Creativity Abounding in AZ

I've still got one suitcase filled to the brim with "stuff" that I'll be emptying out little by little. It was such a blast...now onto the creativity! Karen Morikawa, or as she is known, Keychain (she's so petite she could go onto a keychain...a definite Tim"ism"!) put together a wonderful swap. Almost everyone created 38 copies or versions of a recipe card. You could make one and copy it or make 38 of 'em. I kind of did a mix. I printed out the recipe (Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies), but then had to embellish accordingly. I had to do some sort of a Bandanna Technique of course. The background paper is from Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding, then layered with "pearlized" Wrinkle Free Distress on watercolor paper, then the recipe. I added a swipe of Vintage Photo Distress Crackle Paint(tm) and liked a crazy woman hand stamped out the word "cookies" with the awesome Magnetic Poetry stamps in the Typewriter Font with Jet Black Archival(tm) Ink. I then "Bandanna'd" it with the white pen. Everyone did a wonderful and outstanding job.

For our first project, we made a book to hold our recipe cards, using Grungeboard(tm) and the Bind-it-all, which I had not used before. I wanted the book to have a Christmas-ey feel to it, but not too much. Thus, placed the Grungeboard covers through the Cuttlebug(tm) with the Snowflakes border...boy, does it emboss great...since the covers had a harlequin pattern to it to begin with, it creates a "double" embossed effect! I coated the outside covers with a combination of Adirondack(r) Acrylic Paint Dabber colors: Silver, Cloudy Blue and some Snow Cap White... I then added on the numbers "07" and bookplate coated with Pitch Black and edged with Silver paint. I then bound it together with the Bind-it-All!

As usual, I came up with an idea that I wasn't sure if it would work, but still wanted to see if it could! I'm famous for that and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. At least it's good to try, right? I took two of the longer Grungeboard Hinges and painted them black and edged with Silver and attached hinge "end" with brads to the back covers. I then wanted to somehow create something so that they would "snap" in place and close. I cut out two small circles from the Grungeboard, again using the Cuttlebug, followed by die cut snowflakes. I poked holes through these and on the front cover edges, attached them to the covers with a brad, but made sure that the brad had space so it stuck out and was NOT flush to the die cut shapes. The decorative end of the hinges had a center hole...perfect to use to "attach" and create a closure...pretty cool...BUT-next time, I'm going to reinforce that hole on the decorative edge of the hinge with an eyelet...someone was a little rough with checking out the closure and one of them ripped. That's okay, though! It still closes and you get the idea.

The finishing touch was adding ribbon to the binder...It's really fun and I'm so glad that there's something I can look at to remember the attendees by!

There's 5 more projects that we created, so keep tuned in!

Inky Hugs, Robin