Hurry and post your Man Made-Hand Made Projects!

Only a handful of days left to post and link to your "Man Made - Hand Made" project challenge. The store at Bind-it-All is still giving away the bonus Clipboard Wood covers, so be sure to take advantage of that special before the end of the month!

Summer is HERE! Kids are out of school! I have to wear a swimsuit (ARGH!!!) So let's get tan and crafty!

A Toot for Emeline

Our own Emeline Seet, design team member in Singpore, had one of her Bind-it-All projects published in the special issue of PaperCrafts called 225 Cards & Gifts. Check out this cute little address book. Emeline actually had this posted as a DT project several months ago, but we had to pull it down once PaperCrafts accepted it! We don't mind, because now it's in print! Whoohooo!

We are very proud, Emeline! Congrats!

Babies & Grads

June is a big month for weddings, graduations, babies, Father’s Day….so many scrappable events! Thought I would share two Bind-it-All projects I made for two of these occasions.

Baby Shower Memory Cover-All

I threw a baby shower this month for my co-worker, Paulette, and her first baby, a girl, she and her husband are naming Myla. I am really excited about her baby-to come and was happy to host the shower. Paulette is one of those people who is always cheerful and positive – I love that about her! She calls everyone “love bug” so we themed her baby shower with lady bugs.

I made this Cover-All for the shower, for all the guests to write notes in to her and baby Myla. I made a dedication page for the inside cover, decorated the outside with lady bug paper (I also made thank you notes for Paulette with the same paper) and plenty of blank white cardstock for the inner pages. We passed it around the shower on a tray, with an array of different colored journaling pens. When I got the shower photos, I added those in and voila! A memory book to treasure! It makes a really special gift and easy to put together, since all the shower guests do a lot of the journaling work!

(yes, that is Franny with a balloon under her shirt taking a picture with the mommy-to-be!)

Baby girls are always showered with pink, so I love that this paper wasn't just pink...it adds a nice contrast to all the pink presents she did receive! I also liked using the baby blue owire....again, it add something different (plus it went better with this paper!)

Graduation Mini

Talk about fast….this is one I put together in one night – maybe in an hour, tops! Zutter owires and 4X4 covers, cardstock, one sheet of patterned paper, and stickers and embellishments (all from Creative Imaginations). All the pages are 4X4, so “zing” right through the Dreamkuts they went! I rounded all the corners with the 1/4" Round-it-All. For one page, I cut a 4X8, folded it along the center and glued the outside edge to form the pocket (the inside edge gets punched for the inner edge). Use a circle punch to make the little half-circular opening at the top. The stickers are what makes it all come together so well. Now all I need are pictures of my daughter’s 8^th grade graduation….I hope she does well on her finals this week! ARGH!

The Creative Imaginations sticker sheet had tabs (perfect for the pages) and circles (which I made into owire decorations and mini tags). B&W gingham ribbon worked perfect with this book; and I used a creamy bling cardstock to add some sheen. Gotta have sparkle.

What June events are you punching and binding?

Man Made - Hand Made Challenge!

It's time for another challenge!!

This one comes straight from the hubby--you know, with Father's Day approaching it's time to think of projects for dad. So what better way to get your gift for dad ready AND possibly win a prize than another fun Zutter Challenge!

MAN MADE - HAND MADE Challenge

Create a project using Zutter Canvas Covers or Zutter Clipboard Wood Covers!* These durable products are just the ticket for projects that will be handled alot. Plus their weight and texture are perfect for masculine projects (think Father's Day!). Show us your best handiwork (made for a man) using Zutter Canvas Covers or Zutter Clipboard Wood Covers. You might even win a prize:

The First Place Winner will receive:

• Bind It All Around the World Book
• Display-It-All

TWO Runner's Up will each receive a Display-It-All.

Post a link to your project in the comments on this post by June 30, 2009. The Zutter Zisters will then choose the winners and announce them in July. *If you don't have any Canvas Artboard or Clipboard Wood handy, show us your stuff with chipboard....but we know you will love these materials too!

Need a little inspiration? Here's a Bind-It-All project I made for my husband using clipboard wood and scrap o-wires:

Dad’s Memo Board

My husband works in an office and he has surrounded himself with photos of our children, stuck to the wall with tape and thumbtacks. He really needs a nicer place to keep our kids! I created a "manly" memo board for him to hang at his desk with a photo of the kids.

He can also put photos or notes on the post it note pad or little corkboard section of the memo center. I also added some scrap o-wires across the bottom for him to hang keys and lanyards for his ID badges.

After binding several books I am usually left with odd piece of o-wires so this project is a perfect use for all those “scraps”. I used a nice sturdy piece of Zutter’s Clipboard Wood Covers to mount the project on—it will hold up to all the man-handling it will get hanging on my husband’s wall at work.

Supplies:

O-Wires, Clipboard Wood – Zutter

Paper – Close to My Heart

Cardstock – Bazzill

Cork – Unknown

Sticky Notes – Kirkland/Costco

Stick Pins – Staples

Waxy Twine – hydrangeahippo.etsy.com

Ink – Colorbox Chalk

Photo – Gypsy Isle Photography

Assembly:

1. Cut paper to the size of the clipboard wood and cover both sides. Ink all edges. Cut a piece of black to 1” smaller than the clipboard wood on all sides and adhere to the board.

2. Using the Bind It All, punch binding holes across the bottom of the board.



3. Adhere the cork board and sticky notepad to the cardstock.

4. Add a 3” square photo above the notepad.

5. Insert o-wires into the holes on the bottom of the board. Bend them closed slightly by hand.

6. Punch two holes in each of the upper corners of the board using the Bind It All. Use the holes printed on the top of the machine as a guide to only slide the board far enough in so that the machine will only cut two holes.

7. Tie waxy twine through each of the holes on the top of the board to form a hanger.

Enjoy! I cannot wait to see what you create with the Clipboard Wood Covers and Canvas Covers! Remember, the deadline is June 30, 2009!

Let's Jazz Up Those O'wires!

Good Morning from sunny Saudi Arabia! Well, its morning here... may actually midnight for you guys... but you know what I mean! ;) Its going to be HOT today... its already over 40 degrees and its only mid morning so I will just stay indoors in the aircon and play in the scrap room!!

Thought I would pop by and have a chat about o'wires... I mean, what scrapper can have something so convenient for attaching things to and be able to leave them alone? Obviously ribbons are the first thing to head for, they look so lush all bunched up on the o'wires, but there are other things we can use for a different sort of look.

Beads, I love beads, the only thing you have to remember when scouting about for them is to go for the largest holed beads you can find, because we still want to be able to turn the pages of our book.

Jump rings are brilliant too, you can use them to attach chains and dangle stuff off the chain.

For this version, I only had bright yellow wooden beads which weren't really going to go with the book, so I painted them black and then heat emboosed a pattern on them in bronze and they look fab with heavily inked covers.

Jump rings and rik rak for tieing tags and things to the o'wire.

You can also thread your beads onto wire and attach them to the o'wires that way. This means you can get away with using beads with smaller hole in the centre. You can see a stunning version fo this on Lea's blog with her Twilight book (which is divine and I understand why her daughter made off with it like a bandit)!!

Chain is my favourite, I love to thread beads and odd bits onto the chain and cut it into varying lengths and then hang the entire thing from the top o'wire.

So, hope this has spurred you on to trying something other than ribbon to decorate your o'wires!!

Teabag Mini Book

Teabag Pocket Book
Before you start cutting paper up its always best to check the size of the teabag packet that you are going to use – I measured about 4 different brands and they were all similar in size (just over 2.5” long by 2 ¼” wide) so maybe there is a standard, but checking it out first will save heartache later and you can then adjust my measurements accordingly. Also, this same pattern could be used for lots of different things from seed packets for a gardener to toilette wipes or perfume sachets. Using these instructions you can also just add tags as the inserts and make it a normal mini book for quotes or photos – the only limit is your imagination!

Materials List
Zutter’s Red o’wire 1 ¼ “
Bazzil cardstock – RedPatterned paper
Chipboard for covers each measuring 3 ½” x 2 ¾”
Flowers
Ribbon – various (20” required for ties)
BG Brad
Tools
Bind It All
Round It All
Scor-It Board
Circle Punch

1. Check size of the packet you will be using. Just over 2 ½” long by 2 ¼” and add an 1/8” for the fold to make into a pocket.
2. Add enough on for the BIA holes which meant I ended up with 6 pieces of paper measuring 5 1/8” x 3 ¼”
Tip. Attached to my o’wire sizing ring I have a piece of chipboard that I use to check how many holes I will need and the distance required so that I don’t add embellies where I will be punching and binding.

3. Score fold lines to make pockets – I used my Scor-It Board because it takes the faff out of measuring each piece a couple of times but if you don’t have one a ruler and bone folder will work, just measure both sides before scoring.

4. Fold your pocket pages ready for gluing.
5. DST (double sided tape) the join fold inside to form the pocket (this makes the pocket equally attractive from front and back).

I used my circle punch to snip half circles so that it is easy to remove the contents of the pocket.
6. Decorate pockets to your taste

Tip. I alternate the join of the pockets, one up, one down, alternating the pages so that the end project is equally fat from top and bottom, otherwise you will find that with the joins all the same way your final book will be fatter at the top than the bottom or vice versa.
7. Punch holes in the pockets with the BIA
8. Cut chipboard for front and back covers measuring 3 ½” x 2 ¾”
9. Attach a 10” length of ribbon to each cover for your closure, I added a small square of the patterned paper to the ends to make it look like the string on a teabag.

10. Decorate covers with patterned paper but leave adding any fat embellishments till after punching the holes. I took the corners off the outside edges with my Round It All.
Tip. I like to punch the holes for binding with papers on both sides of the cover but this means if you want to add flowers/ ribbon/brads/closures then the backs show through on the inside of your cover which isn’t very pretty! I attach the inside cover paper with one strip of repositional Herma, punch the holes and then remove it. You can then attach it properly once you have finished the front and cover up all the bits that you don’t want to be seen.
11. Insert your teabags into the pockets and with the covers make a pile, the height of this will indicate what size o’wire you will require to bind your project. I used 6 pockets on my book so needed the fatter 1 ¼” o’wire.

12. Sit back and admire your handiwork!!

I would love to see what you make and know whether the instructions were of any help, so leave a comment and a link and I will come visit!