Zutter Zisters 2012-2013 DT Call!!!!

* This post will remain at the top of our blog until the call is complete. Please scroll down for more recent posts *

Zutter Innovative, the home of the Bind-It-All,  is pleased to announce an official Design Team call! We are looking for enthusiastic, dynamic, and organized crafters who love working creating papercrafting projects to join our current team. Zutter recently celebrated our 5th anniversary, offering a complete line of innovative tools and accessories for papercrafting and beyond. We are looking for crafters who are ecstatic about scrapbooking, mini albums, and mixed media, and who love to share their passion with others! If you are excited to share your work and talk about Zutter Innovative everywhere you can, then you may be the artist for us!

We are looking individuals who can offer the following:

• A Passion for Crafting!
• Strong Written Communication Skills
• Solid Project Photography Skills
•  Ability to Meet Deadlines
• An Updated and Active Blog
• Active Facebook Account
• Experience with Video Tutorials or with Stepped Out Written Tutorials
•  Artists with experience in Altered Art, Scrapbooking, or any other craft discipline in which you have created mini books or use chipboard, acrylic, or wood sheets.
• Ability to Teach Demos and Classes is a Plus (but not required)
• This call is open to US and International Members

Design Team Expectations:

•  2-3 Projects Monthly, one of which must be a tutorial (including typed directions and step out photos or video)
• 2-3 Blog Posts Monthly
• Participation in Blog Hops and other promotions as requested (once to twice per month)
• Participation on the Bind-It-All & All Thingz Zutter! Facebook Page (min. once a month)
•  Submit your Zutter work at least 2 times a month for publication
• Actively participate in online communities/forums.
• Submit all work to larger online galleries such as Scrapbook.com and twopeasinabucket.com.

Compensation:

• Promotion of you and your work on the  Bind-It-All  Blog and Facebook Page
• Generous product shipments filled with Zutter Innovative Products as well as Product from Cross-Promotional Partners
• Publication Endorsement Fees of $25 to $50 per project
• Discount on Product for Classes
• Opportunities for Compensation for Trade Show work and more

Design Team Application:

Please submit the following to zuttersocial@gmail.com by Midnight PST March 31, 2012:

•  Your Name
• Mailing Address
•  Email Address
• Phone Number
• List any Zutter Products you currently own (such as Bind-It-All).
•  In 1-2 paragraphs, tell us a little about yourself – your family, hobbies, how long you have been crafting, how you started crafting, your design style and philosophy, etc. We want to get to know you.
•  In 1-2 paragraphs, tell us why you want to work with Zutter Innovative as a designer. 
•  A list of or link to your current online resume, including current obligations and design teams, if any
• Links to your Facebook profile, Twitter account (if applicable), You Tube account (if you have one), and any other online social media you would be willing to use to promote your work with Zutter Innovative
•  Link to your blog/website and an online gallery of your work if you have a separate gallery. 
• Attach or link to 3-5 samples of your recent work (within the last 6 months) which best showcases your style. 

o   2 samples MUST be mini albums or bound books.
o  1 sample MUST include step out photos or a video tutorial with written instructions and a supply list. This can be in the body of your email application or in a blog post you've completed. We want to see what you might submit to us as your monthly tutorial blog post.

o   Please tell us a little background about each sample

o   Please attach photos of the projects to your submission email or provides links to the images online. Attached Images must be jpegs under 500KB in size please.

The Zutter Innovative Design Team will be announced on April 15, 2012. Please direct questions to: zuttersocial@gmail.com

Thank you and good luck!!

Flat Stanley Adventures

This project made with love is for my nephew, Alex, who lives in California. He chose my family to help him with his Flat Stanley project. Instead of sending the usual postcards and brochures to show where Flat Stanley has visited, I decided a scrapbook of adventures was in order. I left the last two pages of the book blank for Alex to add photos of his class presentation with Flat Stanley.

Knowing that the project would be handled by first graders, I chose a very heavy duty, thick book board for the pages plus a handy kraft-colored Cover-All. Though this is great in concept, sometimes really thick boards plus layering or placement of thick embellishments close to the edge to be punched can pose a problem. I tend to go overboard by adding chunky embellishments all over the place!

To get around the “too-chunky-to-fit-the-punching-channel” issue, I recommend punching the pages before embellishment. This is also a good option if you hadn’t really thought of how you were going to layout your project at the onset (usually my problem when I’m doing projects on the fly).

Add your base layers of paper to the boards. Punch the boards and acrylic sheet that will attach your pages to the Cover-All.

Embellish the pages to your heart’s content. Chunk it up, add thickness anywhere you want. Now is also a good time to think of other things might want to add between the pages like postcards, brochures, other punchable mementos. Also decorate the cover and spine of the Cover-All if you want to at this point.

When you’re ready to assemble, put your pages in order with the acrylic sheet in front of your first page. Note: I have a strange habit of cutting off an inch or two of the acrylic page that fits into the Cover-All pocket. I just like how it fits better that way. That’s how I roll!

Thread the pages onto the o-wire starting with the bottom page. The “teeth” of the o-wire should be sticking out of the top with the acrylic page as the last page fed onto the teeth of the o-wire.

Adjust the Bind-it-All to the size of the o-wire. Starting from one end of the o-wire, you will close the wire in groups if your project is larger than the width of the Bind-It-All.

After binding all the length of o-wire, move the acrylic page to the back of the pages and then slip into the pocket on in the inside of the Cover-All. That's it! Continue to add more to the book if desired.

Tools and Supplies

• Zutter - Bind-it-All, 7/8" red O-wire, 8x8" 1 inch kraft Cover-All
• 7Gypsies – book boards
• Making Memories – patterned paper
• Epiphany Crafts, K&Company, Cloud9, Lil’ Davis Designs, Heidi Grace, Creative Imaginations, Little Yellow Bicycle – epoxy shapes
• American Crafts – rub-ons

Hope you enjoyed these adventures and are off to make an adventure book of your very own :)

Come by my blog if you'd like to see close-ups of each of the layouts - http://leasanders.wordpress.com.

Posted by Lea Sanders

Paper Hearts...

Yes, Valentine's Day has passed but love can last the whole year! I created this mini for a private class I taught at an event for a group of sophisticated crafters who love all things elegant yet over the top--the bar was set high so this is the mini I created, full of details, trims, and more.

Really the sky is the limit with the types of items you can create as pages in your books using your Bind-It-All. Now that I have worked "behind the scenes" in the paper crafting industry I know that some of the pre-made albums and books you can purchase pre-bound, off the shelf have been in development for months if not YEARS! Imagine if you could see something hip, cool, and trendy and make a book out of it today, right now, this very moment! Well, that's why I love my Bind-It-All.

In October I attended Jennifer Jensen's class at Spark the Event and she had these square doilies in her class, folded into envelopes. I wanted them badly badly badly so I could make something from them but when I started searching online, the packs I found were just too wildly expensive. Imagine my surprise when I was in the local 99 Cent Only store, you know, the chain store with the purple logos, and there was an entire DISPLAY of square doilies!!!!! I bought them all -- teehee!

Immediately I came home, folded one of the doilies into an envelope, and punched it with my Bind It All. Here is the result:

Now, if I were to take this idea to "market" and have a company make this, you would not see it for a good 6-12 months! I just can't get over how awesome it is to be able to incorporate current trends into my books instantly.

Here are some other things I added to the book:

Coin envelopes always seem to be on clearance somewhere but the color is too yellow for alot of products. A light coating acrylic paint will tone them down before punching with the Bind-It-All.

Shipping tags are another great way to add to interest to your books!

And don't forget paper bags--this striped Valentine sack was a seasonal offering at Target. This is a great way to use up leftover party bags or just add a touch of "cute" to your books. I can guarantee no one else has a book just like mine :)

I hope this post causes you to look at flat items in your life as possible pages in mini books. And that you can have it all RIGHT NOW by using your Bind-It-All to handcraft custom books.

Happy Binding!
Jennifer Priest
http://hydrangeahippo.blogspot.com

NEW! Distress-it-All VS2 (Mar 14th) with Donna Salazar

Join Donna Salazar online as you explore everything DISTREZZED with the Zutter Distrezz-It-All!!

This class will be 4 weeks of DISTREZZED girlie grunge fun! We'll be distrezzing everything under the sun that can be put through this wonderful little machine and I'll be showing you the various looks that can be achieved with it. I'll also show the differences between the DIA Version 1 and Version 2. We'll be making a 5x7 Mixed Media Book, a 6x12 Family Trip Book, A card and 2 ATCs (Artist Trading Cards).

In the first couple weeks I'll be teaching you basic DIA techniques. In weeks 3 & 4 I'll teach some more advanced techniques that will require a more delicate touch.

• Week 1 - All About the DIA & Part 1 of making the 5x7 Mixed Media Book
• Week 2 - Binding and Decorating the 5x7 Mixed Media Book
• Week 3 - 6x12 Family Trip Book
• Week 4 - A 5x7 Card and 2 Artist Trading Cards

For more info, visit: http://www.mycreativeclassroom.com/course/info.php?id=512

Love and Marriage - BIA Style

What better way to share in a friend's wedding bliss? I celebrated my co-worker's wedding with a personalized Bind-it-All album in her wedding colors and the couple's names on the cover.

The Bind-it-All allows for great versatility and flexibility to create something beautiful for every occasion.

Hope this inspires you to create handmade projects to celebrate milestones in the lives of your friends and family.

Zutter Products

• Zutter Tools Used: Bind-it-All
• Owire Size & Color: 1 1/4” white

Other Materials

• ClearScraps – tabbed chipboard
• Stampin’ Up! – ink, scalloped chipboard, striped grosgrain ribbon
• Basic Grey - patterned paper
• PaperSourceBazzill – cardstock
• Lil’ Davis Designs – epoxy alphabet
• Prima – flowers, bling, patterned burlap
• Pebbles – cardstock stickers
• DoodleBug – jewels
• acrylic, ribbon

Lea Millora Sanders

Original Zutter Zister

Distrezz-it-All Love - and a beautiful card!

I don't know about you, but there is just something about the Distrezz-it-All that makes me squeal!

This WONDER tool chews up paper and leaves the most glorious Distrezzed edge

that one could ever want........in SECONDS!! Just look at the beautiful edges of my card.

I created a tutorial on how to create the above card and how I used the Distrezz-it-All

(and yes you will hear my excitement when I use it)

Also, in the video, I use a new product, that will be being released soon by Zutter.
A durable frosted plastic sheet. I created my own template using this material.
You will have to watch the video and see....
ENJOY!!

Zutter Zister Lynne Forsythe