Zutter Bind-It-All

I have a new obsession. What's new?  We recently started selling a tool at Paper Source called the Zutter Bind-It-All. It does the punching and smushing (this is a technical term) of spiral binding. It's great for small little craft projects!

I've been using it at work to try and get the hang of it so I can be knowledgeable when telling customers about it. I think I'm getting the hang of it! There is a bit of a learning curve but you can certainly get creative with what it's used for!

This is one of my first projects. It's just a little notebook to keep in my purse for jotting down creative ideas, grocery lists and other juicy tidbits. You can see a couple of my other recent obsessions on the covers; the tiny text stamp set and my hand carved scallop stamp.

The cover is made from chipboard and covered in PS color cement.

The inside covers are covered with a 12x12 scrapbook paper we carry, it's one of my favorites! I couldn't decide what side of it to use so I did the front and back covers differently.

There are a few envelopes included for tucking away special little tidbits...

This is another of my first attempts. I  used one of my favorite papers to cover it... problem is with this one I used book board which is pretty thick and I used a lot more pages then the one above and I'll need a wider coil to bind this one. So, it's in progress. I have to wait until we get wider ones in, or go find one somewhere else.

I love the combo of the yellow and hot pink...

I can't wait to start filling it with ideas!

Ok, remember when I said it was an obsession... this last one is my favorite! It was also the most difficult. We're having a contest in our store to see who can come up with the best idea using the Zutter. I've got some stiff competition for sure! My idea was to create a book to keep all of the postcards my sister sent me while she was living in Italy and traveling around Europe. I love how it came out, despite some of my mistakes. I will cherish this book forever and hopefully my grandchildren will find it some day and think it's awesome!

I used a paper for the cover that isn't from PS, so don't go into the store looking for this one...

The difficult part was figuring out how to get the holes punched in the postcards so they lined up correctly in the covers. The postcards were several different sizes so each one had to be punched separately. 

A few examples...

One very cool thing about my job is I get to make things that inspire people and give them a spring board for their own ideas. We have albums at my store that have examples of all kinds of techniques, and styles for card and invitation making. Earlier this year we started to tackle revamping them with new and fresh ideas. They are definitely a work in progress but they're looking good! We have a general ideas binder and a wedding themed binder.

These are some of my contributions... 

Oh, and sorry for the crappy pictures, the lighting in the store isn't the best and everywhere I tried to photograph them I got a shadow!

The scalloped frame and the egg are hand drawn, what makes this one cool is the use of different fonts.

Read this one if you have a second...

I really love this one, it was inspired by Homeroom, the mac and cheese place I went to yesterday! The coloring of the picture is terrible. I used PS colors, bluebell, persimmon and curry.

I've been wanting to stitch an invite on my machine for a while so I took the opportunity to do so with this one. The pictures really don't do it justice. The bunting is hand drawn and the coolest part is the tear-away RSVP card. It's perforated and would already be addressed and stamped so the guest could just tear it off of the invite and pop it in the mail! No envelope needed. I used our paper color, Khaki but it would be even cooler in paper bag.

Anyways, those are just a few of the cool things you can find at Paper Source!

Valentine's Day cards

Whether you think Valentine's Day is just a day made up by Hallmark or not, you have to admit it does provide an excellent opportunity to create some super cute cards!  I'm obsessed with the little letter stamp set, I seem to use it for everything these days! I've been working on creating some V-day cards for a display at work and I came up with these in the last two days. I'm kind of loving the simplicity and the use of the paper bag paper and the red ink.

They are pretty stinkin cute!

He loves me, he loves me not

I just wanted to share a cute flower I made at work the other day.

I used this kit, and this stamp set. Of course when I went on our website I saw an actual daisy kit, I hope we get that one in soon!

A cute little card...

I fell in love with this flag paper and thought it was perfect to make a birthday card out of. I'm super happy with how it turned out and I hope the recipient liked it! I used an envelope template to make the envelope out of the same paper, I love it!

It's so cheerful!

Because the envelope is a busy pattern it would have been hard to see the address written on it, I used a label that I printed the address on and was able to use a cute font for it too, sorry for the fuzz, I didn't want to advertise the address of the friend I sent the card to. :)

I hope you liked your card T!

Spooky blooms...

In the last couple weeks I got the opportunity to make these awesome Halloween flowers at work! Aren't they cool?! We carry lots of paper flower kits at PS and once you get the hang of it it's easy to branch out and do different things.

Are they sufficiently spooky?

Something adorable!

As I've mentioned before, you can sign up to do workshops at your local Paper Source. Today I participated in one. I wanted to work on my bookmaking skills and see how classes are taught so that when it comes time to teach one myself I'll have an idea of how it should go. I'm co-teaching one tomorrow, should be interesting.  So anyhow, I made the cutest album! All of these papers and supplies came from the store.

I've decided to use it to put pictures of my quilts in. I like to document what I've made. That way when I'm gone and my grandkids are looking through my stuff they can see their grandma made. My grandmother was always getting on me for not writing on the back of my photos who was who and when the picture was taken. I'm trying to make sure that I follow her suggestions.