something like this -  no worries if some of the white is showing...I like it that way.

I let it dry just a bit then used the Juniper color again.
This time I opened the bottle and used my finger to mask some of the Sunflower color.  Just a different effect than the brush.

 Here is the result.

 

I used this stamp set from American Crafts to stamp out the quote.

No lines, I just eyeballed it.

Done.

I decided I want to use some chipboard stars (these are from Collections Elements).  I painted them silver with Adirondack paint dabber - silver.

 

I stamped them each with a number series stamp from the Stampers Anonymous set - School Desk

 

Added some texture with modeling paste and a stencil.

 

For more information about modeling paste, look back at this post.

 

the reveal.

Still need to add in some of that pink paint.  I used a baby wipe to just "wipe" some over the DRY modeling paste like this.

 

I tore off bits of the paper and use Multi-Medium to adhere to the wood panel in random places.

 

I used another of the stamps from School Desk and Archival Ink in Coffee to add random letters (this one is one of my favorites). 
Ink the stamp.
Then using NO acrylic block, press down in random places.  You might also stamp on a paper towel first, to get variation in the ink color.

 

It should look something like this.

 Now add the stars.  I just used Scotch Quick Dry Glue (my favorite quick dry glue!)

 Add a few words cut from an old book.

 And we're done. 

(click on image to enlarge)

Cheers for a great week (and a happy 4th of July if you're in the US!)
paula