Covered composition book

 I wanted to start a new journal for a special project I am working on this year.  I remembered that I had one of those black and white composition books that you can buy inexpensively at the beginning of the school year, so I went hunting it down and found it in my craft room where I had stored it with the intention of covering it with pretty paper sometime as a gift.  So I decided to gift myself this time around!  I had some really pretty paper that I have wanted to find a use for but never could figure out how to make it good for a card.  I covered the front and back covers with it, then added some burgundy suede paper for the spine and I am really pleased with how it turned out.

I put a fancy title label on the cover and covered the inside of the front and the back with matching fushia paper.

I like the animal print background of the flowered paper, but like I said, I could not picture making a card with it ... I am not quite artistic enough to picture what to do with it, but I am glad I had that paper because it made a beautiful journal, I think!

An everlasting bouquet

In preparation for visiting an elderly couple in an assisted=living facility in town, I made a "bouquet" of  flowers that they can enjoy without having to care for them.  They are in the memory unit so this 3-D card will hopefully be something they can enjoy and touch but not have to be taken care of in any way.

I did not try to make it too elaborate and it ended up being straighter lines of flowers that I originally planned but I thought that for this particular purpose this might be better.  The room the couple lives in is quite small so this will have a smaller footprint of space.

This is a labor-intensive project (I've done several through the years) but I always feel especially good when it is completed! 

Mother Goose

I just love making these folio albums, and when looking through my stash of paper the other day I found leftovers from another album project that was just asking to be used!  After all, I was looking for something to use for making an album for a friend who wants one to put pictures of her great grandchildren in.  This Mother Goose paper from Graphic 45 is so cute, and it made up really cute.  I love those bright colors, and making the base with a bright blue card stock brought out all those lovely colors, I think.

I also tried a new project with some other left over paper from a previous folio album and made a small gift bag for the album.  It turned out pretty good, if I may say so myself!  I'll definitely try this again.

It has been a productive week!

Exploding boxes

When sister Judy sent me a video of an exploding box album on Facebook, I realized that I have never recorded my attempts here on my blog, so I went looking for some photos of at least a couple of them.

The first one I did was for Chinese new year, 2017, the Year of the Rooster:

I made it with just a few photos because I was trying to emphasize the new year aspect mostly.  The box is black card stock covered with red metallic paper and with gold metallic accents.  I actually made two of them for two different Chinese friends.  They loved them!

The other one I made for my neighbor who wanted something special for her niece who was graduating from high school.  I did post about that box here.

This box had two layers of sides which gave my neighbor 12 places for pictures and other additions.  It was quite striking when completed.

100-day Celebration

We felt so honored when Daniel and Tracy invited us to have dinner with them on Chiaoyi's 100-day birthday.  We had never heard of this celebration so I did a little research and discovered that this is quite an important day for new babies in China, with lots of celebration, so we felt especially honored.  We wanted to do something that would be reflective of the kind of gifts she would have received were they in China, and this is what we came up with:

I used a little basket we had that is gold and white striped and covered with red on the interior, so we put the gifts in that.

One traditional gift in China is to give money in a fancy red envelope, so I decorated a red envelope I had in my stash, using some gold Chinese stickers I had gotten a while back from Paper Wishes.  We put a crisp new bill in the envelope along with a special message:

The Scripture is the blessing from Numbers 6:24-26: "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

We also gave her a card with a cute little Oriental girl dress in red, with the envelope decorated with a companion button.  Turned out really cute:

Daniel and Tracy really liked the gift and we hope it will be meaningful to them and to Qiaoyi (Chiaoyi) in the years to come.

Note-worthy motivation

When I saw the idea for this "Love Bomb" on the Pootles website the other day, I knew I wanted to try making it, so I got out some 6 x 6 paper I had set aside not knowing what to do with it and set my hand to making one of these cute accordian-style holders.  I am really tickled with the final result!

It holds four little note cards...

Then it ties together... so cute!

Since I decided to give it to my Weight Watchers buddy Sandy, I put four motivational sayings on the four cards, mostly things that have been said by WW members at one time or another.  I put a Bible verse on one of the cards as well since I believe that one of the keys for my success is going to be trusting God to help me be disciplined enough to succeed.

I already gave it to Sandy and she loved it!  So now I am trying to figure out a way to have to make some more of these!!

Payment wallets

I never thought I could do it!  But when someone asked me to see if I could come up with a design for a "wallet" to keep a payment booklet in (something like a checkbook), I felt ready to take on the challenge even though I had never done anything like this before without full instructions at my side.  And I did it!  I have surprised even myself on this one. 

Each one has two pockets on the inside; one pocket opens from the end for slipping a payment booklet in (they are usually held together at the short end), and the second pocket is for miscellaneous papers and opens lengthwise, as you can see here:

Both wallets have a strip of numbers on the spine like the short strip you can see on the cover of the black and red plaid wallet.

I think if I had need of a way to keep track of a payment booklet, I would make a fancy feminine-looking one and maybe help myself enjoy making payments!  But since I don't owe any money needing that, I guess I'll wait until I know someone who needs one before I try that.

Exploding box, graduation style

My neighbor asked me to help her make something special for a relative who is graduating from high school so we worked together on making an exploding box.  I put the box together and gathered up some papers and embellishments I had in my stash of stuff and we planned out what she would put on each panel.  It took us most of the week but we finished it this afternoon and we decided we did a pretty good job for two people who are not the most artistic people around!  (I always tell people I am creative but not artistic so am always nervous about how something is going to turn out).

Anyway, here are some pictures of the finished product.  We are both eager to see how it is received by the graduate!

The sides are covered with red ripple foil paper from Paper Wishes.  I cut the letter "G" with my Slice machine.

The girl who is graduating plays volleyball so I also cut a volleyball player with my Slice machine along with a graduation cap and we popped both up with foam tape to make them more 3-D.  On the third panel we put her high school letters (SHS).  The little pocket on the one inside panel will hold a small gift.  The year is in the middle in both black and red numbers.

We put two quotes on opposite panels and two photos of her, one as a baby and one as a high school senior on the opposite panels. 

Bunches of flowers!

I found a video on YouTube for making a pop-up bouquet of flowers in a card and at the request of two friends, we got together the other day to try our hand at making it. 

Each flower is made separately using a 4-inch square of paper, folded and cut, then decorated ... like this:

After some gluing of petals together, the bunch of flowers is glued to each side of the inside of the card and when it is opened, ... well, this is what you get:

Altered paper clips

I needed to make a small but cute and useful favor for a banquet so I started looking around for something that would have a small cost but a big impact.  I found my answer in the form of what is known in the craft world as "altered paper clips!" 
It started off as a large matchbook, as you can see here:

 Inside are three decorated 2-inch paper clips, housed in slits in a decorative paper backing, like so:

They were a big hit at the banquet, so I was pleased with the result!