Tag: Zutter Bind-it-All

Just a note…

On By lindaIn Stamping, tutorial, Uncategorized11 Comments

20141126_151719Thanks for stopping by on this wonderful Thanksgiving day! This is my last post as guest designer for Dreamweaver Stencils this month. I enjoyed my stint this month and had so much fun playing with Dreamweaver Stencils.

The Dream Team challenge you to be especially “Thankful and Thoughtful” during this month. Link your creations with this theme in mind on the Dream It Up! blog using the Inlinkz tool and you could win the stencil of your choice. A bonus stencil of our choosing could be yours for using Dreamweaver product(s) in your artwork.
Today I want to share a technique to make another art journal background, but this time we’re going to cut it up and make mini notebooks from it that will fit in your purse or pocket! How cool is that – and just in time for gifting.
I started with Dreamweaver embossing paste, this beautiful Zen Flower Stencil and watercolor paper.
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After my paste dried I colorized the background with Ranger’s Distress Inks, dried and continued to dip and spray until the color was just as I wanted. I added more color by rubbing in some Adirondack Dye Ink using another Dreamweaver Stencil, Tapestry, that is a big favorite of mine.
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After the Tapestry Stencil I used some Aqua ink and rubbed it through Dreamweaver Stencil, Vintage Decor (click here to see how I used this stencil to turn an old drawer into beautiful home decor storage).
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I added some images and text with rubber stamps then more color sprays and blotting to get this final look. This turned into a beautiful art journal page but I’m still cutting it up!
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The art journal page is used to cover salvaged chipboard. I connected the two by running the journal paper through my Xyron 5″ Creative Station, stuck it to the chipboard and used another journal section to cover the inside and the back cover as well.
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Once the covers were covered I punched the binding holes with my Zutter. The inside pages were cut about 1/8″ smaller than the cover on both sides and bottom.
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The covers are so pretty – I really enjoyed this project. I gave no thought as to how they were cut, I just cut them to a size I wanted to use. Once bound they make a perfect little stocking stuffer, thank you gift or something pretty to keep for yourself!
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By the way, the Dream Team are very THANKFUL when our followers are THOUGHTFUL enough to leave us a nice comment on our posts! Here’s the “A” team lineup for this week.
Link your own project using this link:  An InLinkz Link-up

Wrapping up with Shades of Blue

On By lindaIn mini album, Uncategorized, Xyron19 Comments

Linda_Neff_mini_mug_shotAs you may already know, I’m participating in a Blog Hop this week with Xyron and Kaisercraft. I received beautiful papers and embellies from Kaisercraft’s 75 Cents collection and I’m in love! The papers are so pretty and delicate-looking and the shades of blue mixed with light golds, greens and black just really inspired me for several projects. This is the final project for the Hop but I’m sure you’ll be seeing me use this collection again. I want to try a few more tags and maybe some cards and I think it would come together nicely for a cd mini book.

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This project is a small pocket-page mini book made from toilet paper rolls. I started by gathering five rolls all the same size and flattening the rolls before painting the ends with Adirondack Pitch Black Paint Dabber.

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Kaisercraft 75 Cents collection 6 1/2-inch by 6 1/2-inch paper pad and empty tubes.

Excuse this next step because I was so excited to see the paper on the painted tubes that I totally forgot to take photos! But here’s what I did: I cut the paper a hair under the width of the tubes and processed them through my Xyron 9″ Creative Station side-by-side and face-up. This puts a solid coating of permanent adhesive on the paper backing. Peel the protective cellophane from the top and peel the tacky paper from the backing – one sheet at a time. Lay the paper down – tacky side up – and place the tube in the middle; wrap the paper around the tube. You’ll have about a 1/2 inch of so of overlap which is perfect! Flatten again with a bone folder.

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Painted tubes (left); 75 Cents papers adhered to tubes with Xyron 9″ Creative Station (right).

Once all tubes are wrapped it’s time to remember to punch your binding holes. I use the Zutter Bind-it-All so really try to remember to punch my slots early on in the project before I start adding embellishments. As you can see below – I forgot once again – it’s the excitement of a project coming together, I just forget! I used the Kaisercraft 75 Cents Collectables for embellishing. The pack is chock full of assorted die-cuts for embellishing. All the edges are inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and some are heat embossed with the Perfect Medium Pen and UTEE technique from the Round Shadow Frame.

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Book pages decorated with 75 Cents from Kaisercraft, Xyron 9″ Creative Station and Xyron Glue Stick.

I made tags to slide in the tube pages by cutting rectangles that easily slide in and out from more of the papers. The upper corners are trimmed out to look like a shipping tag then processed through my Xyron 5″ Creative Station and stuck back-to-back to create the tag.

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Handmade paper tags processed through Xyron 5″ Creative Station.

I like to make my own reinforcers so they match the tags. A 1/2-inch circle punch and Crop-a-Dile, combined with Xyron 1.5″ Create a Sticker are perfect for this part.

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Easily make your own reinforcers to match your project; Xyron 1.5″ Create-a-Sticker and punches.

I’ve had people tell me this book is too small for photos so wanted to add photos to show how it’s a great size for photos. I located photos I wanted to use on my computer and resized them to fit the pages and tags. They’re all printed out on matte photo paper, trimmed and edged with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks. Then I simply run them through my Xyron for full coverage. I determine which Xyron to use by the amount of photos I will be using. I had a lot of photos for this book so ran them face-up through my Xyron 5″ Creative Station. I just pack them in nice and tight and it uses very little adhesive. I’ve calculated the price out before and have discovered even at full price it only costs about $1 per foot of adhesive to use my Xyron which gives me a nice clean way to adhere papers and photos. My fingers don’t get all gooped up and my projects remain sticky, messy-free and I don’t have to wait for dry time.

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Sized-to-fit photos processed through Xyron 5″ Creative Station for full coverage.

I also like to make my own captions for my little books so write and print them out on ivory cardstock. I trim them out, ink the edges and again run through one of my Xyron machines. These captions fit perfectly through my Xyron 1.5″ Create-a-Sticker. I love the fact that I can adhere over the photo if I want or anywhere on the page and that they are personalized. I can also make the font fit the theme and style of book.

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Create your own photo caption stickers by printing and running through Xyron 1.5″ Create-a-Sticker.

This book just turned out so much nicer than I anticipated and it would make a lovely family gift, but I may just have to keep this one for myself!

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Be sure to visit Xyron’s blog to check out projects by the other design team members as well. Check my calendar to see where this class is being taught.

No tall tales here – just a little mini book …

On By lindaIn mini album, Uncategorized, Xyron11 Comments

I’m the first to admit it. When I started making mini books several years ago my scrapbooking just went right out the window!

I love scrapbooking but there’s something about making a mini book that gives me great satisfaction in knowing the project is complete and I’ve got the perfect little gift for someone.

The Xyron Design Team is hopping this week with Teresa Collins so be sure to check out the Xyron and Teresa Collins Design Team blogs for loads of ideas!

Here’s my newest little mini book made from “Tell Your Story,” a new paper collection from Teresa Collins. I’ve always enjoyed working with Teresa Collins paper collections; I taught several of her kits at Scrap Tales during my tenure there. And, once again I used some of those 527 envelopes I got for free a few years ago. The envelopes make great pockets and they’re easy to cover with beautiful papers.

I really like using the Globecraft Memories bubble frames for the book covers. I can create a very dimensional cover that is totally protected under the bubble and it looks really cool! For this book I used Globecraft Memories Classic Traditional Rectangle bubble frame. I covered each layer with the Teresa Collins “Tell Your Story” papers by cutting them to fit the frame, using Xyron’s Glue Stick for Corners to adhere it and then inking the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink

For the inside pages the envelope ends are snipped off to fit inside the bubble frame’s dimensions. Then they are measured and “Tell Your Story” papers cut to fit just inside the envelope edges. I ran them all through my Xyron 5″ Creative Station and adhered them to the envelopes.I wanted to fancy them up a bit so cut scrap the width of the envelope pages and punched with a couple of my favorite EK Success Edgers: Dotted Scallop Edger Punch and Scalloped Scallop Edger Punch. The scraps are trimmed to about 3 inches deep and scored so about 1 inch of the punched edge hangs over the envelope pocket and the rest is tucked inside and adhered. The pages are decorated with journal tickets and journal blocks – all from the Teresa Collins “Tell Your Story” collection. It’s just loaded with ideas for recording your memories. I adhered just the corners of the tickets so the journal cards could be tucked in and easily accessible.The book is bound with my Zutter Bind-it-All – my favorite binding machine! And, I used white coils to coordinate with the papers.The pockets in this book open at the top and I created a tag for each one by cutting more of the “Tell Your Story” papers to fit inside the pockets comfortably. They were also run through the Xyron 5″ Creative Station and adhered face-to-face. I trimmed the corners to give them a tag shape and edged each with Black Soot Distress Ink. A white 3/16″ eyelet in inserted at the top of each tag so I could include some beautiful fibers. I love fibers and use them a lot so I buy fancy yarns and cut my own. They give the project a nice, rich feel in my opinion.My favorite part is the bubble decorations. I inked three paper flowers and dipped them in UTEE and heat set to give them a porcelain appearance and glued them to the top of knotted piece of white tulle. Three stickers from the “Tell Your Story” collection are popped up with dimensional foam adhesive and layered to create depth and shadows. There’s a little Piccolo butterfly by Globecraft Memories that is painted with the company’s new Cool Set Enamels in Titanium White and Cobalt Turquoise. It’s also popped up on about four layers of dimensional foam squares. I felt it needed a bit more so pulled out a flourish from Want2Scrap – gotta love these!

It really turned out to a cute little project. I may still add some fibers to the rings – or not – and I feel the cover needs a tad more embellishing, but that’s another day.