Phoenix Inspirations

Good morning all - I'm back from a lovely holiday in Wales although I did bring a cold back with me which settled on my chest and made me feel quite unwell for a few days! I'm feeling much brighter now and ready to start sharing my crafting endeavours with you again. Today I have some decorated notebooks to show you - made quite simply from cheap notebooks bought from a pound shop and then decorated with scraps of card and paper. These sell really well at craft fairs and are really quick and simple to do. The next ones are some I made from scratch. I used an old notebook, cut the pages to size and rebound them using my Zutter Bind it All. I love making these and again are perfect for craft fairs. Thanks for looking - I'll be back soon with some more craft fair makes - post it note holders xx

If you pop over to visit my lovely blog buddy  Mynnette  - you will see this   Sadly this is not something that I have acheived every week however I did spread a little around last night at my monthly workshop. I have been running my craft club now for 5 years and this month was the fifth anniversary so to say 'Thank You' for their support I made my ladies a little gift Along with the printed schedules each one received a little notebook and matching bookmark. Here's a close up The notebooks are 3" x 3" and the covers are chipboard covered with My Mind's Eye paper. They have been bound using a Bind -it- all machine. The ladies of my Tuesday morning group will get theirs when they come to class in April. Pop back tomorrow and I will show you what we made last night - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

Today was my last Tuesday morning workshop of the year and we made notebooks. I make a lot of notebooks - they make great gifts and also they go down very well at my craft fairs. Here's a couple that I made a while ago This is the one I made today for the workshop The gorgeous dotty paper is from a DCWV pad and so is the paper used to mount my owl. The owl of course is my SU 2Step Owl punch and she is sitting on a branch punched from the 2 Step Bird punch. A third punch - Boho Blossoms was used to punch the flowers. The initial is gorgeously glittery and is from K&Company. The notebook it's self was made from a cheap A4 pad and there is a full tutorial over on my  Craft Club  blog. I also used my faithful Bind-it-All machine to give it a professional look. You could also use ring binders or ribbon if you don't have a Bind-it-All. Thanks for looking - Jacqueline xx

I have a friend's birthday coming up soon and I always like to make her a little something. This year I have made a notebook. I salvaged some pages from an old A4 pad, cut them down to size and bound them together with my Bind it All machine. I decorated the cover with some Stampin' Up DSP - take a look The paper is from the Springtime Vintage collection and I have teamed it up with some Very Vanilla card stock. The little dotty frame is stamped from the Baby Blossoms set and my flower is made using some die cuts. The edges of the petals have been sponged with Baja Breeze ink. I am entering this notebook into the challenge over at  "Just Us Girls"  which has the theme of Altered Notebooks and then I shall wrap it up ready for my friend. I am away for a few days tomorrow - I am hoping to schedule some posts, whether this will work I don't know - but there's only one way to find out ........see you soon - Jacqueline xx

.....is the theme for this week's challenge at the Simply Stampin'  challenge blog. As they are a challenge blog for everyone who loves Stampin' Up products they want to see something ie a stamp image or sentiment that is Stampin' Up on all of the projects we make. Needless to say - this is one of my most favourite of challenges! This week I have made a notebook. I always recycle the backs of note pads as they are a great source of chipboard and this time I covered it in white paper. I recycled an old sketch pad, cut the paper to size and bound it together with the covers with my Zutter Bind it All machine So to prevent this note book remaining naked I added some Sahara Sand card stock and some Vintage Springtime DSP. Here is the back of the book I then drew some inspiration from one of the Simply Stampin' design team - Angela. This is the piece that caught my eye - here (scroll down a little). And here is my interpretation I used my Baby Blossoms stamp set, ...

I have just spent a rather pleasant afternoon playing very loud music and crafting. It's not something I do very often - play loud music my kids really complain when I do! My choices don't always go down very well with them. My card today is based on the sketch over at Simply Stampin' My card has a masculine theme - it's for Father's Day and uses my French Foliage set. The base card is some Papermania Kraft Basics stamped with Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel and Pumpkin Pie inks. I used my Bind it All to punch down the side of the card stock so that it looked like it had been torn from a book. The edges were distressed using scissors and then inked and some twine was tied around the whole piece. OK - I'd better turn the music down now - the natives are getting restless so I'd better go and feed them - bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

I love making books, be it memory books or just plain notebooks - I love to make them and customise them. This is one I made today: She was inspired by I sketch I saw on Tuesday Morning Sketches  and I didn't just want to make a card this time. So I used some cereal boxes - 4 pieces 15 1/2 cm by 22cm and I glued them together. I glued the picture sides together so it wouldn't show through my paper when I came to cover it. I then covered over them with brown wrapping paper - I bought it from my local Post Office - and then I decorated them. I used some Anna Griffin blue polka dot paper and inked it with my Tim Holtz distress ink - Brushed Cordouroy and stamped some swirls using Stampin' Up inks Bordering Blue and Night of Navy. The vintage lady is from the Craft Stamper Magazine  web site - I just ripped the edges and inked them. The flowers are punched from vintage papers using the Stampin' Up 5 petal flower punch and again are distressed and inked. I stuck them on with...

"What a mess" I hear you cry. Well not really just a few bits and pieces: cardboard cereal box, glue stick, wrapping paper (given to me by my lovely daughter - ages ago), printed diary pages and a 'Bind it All' machine. Can you tell what it is yet? Yay - it's a book! The Village Hall Diary actually. Don't you just hate it when you buy a diary and half the book is taken up with pages of conversion tables or travel infomation or birthdays of the Royal Family? (Not that I have got anything against the Royal Family - but I don't want to know when their birthdays are). O.K rant over - I made my own - my way. Hope you like it. I am really excited today as I am off to a 'Stampin Up' demo party tonight. Not before time either as I am right out of paper. Going to treat myself to some stamps too as I have been saving for weeks. Bye for now - Jacqueline.