Beautiful Day - Gina's binder junk journal

Hello everyone. I hope you have all had a good month and hope we don't have to deal with any more heatwaves in Februaury.

My last project for this month is a junk journal made using the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tattered Worn Binder. I have lightly inked the edges and the sides of the binder using the Inka gold - old gold. I have then cut a sheet of Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Generarions paper at 6" x 4", Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Album paper at 5 3/4" x 3 3/4" and Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Keepsake paper at 5 1/2" x 3 1/2".

I inked the edges of all the papers with my Kaisercraft vintage ink and then layered them on top of each other on the binder.

I had a little wooden frame in my stash on which I have used the Inka Gold - old gold to give it a lovely vintage gold colour. Inside the frame I have used one of the pictures from the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Generations paper.

Next I took a piece of lace trim from my stash, distressed it with my Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink and stuck it on the left of the binder.

To finish the cover I added some flatback pearls from my stash on the top, one of the Tim Holtz small talk stickers which I have stuck on an offcut and a rose fussy cut from the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Family Tree paper.

On the inside of the front cover I have stuck a piece of Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Handwritten paper cut at 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" and I have used the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Album paper to make a pocket. For the back cover, I have used the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Decades paper cut at the same size and the Heritage Album paper again to make a pocket.

I will show you some pictures of how I decorated some of the pages inside.

In the pocket of the front cover, I have put an ATC I made, Here you can see one of the cards from the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Perennial paper which I have used as a page. I have also added some coffee dyed pages. The one behind this, I have used a border punch to pretty it up.

On the left is the Crate Paper Maggies Holmes Heritage Keepsake paper cut at 6 1/2'' x 4 1/2". I have made a bellyband using the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Homestead paper. In the middle of the bellyband, I have stuck a portrait fussy cut from the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Decades paper. I have put a tag I made through the band. On the right, I have used some Vintage pink paper from my stash and created a side pocket on it. I have used the Maggie Holmes Heritage Homestead paper on the pocket and a little house on the corner fussy cut from the same paper. In the pocket is another ATC I have made.

On the left, I have used a paperclip to attach a card and a photo, one of the easiest ways to decorate a page. On the right is some eco-dyed paper onto which I have created a double belly band by gluing just the top and bottom parts of both the strips. In the middle of the bellyband, I have stuck another fussy cut flower. Under the band is another ATC.

I love using the Sizzim Tim Holtz stitched slots die for my journals. The pocket on the left is created using Kraft cardstock. The "Love You" is cut from the Crate Paper Maggies Holmes Heritage Lifetime paper. The flower tuck on the right was fussy cut from the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Keepsake paper and the card is cut from the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Perennial paper.

I could not resist using the Tim Holtz Pocket Frame die again. This time I have left the top open so it is like a pocket tag and you can insert whatever picture you want or change pictures when you feel like. On the right is a paper from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Worn Wallpaper Christmas collection. I thought the colours went very well with the theme. I have an envelope flap which I am using as a tuck.

I've decorated the page on the left with some goodies from my stash and on the right is a pocket page using different Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage paper. The maximum size I have used for the pages is 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" because I didn'r want the pages hanging out.

This last page I have created using a paperbag from my stash. I have folded it to make many pockets and covered it with the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Heritage Handwritten and Homestead paper. I have placed one of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology paper dolls in one of the pockets and a Tim Holtz Idea-ology jeweled charm on a bulb pin hanging from the lace.

For those who follow my youtube channel, I will post a full flipthrough of the journal once the kids are back at school.

I will see you again soon. Till then lets enjoy our creativity with confidence.

Gina xx

Beautiful Day - Wendy's Matchbook Ephemera Holder

Matchbook Ephemera Holder 

 With all the ephemera I've been making recently, I needed a lovely way to store and send it to some friends. So, this 'matchbook' styled holder was the perfect thing to make for that purpose.,,and of course I had to make it a vintage themed after seeing that beautiful patterned sheet from Maggie Holmes Heritage "Generations". The photo images are so beautiful and made gorgeous focal images on the front of the matchbook.

 To start you need a piece of cardstock cut to 3 1/2 inches by 12 inches. I decided to use three sheets of the Maggie Holmes Heritage papers: they were Daughter, Album and Portrait. This is for the matchbook itself. You then score it at 1 inch: 6 1/4 inch: 6 3/4 inch and final score at 7 1/4 inch.

*TIP- if you are using a one direction patterned paper, turn it upside down to score your lines. Then when they are folded the front of your pattern will be upright. *

Then fold score lines, the one inch being the bottom of your matchbook. Fold the middle score line of the three close together. This makes the front of your matchbook.

Fold the bottom one inch flap up and staple it closer to the bottom so you leave room for your cover flap to be placed inside the bottom flap.

On the inside of the matchbook place a strip of double-sided tape between the lowest score line and the middle score line, press together. This gives you a nice fold on the top.

When folded over, punch a hole on the left hand side corner where you place a ring. The ring is used to add more matchbooks together. You don't need to do this step if using the matchbooks seperately.

Your matchbook is now made and ready for you to decorate it as you like. I chose to go vintage using the photo prints from Maggie Holmes Heritage Generations Paper sheet. Each matchbook I decorated was similar, slightly different in construction but using mainly coffee dyed paper, music sheet papers, text paper, cheesecloth, fibers, eyelash trim, lace, small bead trim and anything else I could get my hands on at the time...lol...just NOT the kitchen sink...hahaha!!!

I also added a phrase from the Tim Holtz Small Talk on the bottom flap which covers where you put the staple.

I put three matchbooks together on the one ring.

On the inside of each matchbook, I placed some handmade ephemera in a small 3 inch wide plastic bag. Opening at the bottom. This bag is taped to the inside top of the matchbook with double-sided tape.

Below: stamped/ die cut ephemera

Below:Handmade Faux stamps

Below: Handmade flowers

I love the end result and I'm pretty sure so will my friends when I send them one as Happy Mail.

You can view my easy process by clicking the video below.

I hope you all try and make some for yourselves and enjoy it as much as I did!

Wishing you all a great start to the year!

Happy Crafting!

Wendy xox

Beautiful Day - Sue's Loaded Pocket

Hi Everyone, I hope today finds everyone safe and happy.

Today’s project is a loaded pocket made from two small paper bags.  The types you can buy from party stores of cheap stores.

Materials Used:

Maggie Holmes Heritage Range Paper:

-          Decades

-          Postmarked

-          Generations

-          Daughter

-          Handwritten

Santoro Lace               
Buttermilk Nuvo Drops                   
Darkroom Door Gazette Texture Stamp

Two different sized small paperbags                      
Various paper scraps (old music & book pages)

Using the smaller bag I folded up the bottom to make a small pocket and then glued it onto the bigger bag. Make sure you only glue the sides and bottom so you have an extra pocket to use. My bags were tea dyed but that is not necessary.

Next step was to use some paper scraps (anything that co ordinates will do) to make a small collage on the turned up pocket and then on the smaller bag.  The collage on the smaller bag won’t really be seen so on my second one I just stamped to take away the plainness. 

Next I took some ivory card stock and cut out three tags to fit into the pockets.  The measurements depend on how big the bags are. I just estimated how big they were.  I cut the top corners off to make them look like tags.

I also took some patterned paper (Daughter) and cut it to make a cover for a little notebook. Again cut it to fit into the slot between the two bags.  I also cut some coffee dyed paper to fit inside. I used two pages and machine stitched straight down the centre.  You could also hand stitch these pages in or staple them in.  

Then I decorated each of the tags.  I used scrap bits of paper, patterned paper to co ordinate from the Maggie Holmes Heritage range.  I used ‘Daughter’ and the reverse of ‘Handwritten’.  I like to tear the papers and distress the edges, however straight edges work well too.  I also used some cut out stamps from the ‘Postmarked’ paper and some little images from the ‘Decades’ paper. My main images were the fantastic old photos from the ‘Generation’ paper.  Once the collaging was finished I stamped over the blank spaces with the Darkroom door Gazette Texture stamp.  Each tag was also finished with a piece of Santoro lace, which was folded over the top and stapled on.

I collaged the front of the little book using the same method.

Finally I placed each of the tags into the pocket and added some Buttermilk Nuvo Drops in clusters of 3 to finish off.   Use in a journal or give out for happy mail.

You can watch my process video HERE.

I hope you enjoy making this loaded pocket and remember you can vary the style to suit your taste.