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!

FREE Clipboard Wood!

Yeah! I am so excited the Zutter warehouse is offering this special! Now through the end of June, ANY order at http://www.binditall.com/ gets a special sampler of Zutter Clipboard Wood covers FREE. The sample pack consists of 2 packages of 3X4 Clipboard Wood covers AND 2 packages of 6X6 Clipboard Wood covers. It's over $5 of covers FREE with ANY order.

If you've not tried Clipboard Wood covers yet, this is the time. Clipboard Wood is a soft wood that is punchable in the Bind-it-All. It's perfect for board books for kids, home decor projects and anything that will get handled alot.

I just made a hanging decoration for hubby's poker room (that would be the garage!), using five panels of 3X4 Clipboard Wood covers. I painted the edges black and bound them together with Antique Brass Owire - it gives it a whole new look than just black owire, I think. Anyway, the fellas were pretty impressed when they had their weekend game (or so they said....I think they just wanted me to go back to my scrap room!). Anyway, the complete materials list for this project is in my Gallery at http://www.zutterzisters.com/.

Check it out....happy almost end of May!

Just a little more Beyond the Book

It was truly amazing to see how you all interpreted the Beyond the Book challenge, and really great seing a Swedish girl among the winners. I've also interpreted the challenge in my own little way with making a layout that is supposed to resemble a book, but isn't one. The layout is made from double layers of cardstock, for stability, which I’ve then covered with patterned paper. I’ve put a strip if paper over the wire to keep the layout flat, and then I’ve put a couple of strips on the backside too, to make sure it stays that way and doesn't bend.
I can't take the credit for this layout all by myself, since the first person I saw doing a layout like this is another Swedish girl, Anna Nilsson, aka Annyt. You can watch her fabulous layout that inspired me in the making of this one on her blog.

Have a great Sunday, all of you blog readers out there.
/Jenny

Beyond the Book - BLEW US AWAY!!!!

The Beyond the Book Challenge entries had us all SPINNING!!! .....such fabulous creativity and ideas! I think the DT will be working overtime to make some of our own projects based on these fun designs! You really pulled out all the stops on these! Each of the three ladies below will be getting a new SPINNER ALBUM KIT to keep the creative juices flowing!


ME LAYOUT
Part of the challenge was to get out of your mini-book comfort zone, that is what our first winner, Kathy, did with her “me” layout. She admittedly had to get cozy scrapping about herself, and did it with owire-bound flip up pages on her layout. You can add hidden journaling and pictures under and on the flaps, like Kathy did here. Great job! (Tip when adding owire to layouts, use small diameter owire like ½” or 3/8” and punch the holes with the Space Bar. Check the video here -Chapter 7 - on how to use this add-on).

RIBBON BOX
I think every one of the DT can relate to trying to keep their scrap rooms organized, so no doubt we all lit up when we saw Elizabeth’s ribbon organizer! Can you just say CUTE!?!?!?!?!? And it’s just chipboard! There’s no way tape or glue would hold all the ribbon I have if I were to make a handmade storage box like this – only the owire would hold it all together! And, the nice touch of using ribbon to thread in the holes on the sides is just added cuteness! Congrats, Elizabeth!!!

TREASURE BOX
This one is a real treasure....this artsy box is just begging for some goodies to be hidden and saved in it! We need some Swedish translation for the instructions, though. Regardless, you can't help but love the texture, colors, and the lacing of the BIA holes!! Check pysselninjangittan 's blog for instructions and more photos. Congrats to you too!

Ladies, send me your shipping addresses (nan@binditall.com) and we hope to see your Spinner creations soon!

For the U.S. folks, have a great Memorial Day Weekend (yeah, 3-day weekend!!!)

Rock On!

The DT is busy reviewing all the Beyond the Book entries and will be announcing our faves at the end of the week. If you didn’t partake in this creative challenge, we still hope to inspire you to use your Bind-it-All for non-book projects.

I took on the challenge myself this weekend, with this hanging memo board for my teenage daughter. She's always telling me I need to get "cool" - wait...I'm NOT? Well, this paper line is really cool!

This project uses the 10X10 Zutter Clipboard wood and a random piece of metal I had in the garage! I covered both with cardstock, and adhered the metal to the Clipboard Wood. I took these wild-fun “Rock On”* flowers from Prima and glued magnets to the back. And – because for a teenager simply tacking up a note isn’t always enough – I used a piece of scrap cardboard and attached a 3X3” sticky note pad with some Owire. Now she can put little notes up with the magnets, but also tear off a sticky note to take with her! I love how I was able to find some sticky notes in a color to match this line of paper and embellies. I figure when the sticky notes run out, I can just glue on another pad. When she doesn’t want the sticky notes in the way, she can just flip it over so the full magnet board is visible!
And, just because I am young at heart (and because I love this paper...see, I can be cool!), I made myself a Cover-All with the same product line. Hey – I can “Rock On” too! I used the 5X7 patterned paper pad to cover the Cover-All, layered the flowers with the bling, and added my initials. The cardstock in this line is incredibly vibrant, so I hope to journal some of my more “colorful” ideas in this book!

* Prima has debuted the “Rock On” product line at Michaels. Almost everything on these two projects was made with this line, except for some things you can only get at your local scrap store, like the cool lace ribbon and the clear and black Say-it-in-Crystals. Not to mention, Zutter Products are available at your LSS and not at all the chain stores! We are not discriminatory when we support our craft stores!!! We buy everywhere!

Hanging Memo Board Materials used: Zutter 10X10 Clipboard Wood, ¾” black owire, scrap piece of metal; Prima Marketing *Rock On cardstock, flowers, embellishments; other: magnets, ribbon.

Rock-On Cover-All Materials used: Zutter 6X6 Flat Spine Cover-All , ¾” black owire; Prima Marketing *Rock On cardstock, 5X7 patterned paper pad, flowers, embellishments, chipboard letters; other: ribbon.


Have a great week, and check in for news about the Challenge winners and announcements for the next challenge!