Giant Paper Bag Scrapbook Album

Last year our city banned plastic grocery bags.  It has been kind of a throw-back to the seventies before stores used plastic grocery bags and now stores give paper bags, unless you bring your own reusable bags.  At first the stores tried to charge extra for the paper bags, but they eventually realized customers balked and for the most part they do not charge for the paper bags.  We do bring our own reusable bags for the most part, but once in a great while we forget so we are given paper bags.  Well, these were really starting to pile up!  So I started saving a stack of them in my studio.  And finally I couldn't stand it any longer, I just had to make a paper bag book!

I took the handles off of each bag and then folded it in half.  I couldn't find my bone folder, but I remembered seeing that you could use the handles of your scissors in a pinch, so that is what I did to get a nice crisp edge on each bag.  I decorated each bag first with papers such as wallpaper samples, sheet music and paper scraps, and then with various clip-art images and journal spots.  The covers are made from an old Cheerios box covered in some handmade paper from my local scrapbook store.

 Since this book is super tall, I printed images at the largest size I could.  It also allows for big old journaling spots.

I added just one small lunch size bag inside one of the signatures.  That is the one with the orange polka-dots above.

Each bag has a small flap on the inside that I also included a tall, narrow journaling card on.  I adhered the pages back to back very carefully and bound it together with a sewn tapes binding.

And I made large pull-outs for the pockets for each bag.  Because of how big the bags are, I was able to make super big journaling spots.  And there is one on each side of each pull-out.

Desktop Calendar Tutorial

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.  It was pretty special for us to have our precious Samuel who is only two months old to share it with.

Several years ago I did a tutorial on creating a desktop calendar with my Bind-It-All.  In the tutorial I use the Teresa Collins calendar pages.  I realize these are getting harder and harder to get (I did hoard my pack for just such an occasion).  But I want you guys to be able to make one of these calendars if you want to, so I made up some free 2016 printable calendars that will fit this calendar perfectly.  You can get the free tutorial and the printables on my website at Desktop Calendar Tutorial.  The printable calendars are in PDF format and there are four to a page with three pages.  

Merry Christmas

I have definitely been getting into the Christmas spirit around here.  Our tree has been decorated for weeks, gifts are purchased and mostly wrapped, and I've been working on this little upcycled Christmas scrapbook / smashbook, December Daily type book.

I've taken an old children's Christmas classic, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and made all new pages for the inside.  Actually, I kept a couple of the pages from the book to use as it adds a charm I kind of like.

I like using old lace on the sides of the pages and then lots of journaling spots and photo mounts to jot down those special memories.

I also love these fun altered art images from various Etsy shops and places on the internet. 

I also like making some of the pages smaller than the outer pages as it gives it a little more interest.

There are some little tags in the pocket here, which I think make great "secret" journaling spots.

I also love making these side pockets that are great for putting little cards and treasures in.



 
 

Free Printable Doll Tag Collage Sheet

Work is still slamming busy (after a very slight slow-down), but I am managing to find little moments here and there to create.  It makes my workday so much more fun!  This past week I created these doll tags.  You can pick up a free PDF printable at the website here.  These are fun to use in your scrapbooks, journals, etc.  I tried to leave lots of room for journaling.  I used templates and papers from Pixel Scrapper.  I hope you enjoy them!

Faithbooking Printables

I have been working on some faithbooking printables.  I have more to create, but I wanted to give you all a small preview.  I am also thinking about a printable faith-based mini album if there is an interest for that?  Let me know what you think. 

So here is the first printable I made in this theme.  These are some Bible verses.  There is a printable PDF at the main website.  Look where it says "here" and click to download.  My thought was to create some cards you can put into your faithbooks and meditate on them and perhaps even journal about them. God bless!

23 Paper Bag Journals

My youngest daughter, Rachel, and I got a bit ambitious this December!  We decided to make paper bag journals for a local drug rehab center's residents.  These are mostly young women who are working at getting their lives back from the horrible disease of addiction.  They are the happiest, sweetest, and most grateful people!  It is amazing how the smallest thing just means so much to them.  When we started this project I don't think either of us knew how much work it was going to be.  I started by doing a couple while my daughter finished up her college classes for the semester.  By the time she joined me, we realized we had a lot of work ahead of us, but I had already committed us and we take that pretty seriously.  So we worked and worked and worked and delivered them just in time for Christmas!  It was a lot of fun, but if we do it for next year we need to start now and just do one each every month.  Then we won't have any stress at the end on if we are going to finish in time or not.  It was well worth the effort though and we are sure we're going to do it again! 

Free Printable Mini Album - Thanksgiving Theme

I just posted the first of many printable mini albums to come over at our website.  This is a free printable mini album in PDF format that you can print at home and then decorate.  It includes 6 different pages, a collage sheet, a page of tags and tabs and a page of large tabs.  You can add any embellishments you like to your completed book and you can bind it in any way that is pleasing to you.  Rings, Bind-It-All, eyelets, etc.  Anything could work! 

Here is the link to the printable mini albums.  Thanksgiving Printable Mini Album.  The album is for personal use, but I would LOVE it if you shared the link with your scrapbooking friends and/or Pin It on Pinterest. 

I hope you enjoy it!

Duct Tape Binding Tutorial

I have been wanting to create a tutorial for this duct tape binding mini scrapbook album for quite a while.  I finally finished it this morning.  What is nice about this binding is that it allows you to have a lot of bulky pages.

Scrapbooking is Where My Heart Is

I have been running a transcription service out of my home for close to 25 years.  I started when my oldest daughter was a baby and it has been an amazing blessing to our family that allowed me to stay home with my children.  Now both of my daughters work for us and my husband is my business partner.  We also have about 25 subcontractors that work for us around the United States.  It still keeps me pretty busy, but I really have had my heart on my scrapbooking website for the last 7 years.  It is just that I never have any time to really work on it.  I have finally committed to getting up an hour early every single weekday to get at least a little bit of time in on it every day.  It is helping me make some progress.  This morning I posted a new tutorial for creating a little ATC mini album.  The tutorial can be found on my website Making Mini Scrapbooks.

Hopefully this is the start of me getting more and more done. 

Japanese Stab Binding

I have been playing around with some different bookbinding techniques.  I know the Japanese Stab Binding technique already, but I liked the duct tape on the tutorial I saw over at Cocoa Daisy.  I tried my hand at a little painting and stamping too from a Cloth, Paper, Scissors video.  I love online learning.  Always so fun!

Finishing Up Some Old Projects

Do you ever start a project and set it aside for one reason or another?  Perhaps you made a mistake on it or it is not turning out the way you had envisioned.  I recently was cleaning out an old craft dresser and found several of these projects.  I decided to make it my goal to finish these up.  Here is one that I had started the base of the paper bag book, and had done the covers and the first page, but that was it.  Never took it any further.  I had actually made a mistake on the second page, which caused me to abandon the whole project.  Well, guess what?  It was easily fixable! 

I had a great time finishing up this little mini scrapbook.  And I was so pleased with how it came out that I listed it in my Etsy shop.

I have a couple more projects that I will be finishing up soon as well. 

A triple toilet paper roll Mini Scrapbook

Yesterday I posted a tutorial for a triple toilet paper roll mini scrapbook.  You'll be using 9 or more empty toilet paper rolls to create this one.  Triple Toilet Paper Mini Album Tutorial 

Open to Suggestions

Do you remember those gum wrapper chains we used to make as kids? Well, a friend of my daughters has this really cool purse she got in Mexico that is made out of gum wrappers. So I got on the Internet and found some instructions on making a gum wrapper purse. I guess people are making them out of potato chip bags, cookie bags, magazine strips, etc. Well, I have a ton of magazines sitting around for collage and such so I decided to use those. I started making the purse, but as I'm plugging along I thought, oh, I could make an art journal or a mini book. So I made this for the front, and I was going to put some watercolor paper inside and make another like this for the back. My plan had been to bind it with my Bind-It-All machine, but it is too thick! I know they have a new machine out that might be able to get through it, but it's a bit pricey and I don't have one yet. The Big Bite would also probably work ~ but I don't have that either. My hole punch won't go through it. So I am open to suggestions on a binding for this book. In the meantime, back to my purse ... By the way the magazine papers are cut to 4-1/2 x 2 and you sew the rows together with fishing line or I got some Tandy black waxy thread at Ben Franklins. Please help me figure out how to bind this book! I'm looking for ideas!

Piano Hinge Mini Album

By special request I have done up instructions on my website for the piano hinge mini scrapbook. (I had been wanting to add it anyway, but getting the request gave me the jump start I needed.) I used regular scrapbook paper that is actually white on the opposite side because I'm thinking of actually using this as a sort of art journal and those white pages will come in quite handy. You could also mat photos on colored cardstock. Or you could use double-sided paper, just make sure it is fairly lightweight as getting those skewers through the notches can be a little tough with a heavier paper.

Bind It All Tag Book

I just finished a little Bind-It-All Tag book for a swap I am in. It seems I can't make a mini scrapbook these days without using my Bind It All. I am going to consciously not use it on my next mini album. Anyway, on this book I used the Far East Mat Stack from DCWV, along with some rub-ons and elements I got at my LSS, some clip art from the Internet, some stuff I had gotten in Chinatown, et cetera.