Paper!

I've been making stuff lately, because let's face it, it keeps me busy and happy. Those are two things I sure could use lately! I made a few more of those blank December Daily albums to sell on Etsy, because who couldn't also use the money?

I love to make little books, but obviously I don't have enough time or material with which to fill them. This makes these a perfect endeavor for me.

I ended up making six total, and sold all six pretty quickly. I'm going to make a few more to list this week - one for a friend, one in blues and whites for someone who may want to get in on the December Daily fun but who may not necessarily celebrate Christmas (or like Christmas colors), and of course, one for myself.

They all had the different sized inner papers and lots of little envelopes and detailed edges to keep them fun. All were held together by large book rings and the covers were patterned cardstock over chipboard.

And, of course, a TON of ribbon on the spines. I was able to clear so much out of my stash! The only things I didn't add were numbers to the pages. I wanted the recipient to have the option of rearranging the pages to suit their needs, and also to be able to add the date where it worked instead of having to work with where I had placed it, if that makes sense.

This one had a red one just like it, but I sold it before I took a proper photo. It was exactly the same, only with a solid red cover.

I also spent some time playing in Photoshop and pretending to be a graphic designer, haha! I made a bunch of different things that could be added to a December Daily as page embellishments.

The very first thing I made was a set of numbers with a musical note background. I sized them so that you could punch them out with a Fiskars 2 inch round punch. Clever, huh?

Then I made these Christmas themed flash cards. These are actually a Microsoft Word document and then I cut them down to the 3" x 5" size after printing them on off white cardstock. I think they'll be perfect for journaling or backing with a photo.

I made two sets of lined journaling spots. The first set is for my friend who will be receiving one of the albums I'll be making this week. She's Jewish, so these will be perfect for her book.

The second set I left without any icons on the top, so that I could either add one later as I needed it or even just use a small rubber stamp to place one on the page. For these in the photo, I used a dingbat font to add the icons in Photoshop.

These are little journaling spots. There are over 20 to a page, and you punch them out with the 2" Fiskars circle punch.

I decided to make a fancier batch of page numbers for the December Daily albums. These took a LONG time because each one is unique. I saw some like this somewhere, I forget where, and decided to make my own. I think they turned out cute!

I'm trying to decide if I should list the pdfs/word documents on Etsy or not. I wouldn't print them out myself because that's just a lot of ink! However, if I listed just the file, I could email it to the recipient and they could print as many as they needed. Is that a good idea? What would one even charge for something like that? I have the music note numbers, the Christmas themed numbers, the Christmas flash cards, a mini version of the Christmas flashcards, the note circles, the lined journaling blocks, and the Hanukkah journaling blocks. I also have a set of circles that say "Don't Peek!" (would be great on packages) and some cute mini calendars for scrapbook pages.

I'd love feedback on this.

A few days ago, I came across Heather Nichol's blog, and I instantly fell in love with her style. She does a lot of stamping. I dabble in stamping, but I tend to think that a lot of stamped stuff looks... stamped. I know that sounds stupid, but bear with me. Her stuff is PRETTY. It's sophisticated. It made me want to go run to my scrap table and pull out my inks and punches. You're gonna die when you see her cute Christmas tags!

I made these cute mini cards today based on the design for some she had posted on her blog. First though, I had to reink half of my stamp pads because they were dry as a bone. I guess sitting unused for a couple of years (literally - for shame!) will do that! Thankfully I had the foresight to buy the reinkers with a lot of my full sized ones and was able to do so, or else I'd have been totally SOL.

Also, white Staz-On ink? Yeah, it "Staz-ON" waaaaaay better than the black. Not even their own branded stamp cleaner will get that stuff off my stamps, and it's always worked just fine in the past. I just told my OCD self to be like Tim and Jennifer and love the dirty stamps.

I'm not going to lie. It's hard.

Since I probably won't post again before Thanksgiving (but you never know) I'll put this up here too. I did handprint turkeys with the baby. So cute! I painted his little hand brown with plain old acrylic paint and stamped it on white cardstock. They actually came out really well considering he was more interested in squashing the paint in between his fingers than making handprints! All those years as an elementary school aide paid off. :)

Anywho... After the handprints dried I would give him a few feathers and let him place them on the turkey. Anywhere he placed a feather I would pick it up and put a little glue there so I could glue it back down again. In this way, he got to place them, but he didn't get to mess with the glue. After they were dry I went back with some markers and a pen to add the details. Then the cardstock got cropped down, punched across the bottom with a Fiskars Apron Lace punch (the latest addition to my little family of punches) and embellished with a bit of ribbon before getting added to a card. One of these will definitely be going into his scrapbook!

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!