Quick Question ~ needing your assistance ASAP

I was all set to post the new 2011 January 'My Crafty Journal' pages but came across a small conflict in numbering the weeks on the Calendar.

A. Does week one include the last few days of December 2010 as well as Jan 1 and 2

OR 

B. Is week one the first week where everyday is in the Month of January?

According to ISO 8601 we begin the first week on the Monday the 3th of January but it seems it can be either way when I check out various calendars.

What would you prefer? Option A OR B

Please leave your preference in the comments ASAP 

 so I can wrap this up and make this next set available without delay.

I also know you are keen to get this set up for the new Year.

*Just a note re the calendar set up

I know  for some the calendar week starts on a Sunday rather than Monday and this was something I considered when setting up 'My Crafty Jouranal' initially... but I simply prefer that it starts on a Monday and went with it.  For me it is the beginning of the working week and I like that Monday shows first. Secondly, I find it useful to have Saturday and Sunday together at the end of the working week as so often we do things over the weekend as Friday Saturday Sunday events. For me, it is much easier to mark this on my calendar  when the weeks are laid out this way and 'see' it as 'the weekend'. It also fits well with scrap booking my Project 365.

2010 Year in Review

As another year draws to close and we begin a new decade, it's a wonderful opportunity to review the past year and record this in your 'My Crafty Journal'. To make it easy, I have created these pages and tags to  assist with your yearly wrap up. Print as many of the journal or photo pages as you require and print out 1 copy of the tag page. Simply cut out the tags you would like to use for your review and staple or glue to your pages as required.


The tags prompts are the foundation for my review. I find if I'm really stuck and drawing a blank...a quick flick through my photo folders, journals, scrapbook pages or project 365 will usually jog the gray matter. Most of  my review is generally executed in point form and can be completed quite quickly.  However you may like to take a more in depth approach in some areas... hence by providing tags that can be added to the pages where necessary, there are no limits to this review.  You may like to get your family involve in this process too, either by contributing to the one review or by doing individual reviews to chronicle 2010 as a family.

If you would like to include a few photos or sketches in this review that is also possible using the pages provided. They allow great flexibility along with the blank tags also provided for your own criteria.  If you are ready to review your year,  download 'My Crafty Journal' 2010 Review here.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve and all is well, made better by the police phoning earlier this evening to say they had found our stolen van. DH is thanking Santa for his early Christmas present, if he get's nothing else tomorrow he will still be a happy man. He loves that old car.

Hope your day tomorrow is special! 

Best wishes and a very Merry Christmas

xxox Deb

PS I've just about finished the next installment  for 'My Crafty Journal 2011' to assist you with organising, planning, and journaling for 2011. Look forward to sharing with you again in a few days.

Christmas is all around...

Christmas certainly is all around. My Christmas trees are decorated.. Yes there are several..love Christmas trees. There is wrapping paper and ribbon on both the kitchen table and dinning room tables, plus piles of Christmas catalogues I am still pondering over. Already the stack of presents is growing under the main tree, with a few bags still hidden away that need wrapping. Christmas cards have been arriving daily, the pantry is filling up with all kinds of tasty treats and the smell of spicy Christmas pudding lingers in the kitchen. 

Thank goodness I am on track with my organisation and keeping up with my journals and  365 photos. 'My Crafty Journal' has greatly assisted with everything at my fingertips  for easy reference. I hope your own 'My Crafty Journal' is working for you too and  you are on track with your Christmas preparations  and enjoying the festivities of the season.

Christmas Treasures Kit now available for purchase

If you missed out on picking up my Christmas Treasures Kit during the blog hop, it is now available for purchase via download for only $3.50. The papers and elements are ideal for using in your own 'My Crafty Journal', Christmas scrap book pages, cards and tags.

Crafty Gift Tags

Just thought I would share some pics of the Christmas gift tags I made on the weekend  for my mum to give to the ladies in her craft group. Sweet little glittery clip on birds that mum had already purchased were the starting point for this project,  I then added some matching Christmas cord. Next it was just a matter of designing a tag in Photoshop that would be suitable for attaching the little birdies too. After creating the tag shape I used papers and elements from my Christmas Treasures kit and a paper and elements from Kirsten Aagards Merry & Bright Christmas kit.  Mum was delighted with the results.

  Last year I also stepped in to assist with the making of a special little Christmas tag card for her ladies. I loved how this turned out. I cut a simple flower shape to begin with from card stock I had crimped, then folded printed sheet music to form a rosette. The rosette was then adhered to the flower shape with a fancy gold button attached to the center. Two other small tags were also created in photoshop and attached to the flower with gold cord to complete the combo.

Enjoy your Christmas crafting and remember to take some photos along the way to include in you own 'My Crafty Journal'. It's so nice to look back on your creativeness  and by inspired by your own achievements.

My Crafty Journal.. are you ready for December?

Oh my....only a few days until December. This week on the home front has been crazy and as of yesterday we now have a dear friend staying with us for a few weeks recuperating after having major heart surgery. Thankfully the community nurse will be making daily visits to assist with his care and have extra care organised for when he is able to return home. It has  taken me all day just to take a few photos and  prepare this next post for  My Crafty Journal...so many interruptions and things to do..but that's life... and that's OK! I'm sorry for keeping you in suspenders!

I have really enjoyed working on my Christmas and December pages and keeping myself organised. For me I find that having the current month on top of the stack works best as this is the most active section of  My Crafty Journal.

To make page dividers for December I pulled papers, art and layouts from my stash. A gorgeous green scrapbook paper from American Crafts which was a little crumpled on one side, a couple of 8 inch scrapbook pages that were not so perfect, one complete with coffee cup stains; and a copy of one of my digi art journal pages. Just use what ever you have on had that appeals.

With the coffee stain trimmed away, tabs from the My Crafty Journal Christmas pack were adhered into place. It does not matter if pages are different in height, as long as they are the correct width.

The green striped paper was cut to make two narrow dividers and another digi scrap page was also used for my December Journal page divider. 

In the December pack as well as the main title page I have included another page for making a little pocket for keeping receipts from Christmas purchases, just in case exchanges are required. After mentioning that I had made this in my last post, thought I would share it with you too. Simply fold the page in half and stick the side and bottom edges together. Punch holes on the left side.

The green striped paper also came in really handy to fold over the edge the title page to hide the narrow strip of white paper along the edge of the page that was missing its print. Although I had my printer set to print to the edge, the paper did not feed perfectly resulting in an annoying  whisker of white. I love the way the mistake turned out!  ( I also used this method to 'fix' a page that I had punch on the wrong side back in November.) The receipts pocket was then trimmed with a narrow strip of the same green paper to match and  a 1inch hole punch was used to cut a  half circle at the top of the pocket for easier access.


I'm sure you will enjoy adding the next installment of pages to your My Crafty Journal and having a go at making your own page dividers from bit and pieces you have at hand.  Click here to download the December pages and please leave some love in the comments. xxox Deb

My Crafty Journal Christmas Add-on

Back to share a few more pages for 'My Crafty Journal'. Firstly however, I would encourage you to make a whole new section in your MCJ for Christmas, to keep everything together at your finger tips. I've already clipped in some recipes, gift ideas and decor inspiration and using a clear page protector pocket to keep  an assortment of ephemera that might be suitable to use in my art journals. These may end up  beings scanned later to include on my digi scrapbook pages.  I also made an envelope for the gift receipts and dockets in case I need to make any returns.

Today I'm sharing pages for 'My Crafty Journal' to assist over the festive season. Those who scrap book, stitch or craft usually  have little time to work on new projects or even keep up with existing ones during December. More often it is all about completing projects in time for the holiday festivities, like cards, gifts and home decor. No matter how limited your time is for actual crafting or journaling  it is still possible to stay on top of your memory keeping by  recording  a brief daily list of  December activities. I have designed a page for doing just that but it can also be used as a planner, photo log, etc.  Along with photos and ephemera, notes etc saved,  you will have a wonderful resource to refer to when you return to your creative pursuits.

Included also is a tab set for December, a Christmas page divider plus other useful pages to assist with your organisation and planning. The printable download is available here.  If you decide to download and use these files for your own 'My Crafty Journal', please leave some love in the comments at the end of this post.... just makes my day!

Don't forget, many of papers in my Christmas Treasures  Kit offered last weekend on the Blog Hop can be used to created  and print your own dividers, pockets and embellishments. I'm sure you have a stack of stuff in your own stash of crafty supplies that could also be used in so many ways to personalise your MCJ.  The Christmas Treasures Kit will only be available for  FREE via download for another few days so go back and grab it NOW! 

Pages for My Crafty Journal will only be available for a limited time, 
so make like to book mark my blog and add it to your favorites so as not to miss any of them.  The December pages are only a few days away.  xxox  Deb

So perfect!

Nothing I like more than a visit to the nursery. I  can spend hours looking at all the wonderful plants, gorgeous flowers and garden decor and always come away inspired. The miniature roses at the local nursery today took my breath away. I just couldn't help but take a few quick pics when no one was looking.

So delicate... so perfect!

My Crafty Journal... getting started

OK.. so I know it's late in the year to be starting a new journal, but it really is a good time right now to commence setting it up, preparing for the year a head and have a little 'trial run'.

FOR THE COVER...Any  A4 ring binder type folder will be suitable for this journal. The US letter size will probably work too if you just resize the pages to 'fit' when printing. I must admit I didn't think past A4 as this is the standard here in Australia. The A4 size is 8.3 in X 11.7.  I  prefer to use a folder with the clear insertion sleeves which allow me to quickly 'dress' my journal. As your folder becomes full over the months ahead you may need to spread out into more folders, hence using this type of folder allows flexibility.  To keep it simple.... you have the front and back covers inserts supplied in first installment via download, plus the spine insert, papers and starter pages.

Trim or cut  the spine width to suit your folder. You will find by printing the covers and spine on the heavier copy paper will allow for easy insertion. To fill in the 'gap' on the front and back, cut 2 strips from  paper#1 also printed on the heavier copy paper or matte photo paper, allowing for a small under lap.

Alternatively you may like to use scrapbook paper from your own stash to create the inserts and cut out and adhere the labels supplied or create your own covers from scratch.

 Tip: A small zip type clear case the fits onto the rings in your binder is perfect for storing a few pens, glue stick, scissors etc. for daily use anywhere.

 THE CALENDAR...Again I used the heavier weight copy paper so it will stand up lots of use. Print in colour or B&W it's totally up to you. The calendar pages have been designed as a double page spread and can be inserted into protective sleeves for extra durability.  A fold out version of the calender can also be made. Simply trim 7/8ths inch from the left side of the right hand page and adhere to the left page as show above. Then fold the right page over. You can then just punch your holes on the left side to clip directly into your journal.  Joined this way,  the calendar can also be used as a wall planner for your office, home craft room, kitchen etc. Consider the calendar as your launch pad..check and update it regularly as part of your weekly routine.

* Tip:Use Post It notes in your journal as extra reminders or prompts. These can also be stored in the clear case along with your other essentials.

 JOURNAL DIVIDERS... These can be made using the My Crafty Journal Papers printed on the heavy copy paper or  heavyweight mat photo paper available from your local office supply store.
  

The labels and tabs provided can then be adhered to the divider page to allow for easy referencing. Commercially available dividers can also be used or you can make and decorate/art your own.  Add your own title art and tabs or use those from the print outs provided.

I hope you have fun setting up your own 'My Crafty Journal'... there is so much more I want to share with you!

I should have another batch of papers ready to go very soon so make sure you have bookmarked Crafty Queen Blog and have clicked on the link to follow.

 xxox Deb

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* Note:  There were two little typos in the original download that have now  been fixed, so you may wish to download the file again. Thanks Lois for bringing those to my attention.  A printing issue that some were experiencing has also been resolved with the revised download as of this post.

My Crafty Journal....is here!

I just can't wait any longer.... I had been planning for some time to share this with you for the new year, however 2011 is just around the corner... a mere 6 weeks away and I think we need to start now!

I need organisation in my life and this year I have been trying out a few different systems to keep me organised, tidy and focused. As I love to journal and  keep track of my projects, tasks goals and achievements, I was looking for an easy peasy way to keep everything together, close at hand for daily access.

Well the result was SOMETHING I called  'My Crafty Journal' and I would love to start sharing it with you! Not only is it a place to journal, it's a calendar, an organiser, a chronical, a log book, a filing system, a notebook, a memory keeper, a project planner and more in one complete package.
It works for me, and I'm sure  'My Crafty Journal' can work for you too!

I know we are already well into November, but there is no better time than now to start setting up your journal and getting in the habit of utilizing it day by day.  The best news is am going to help you every step of the way!

To begin......

YOU WILL NEED...an A4 size  2 or 3 ring binder, what ever you prefer. My choice is one  with clear plastic insertion pockets on the outer sides and spine and half pockets on the inside like this. Of course you can use any folder you choose and decorate accordingly or make a fabric slip cover to show off your craftyness. OR you can use the print outs I have created for you!

YOU WILL ALSO NEED... a home printer, A4 copy paper, cardstock or page dividers, plastic protector sleeves, paper trimmer or scissors, glue and anything else you can think of to make this work for you.
I like to use 190gsm Colour Copy paper ~ Yes brand is a good choice, or Epson or Cannon Matt Photo paper around 170gsm for printing the dividers, tags and calendar pages. Pages can be printed in black and white, draft or colour  whatever your preference.

THE REST IS EASY.. simply download the first first set of pages I have design to share with you and print them out!. If your printer is capable of duplex printing you may like to use that feature to print both back and front of the pages, or you can do single sided prints and use the reverse plain side for attaching notes, photos, clips or cuttings etc. It's totally up to you. All pages have been designed for punching holes on either the left or right side of the page... except for the calender. 

WHAT YOU WILL GET... practical, well designed pages for you to use daily, weekly and monthly throughout the year to create your very own 'My Crafty Journal'.  They will include pages for journaling, planning projects, tags and labels, tabs for page dividers, a monthly calendar that can also be used as a wall planner, to do lists and so much more! PLUS there will be lots of ongoing tips to help you use your journal effectively throughout the year.

WHEN WILL THIS START.. Right now! JUST CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK in pdf format for your very own 'My Crafty Journal' with November pages, inserts for the covers of your binder,  plus labels and tags to make page dividers. You will also receive a bonus 12 X 12 paper jpg file!

*88MOST IMPORTANTLY...Please leave a comment if you are grabbing the download and feel free to ask any questions or make suggestions along the way.

Over the coming days, weeks and months as we move into 2011, there will be more pages and pieces for you to collect and use in your journal.  I  truly hope that you will enjoy using your  'My Crafty Journal' as much as I do,  and book mark or follow my blog for future installments and lots of other crafty goodness!

.....I will actually be back tomorrow with ideas on how to use the pages and elements  in your first installment.
               

                                 

xxox Deb

All aboard.. for the Christmas Treasures Blog Hop

.................Wow! what and event we had over the past weekend..............................

for the Christmas Treasures Blog Hop
 I will leave the links open for you to download my contributions till the end of the week just in case you missed out. So GRAB THEM NOW without further delay!

I kinda got carried away.... so there are two downloads for you... 

***Sorry the freebie links have now expired.

I would really appreciate if you could leave some love in the comments and if you so desire click on the FOLLOW BUTTON  in the right side bar to follow my Crafty Queen Blog.

I also have else to 'SOMETHING' else share with you tomorrow.. you may want to check out my post a few days back and the sneak peek! 
  It is going to be FREE, available via download and only available here on my blog. 
So before you move on, bookmark my page or follow and make a note to COME BACK TOMORROW.

Thanks so much for stopping by xxox Deb

Christmas Treasures Blog Hop Previews

Oh wow! I am so excited to share with you the previews for our Christmas Treasures Blog Hop

..and it is all happening very very soon! 

This is going to be massive.. the preview is only a glimpse of all the freebies you will be able to collect while checking out all the blogs along they way and possibly snagging a few more goodies in the process.

 

 

and just for good measure here are the details again... 

I will be back in just a few hours to share my preview and to add the link for the stop after mine and the also reveal on the new "SOMETHING" I have to been working on to share with you.

Something to share with you.....coming soon!

I have been working on SOMETHING for a few weeks now and I can't wait to share this with you.

It's something for you and me. 

Something personal.

Something that is both practical and helpful.

Something that will grow week by week, month my month.

Something that can be used by crafters, stitchers, scrapbookers and artisans. 

And something that will be available FREE via download exclusively here on my Crafty Queen Blog.

Can you guess? Sorry but I like guessing games!

Here's a little peek.....................

 Be sure to check back next weekend during the BLOG HOP... this is something I know you need......just like me!

Announcing the Jessica Spraque Art of Design Blog Hop

ANNOUNCING THE  ART OF DIGITAL DESIGN BLOG HOP....

Becoming a Certified Digital Designer through JessicaSparague.com was a HUGE accomplishment for all those who made it through and completed  the course. To CELEBRATE, over 40 newly certified digital designers are showcasing their talents with an ENORMOUS  blog hop!
Designers were given a color palette to work from and asked to create digital papers and elements to contribute to the  "CHRISTMAS TREASURES" collaboration kit. You will be so impressed by all the digital goodies  you will be collecting as you visit everyone's blogs!
The best part is these goodies are FREE!

The hop will run from November 11th-14th 

Mark this in you diary NOW and be part of the fun!

A preview of the collaboration kit is coming later this week so be sure to check back soon!

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NOT SURE WHAT A BLOG HOP IS?  

Well I can tell you it's loads of fun! Even if you are not a digital scrapbooker... paper scrappers, crafters and card makers can print out and use the papers and elements for all kinds of paper craft projects. Anytime between the dates given you can jump on board the blog train, commencing the Journey at 

Here you will be able to access the link to download the first FREE contribution and find the link to the next blog on the journey for another CHRISTMAS TREASURES FREEBIE and so on! Of course while you are blog hopping  it is the perfect opportunity to check out the designers blog  and maybe even pick up a few other goodies or products at the same time.  Also feel free to leave some love and appreciation in the comments and if you are so inspired, sign up to follow their blogs.

 With over 40 stops on the journey.. you are in for a totally AWESOME ride! 

At this stage I think I am STOP #15.

Happy Halloween!

I JUST LOVE THIS LITTLE SET OF HALLOWEEN LIGHTS... purchased last year...they are so cute! Little grandson screams with delight when I switch them on. The "spooooky punkins" have an amazing orange glow, no wonder the little darling is fascinated. I was so tempted to buy a real carving pumpkin today as they had been marked down to clear at the local supermarket... but wasn't sure if you could eat them as well as just spook with them!  Anyone know? I must find out for next year.

IF YOUR ARE WONDERING WHAT THIS IS... well the plan was to have a little Halloween Digi Kit ready weeks ago. Yes, I have been dabbling in digital design for some years now and am proud to say that I recently received accreditation as Digital Designer after completing an intensive course with the amazing Jessica Sprague.  Regrettably I only managed to finish the alpha which I used for the Halloween projects earlier this week. It has been such fun ... I  must admit I became carried away with the art and forgot about the end product I was supposed to be putting together.

For those interested in card making, paper crafts, digi or paper scrapping...

I have a fun ANNOUNCEMENT to share with you tomorrow.

Hint #1...Christmas

Hint #2....freebies

Hint #3...hopping

Can you guess?

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And lastly and very importantly...HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY!

I'll be back to post some credits here tomorrow.

Trick or Treat?

Who doesn't like lollies? Definitely need to make some little treat bags to fill with Halloween inspired candies. I'm thinking licorice sticks, teeth, jelly beans... black & orange combo or purple and green?  Licorice Allsorts and snakes.. yes snakes would be good!

SO HERE WE GO AGAIN... Simple, spooky trick or treat bags made using another set of Halloween Labels I have designed. The printable file for you to download with the labels perfectly sized and is available by clicking here!   I used Epson 'Matte Photopaper-Heavyweight' 167g/m2 for printing out the labels.

FIRST....To make the treat packet I used  pages (size 5" X 7.25" ), torn from an old Readers Digest.   I also tore away a small strip along one of the short sides too match the long side with the torn edge. You could also use brown kraft paper, scrapbook paper or suitable gift wrap.

THEN... Fold over the long straight edge (a little less than 1cm), and run the glue stick carefully along the edge. Fold the side with the straight edge to the centre and press to adhere the lower edge. Run the glue stick along the straight edge at the centre back and fold over  the other side with the torn edge to overlap. Press to stick.

NOW... Add texture to the treat pocket by rubbing a black stamp pad over the back, front and edges for extra spookiness. Decorate the front of the pockets as desired attaching the printed labels with double sided mounting tape. For variation I cut small scraps from onion bags and adhered those first using double sided tape and finished by attaching a small  plastic creepy critter.

ENJOY!... Fill with Halloween treats for the kids... big and small!

Just say Boo........

I have been playing with a few Halloween projects these past weeks whilst I have been trying to put together a digital scrapbooking  Halloween themed kit. Whilst  here in Australia Halloween is not really an event for most, it is still heaps of fun! I just love the pumpkins, spiders, and witches.... don't you?  I have been digi scrapping for nearly 6 years now and love the design side more than anything else.  I love playing in Adobe Photo Shop and am now working at improving my skills in Adobe Illustrator! More about that another time.

Back to Halloween....I also had fun... making a few video tutorials to share with you here and had planned to do so last week... but do you think I can upload them?  No way! But hey I will work it out don't you worry.

So today I quickly took a few step by step photos to show you how it's done. Super easy, super quick, using items likely to be found in your craft stash or around the home.  For the printable PDF for this project simply click here to download the Boo labels.
  
OK HERE WE GO..............
 Print out the set of  labels. The download has the Boo labels correctly sized for printing out directly on your home printer. I prefer using mat photo paper (approx. 170 grams or heavier) for great results. Carefully cut out the labels.

 

NEXT.... To make the folded rosettes you will need a strip of paper 5" X 14 for each one.  I joined two pages torn from and old Readers Digest end to end using a glue stick. The paper was aged around the edges and the perfect weight to hold the folds. I carefully tore away a small strip from the other long side so the long sides were matching. Fold the paper strip, fan style making folds a little less that 1cm and then secure at the centre with a wire twist tie... the kind that come in the packs with the freezer bags.

THEN...With the ends of the wire twist tie at the back, rub of the surface of the rosette with a black ink stamp pad to add some great spooky texture. Adhere the cut out labels to the inked side of the rosettes using double sided mounting tape. Attach a ribbon loop to the the top once again using double sided mounting tape at the back or simply staple to hold and your done. You could also join them together to form a swag  to adorn your mantel if you prefer.

DONE..... BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE........

IF YOU PREFER....You can also use the rosette to make fun little Halloween 'flowers'. Simply cut off the sharp pointy end of a 12 inch skewer (just to avoid anyone being stabbed), and use the wire twist tie to secure the sewer at the back.  Yes.. I know you were wondering why I chose to use the wire twist ties!

ALMOST FINISHED.....Just tie a bow at the top of each stem and your done!

I'll be back with more crafty spookiness tomorrow!

Yes I'm back and the Store Checkout is open!

I can't believe another month has passed and I am no further ahead. Fortunately  Crafty Queen was only offline a day or so before being fixed and back on board. The good news is the the Store Checkout is now OPEN for business and I'm getting back on track too. I have been gathering lots of stock to clear over the coming weeks so there are going to be some incredible bargains in the store along with more stock on the shelves.

David and I have not been well for the past three months. Seems like we just kept getting one nasty cold/flu after another. When yet another round hit us a few weeks back, blood tests confirmed WHOOPING COUGH! So basically we have been confined since then, taking a massive doses of antibiotics and coughing like crazy. Some of you may remember that back in 2003 when I had the shop I got hit with a very severe case of whooping cough that saw me totally wiped out for months. Thankfully we were onto this early and have only had a fairly mild case. So if you haven't been vaccinated for whooping cough within the last 5 years you might want to think about it. If you get it bad... it's really bad!

Having been living in la la land for weeks, I almost forgot about Father's Day, so last night decided to get crafty and whip up a little gift card wallet for my dad. Time would not allow me to sew, hence I turned to designing a paper craft project that I could print out and construct with a few basic supplies.

The wallet has two little pockets, one for a pre- purchased gift card, the other for a little tag card and whatever else you like to pop in. I enclosed a photo my my dad as a baby with his dad and one of my own new Crafty Queen Business cards.  I made two copies of the printable and cut out the little tags and attached them with tiny adhesive foam squares to add dimension and also cut out the the little ticket cluster adding it to one of the pockets. I then inked some of the edges using Distress Ink, glued old paper onto the back of the photo and the tag for added interest and inked a small scrap of natural twill tape to tie at the top of the tag.

So if  you are still wondering what to give dad this Father's Day, you can download the project HERE and whip these up in no time. Happy Father's Day!  *sorry this link has now expired

Store is MIA?

If you are trying to find the store so are we! LOL It has just zipped off the radar...but we are on to it. It was there this morning, so will keep you posted.

After just getting over one nasty cold, I have been stricken yet again with bout, of aches, pains, fever and chills etc, etc. Fortunately between the coughing and spluttering I have continued to work on the the new store and been busy with designing new projects. I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

Printable paper craft project

I hope you have been having some fun with the the Printable Project that I have been sending out when you create your new account over at the store. If you do not receive your link within 24 hours or need any assistance with downloading the file please contact me.

I really enjoy paper crafts especially when I can print from home, or for just a few cents per B&W page at the local copy shop. I decided after making the first set of note pads by just printing at home I would get a few hundred pages printed off at once and make a whole stack to on hand.

For the first batch I used my Zutter Bind-It-All to bind the top edge of the pages together. If you have one, you will know already how great they are. My best tips for using these would be 1.)  hold pages together with a few bulldog clips when punching  2.)  Make sure that you are punching the correct edge....I know that seems obvious but it is so easy to pick up the stack and punch the wrong end. 3.) Keep the stack of pages firmly pressed into the paper slot when punching to ensure the punched holes do not "run off" the edge.

The next batch I put together just by using a heavy duty stapler along the top edge and finished the edge with a strip of card stock folded and glued in place to cover the staples. A regular stapler is fine also, just as long as the note pads are not too thick. A glue stick work just fine, with a few bulldog clips to hold the folded card stock in place while the glue dried. A fabric strip stiffened with  iron on interfacing could also be used or black book binding tape.

 For the tags and cards I simply printed those out on heavy card using my own printer and then trimmed them to size using a paper trimmer. Glitter glue added are real touch of bling as well as the tiny stick on diamante. I then finished them off by adding a few bows and ties made from a narrow organza ribbon.

Of course you could print these on a variety of different coloured card stock or even use scrapbook papers cut to A4 size to pass through your printer. Brown paper bag type paper would look fantastic or you could even print them out on vellum use them as an overlay for card making.  I hope you have fun with these, love to see what you come up with...so feel free to send me a photo or leave a comment here.
xxox Deb