Christmas Card Album

I always hate to throw away our Christmas cards. I've seen lots of projects that reuse old cards to make new ornaments or things like that. But we've been getting more and more photo cards each year and I really wanted to keep them to be able to go back and see how families have changed over the years. So I made this last year.

Really all it is is two covers cut from an old Scrabble board that I bought at a garage sale. I picked out my largest card and made the cover just a bit bigger. Then I decorated the front and drilled holes in it. (This year's album will be much easier since I have a Crop-a-Dile now!) I believe the book rings are 7 Gypsies. Then I just punched holes & added cards.

This year it's laying out on an end table in our living room so we can see how the kids have grown during this year.

BTW, I bought some cards last year after Christmas & I think they got repacked back into the ornament box & are back in the attic. I'm not going back in the attic 'til we put up the Christmas decorations. Now I have to think of something new to do for our cards.....

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day Six, Fridays, Birthday Parties, & a Thank You Card Tutorial

I couldn't find the photo of what I wanted to be thankful for today so I'll have to post it another day. I don't think I'll have time tonight. Jo's birthday party is tonight and some kids are coming home from school with her. We'll have 2 TVs going downstairs... one with Rock Band and the other with Halo. Cupcakes and Chex Mix are already made. There's candy & soda, too. I'll just have to go pick up pizzas... and lots of them. This is the first year she's ever invited boys to her birthday party! And some are coming after a cross country meet so I've been warned that they eat a lot. I think there are 18 kids all together!
I thought I'd share a little project with you today. Remember these flowers that I showed you how to make here last year? Well, I needed to make thank you notes after my birthday a few weeks ago and I thought since these flowers have been around for a while I'd turn them into thank you notes.
The largest punch I used for the flower is a 3" scalloped circle. So I cut the cardstock to 3" x 6" and folded it in half. Then folded a long piece of seam binding in half, put the fold on the fold of the card, glued it to the front, and tied it on the side. Sorry I didn't take a picture of this step to make it clearer.
Then I just glued the old flower to the front.

Enter His gates with Thanksgiving

And His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For the Lord is good.

-from Psalm 100

Tutorial #11: Magnetic Bookmark/Thank You

I haven't posted a tutorial in a while so I thought I'd show you what I made on my day off.  I'm participating in a wedding/bridal shower challenge & thought I'd play around with some 'useable' thank you notes.  (Also thinking about things we'll actually use for Lauren's wedding.)  These have magnet strips inside & close around a page you're reading in your book.  The one on the right was made completely on the computer.  I just cut it out.  These next two are for anniversaries.

To make these I started out with a 2" x 6" piece of cardstock, folded in half.  Then I added the embellishments & photos.  For magnets I used some business card sized magnet sheets I had.  I think someone gave these to me.  I don't remember ever buying them.I played a little with fonts, too.  
I really wanted to put the picture of Lauren in her wedding dress on this last one, but didn't want Mark to see it!

Tutorial #10: Idiot Ink Swirl Tag

Here's one of the items that I sent to Somerset, but didn't make the cut.  So I'll "publish" my article here.  :-)

I happened upon this technique when I was searching for a white pen to draw on some of my darker papers.  I had seen a white Sharpie online and thought I'd look in the office supplies section of Wal-Mart to see if they had any.  No, not here either.  But wait... there's a white pen.  It was a Bic Wite-Out pen.  I didn't know if I could use it to write with or not but for around $2.00 each it wouldn't hurt to try.  I was really happy with how it turned out.  I had so much fun I used up the pen on the first day.  I lovingly call these my "idiot ink" tags.  That's what someone in my family always called correction fluid & the name kind of stuck.

Supplies:

manila shipping tags 

Bic Wit-Out pen

black fine tip marker

Dymo label maker

Autumn Leaves scrapbook paper

ink: ColorBox Chalk Ink, chestnut roan

vintage seam binding

images, UHU glue stick, bone folder, scissors, hole punch

1.  Completely cover one side of the shipping tag with adhesive.  Press down onto the wrong side of the paper.  Turn over and rub bone folder over the right side of the paper.  Trim with scissors.  Punch hole.  Repeat on second side of the tag.  Add small scraps of coordinating paper.

2.  Edit your photo to black and white and size.  Glue to tag.

3.  Ink edges of tag.

4.  Draw swirls and scribbles around photo, overlappingn at points.  Allow to dry.

5.  With the black fine point pen, draw highlights on white scribbles.

6.  Lightly rub the ink pad over the white scribbles to age them just a bit.

7.  Print word with Dymo label maker & attach.

8.  Tie vintage seam binding through the hole.

If you make one, please send me a link to your photo!  I'd love to see what you can come up with.

Birthday Banner

Well, Glenn took my camera with him to Michigan.  He's supposed to be taking lots of pictures of Lauren, Mark & her other friends, dorm, classroom, SNOW, & anything else interesting -- since I had to stay home & work.  :-(  So I had to pull up some old pictures.  I don't think I ever blogged all these, or if I have it's been a LONG time.  I made the original birthday banner for my dh's admin.  We draped it around the edge of the table that the birthday cake was on.  
This is a great way to use up bits of scrapbook & other papers.  I made Nat's with some old sheet music, too.  First, draw a pattern of how big you want the finished pennant to be.  Cut it out, trace it onto thick cardstock, then flip it over and draw a mirror image.  You should have a diamond shape now.  Cut it out & use it for a pattern.  Trace & cut out lots of different papers.  Apply glue to one side of the diamond, lay the string down the center, fold the paper over, and press well.  

I cut tiny squares out of old paper & stamped the sentiment with an old typewriter font set of stamps -- in pink for this little girl!  Then glued them on.  

Tutorial #8: Christmas Playing Card Banners

Here's another fun and easy banner to make.  You'll need:  old playing cards with red backs, 2" scalloped punches from old text, Stickles glitter glue, glittery letters, ink, hole punch, string, glue stick.
I layered the punch diagonally on the card and glued it down.  These letters were stickers I got at Wal-Mart so I just stuck them on and then outlined the square with Stickles.  I think this color is called Icicle.  

After the Stickles dries, punch a hole in each top corner and run the string through it.The one below I made last year.  I used eyelets in the corners and glued glitter on chipboard letters for this one.  It already sold in my Etsy shop.

Tutorial #7: Christmas Ticket Banners

I made this example for a lady at work who's from Peru.  This is very similar to our Happy Thanksgiving Ticket Banner.  Here's what you need:

Blank tickets, letters, twine, glue stick, & hole punch.  I made the letters myself by printing them on my computer and punching them out with a 1" circle punch.  

Ink the edges of the letters.  These are 2 of my favorite inks to use for that.  Then glue the letters to the blank tickets.

Punch tiny holes in both top corners of the ticket and run your string through.Here's a few other examples of what you could do.  Kits for these are available in my Etsy shop.

Tutorial #6: Matchbox Advent Calendar

My sister asked for a tutorial for my matchbox advent calendar that was published in the Somerset Holidays magazine.  I made this last year and didn't take step-by-step photos but I can tell you how to make it.  I wanted to do this to make our calendar, and my crafts more personal.  One of my goals this year was to use more family photos in my crafts.

Materials:

25 small matchboxes - I used 1 1/2" x 2" x 1/2" Diamond brand matchboxes

craft paint - I used Delta Ceramcoat avocado & red iron oxide

family photos or other vintage photos or Christmas illustrations

LOTS of scraps of paper, tiny trims, & bingo numbers

glue, scissors, ink, hole punch, stamps

Paint half the boxes red & half green.  They'll need at least 2 coats.  Let dry in between coats.  Paint inside & out.  Find bingo numbers to coincide with the days of Advent.  I didn't have bingo numbers for some of the days so I cut the squares out of the old bingo cards, too.  Lay out boxes, alternating between red & green.  For now, just lay the numbers on the boxes.  Don't glue them down yet.
Cut rectangles of scrapbook papers, vintage wrapping papers, or music to fit inside the boxes.  Choose your images.  DIgitally edit if needed (crop, or change to black and white or sepia tones).  Size photos to fit the boxes and print.

Collect all your paper scraps and trims.  Tear some of the papers and use the patterned scissors for others.  Play with these and the images until you're happy with how they look.  Stamp swirls on some of the papers and photos.  Ink some of the edges.  Glue everything down.
Punch a small hole in the top of each.  Thread a ribbon, string, chenille stem, or ornament hook through each.  Print Scripture verses, cut, roll up, and put one inside each box.  We displayed ours on an evergreen garland on our staircase.  Beginning December 1 (or NOW) open one box each day and read the Scripture verse inside.  

Sorry I don't have more pictures.  It's already dark and our staircase has really bad lighting. The ones in the magazine were so good & clear I saw details I didn't notice before even though I made them!   I've seen several places online that have daily Advent Scripture readings but if you'd like a copy of mine let me know your email address and I'll send you the one we used. 

Tutorial #5: Thankful Mini Accordion Books

I'm not going to show you any of the Christmas things we made 'til after Thanksgiving.  You can see some of them in my Etsy shop.  I've been selling Christmas items there since July, but here I'm not decorating the blog or my house yet.  I did make an exception yesterday and hung a wreath & played Bing Crosby while we crafted.  We almost had to turn on the ac.  Today was much cooler.  And it's not supposed to rain until Tuesday -- when G'ma & G'pa get here... sorry about that!

My tutorial today is for another little accordion book.  This one I'm going to fill with little photos of people I'm thankful for, Scriptures, & other writings.  The finished book is about 3" square.  Very easy!

First cut a 3" x 12" strip of cardstock or double sided scrapbook paper.

Lightly score every 3" across.  Don't press too hard or you could cut through the paper.  Learned that the hard way.

You'll end up with a little accordion that looks like this:Of course, I have to ink every edge and fold with my favorite ink pad - chestnut roan chalk ink.I decorated the inside with squares of scrapbook paper that I cut a little smaller than 3" and punches.

Here's the cover of the book I'm keeping.  I cut a 3" x 3" square of the chocolate brown flocked paper and glued some crinkled seam binding across the front.

Then I glued the vintage paper shapes over the seam binding.  One thing I'm emphasizing right now is my own handwriting in my projects.  I like using all the different computer fonts I've collected but sometimes I think I want my kids, or grandkids, to someday find something that I actually wrote with my own hand.  I know those recipes that we have in Great's and Granny's handwriting are some of our most treasured memories of them.  :-)  So in the next few months you'll be seeing a lot of handwriting in my projects.  Here's how it turned out:

Here's the second book.  I glued on one of fall paper flowers from another tutorial.

Tutorial #4: Thanksgiving Ticket Banner

Today I'm thankful for my nephew, David, and computer technology.  Specifically, Skype.  Hi, David!!!  We downloaded Skype right before Lauren went off to college & I think it's helped our transition.  Thanks to her Mac book and a wireless connection, she's taken us on a tour of her campus and even played charades and met her boyfriend.  And recently we've talked to my 4yo nephew and he showed me the spiders he made with the kit I sent him.  So today I'm sending him another kit to make a Thanksgiving ticket banner.  Here's what it will look like finished:

Here's what's in the kit:  blank orange tickets, seam binding, and letters.

I'm listing a kit in my Etsy shop, but you can easily make this on your own.  The first step will be to print out the letters on cardstock from your computer.  Use your favorite font.  Then punch out each letter.  I used a 1" scalloped circle to fit the tickets.  (Believe it or not I recently had someone ask me how I got the little circles through my computer printer.  So, I'll reemphasis -- print the letters FIRST, then punch.)Now there are several ways you can attach the letters.  I used a stapler to attach everything - letters to tickets & tickets to seam binding.  David could probably handle a glue stick to glue the letters onto the tickets easier than a stapler.  If you didn't want to staple the tickets to the seam binding you could punch holes in the top of each ticket & thread them on.

Here's a close up:I also sprayed a little color onto the seam binding, wadded it up, and let it dry before I stapled the letters.  You can skip this step, too, if you want.

If you make this let me know.  I'd love to see a picture and will even post a link to  your blog.