Mail-a-Book

These little journals fit right into a standard sized envelope. Suspecting that extra postage will be needed if you plan to mail them.

It's Mail-A-Book! The whole set of about 12 of them is made from the K&Co Que Sera Sera paper collection. Love that line.

They will be in the next shop update, tomorrow afternoon!


These Paperchase image mirrors and new owl postcards were in today's update:

Eye Candy Organizers

Since the age of 9, I believed that a laminating machine was an essential household appliance. Now that I finally have one, I intend to laminate everything without legs.

My brand new product is now HERE! "Eye Candy Organizers" - laminated covers and tabs with all kinds of custom options. I've started with my favorite double sided papers and thanks to the beauty of lamination, both sides are enjoyed! Hooray! This first batch contains papers by Sassafrass Lass, Martha Stewart, and K and Company. Their brilliant designers are what put the candy in these babies.


These are "half sheet" sized ( 9 inches by 6 inches) with papers cut to a smaller size by about a quarter of an inch all around. Laminated pouches that are 10 mil thick (super rigid) are used for the front, back, and for any divider pages. This is an excellent weight for plastic covers in my opinion. I really love the glossy effect created by the plastic coating. Corners are rounded and binder rings are in coordinating colors.





The beauty is that you can reuse these lovely organizers once the pages are full. All you need is a standard 2 hole punch and you can have all of these in one:
-calendar
-pockets for coupons, receipts
-sketchbook
-lined or grid paper
-patterned paper
-scrapbook
-art journal
-class notes
-address book
-message pad
-to do list
-!!!??? something pretty to look at!

These organizers will be listed in the store this week. Each one is fully customizable; you may order it full of paper with a larger or small binder ring OR describe your dream organizer and I will build it for you.


You can add your own bits and papers by acquiring a standard 2 hole punch which is available at any office supply store for a few dollars.

Lots more photos are on my flickr site under the "Eye Candy Organizer" set. Hooray!

New Journals in the Shop

I am so so excited about these journals. I love every step in the process of creating them, from hunting down vintage and other cool accessories to punching and binding papers together.

These 2 journals are part of my latest creations.

The first is a vintage bingo card journal. The green bingo card covers were a glorious find. They are super-thick, stitched together cardboard with sliding windows over the numbers. A mis-matched green paint job covers what once was (likely) an advertisement. A glue spot is on the back of every card. I'm betting it was applied to keep the stitches in place. These cards have a lovely vintage feel. I decided that this was not the kind of journal I would want to use up, so it is bound with 2 binder rings for versatility. I used a standard 2 hole punch to set it up. A cool old-school library book card and pocket are on the inside of the cover. Finally, I found the best drawing paper I could get through an engineering company that sells paper for drafting. This is some seriously good paper.

The rainbow dot journal is a member of my "paint card, paint chip, paint sample" exploration phase. The colors and weight of those cards is so satisfying. The price is right. Putting the colors together is theraputic. What could be better than that? I've laminated these covers to protect the collage and keep the journal nice and clean. This one is more demur - 30 pages of the same high-quality drawing paper and a half-inch spiral binding. Squeezing more paper into this guy would make it hard to manuver. At 5"x7", this sketchbook is very portable.

Stay tuned for pictures and thoughts on this weekend's Maker Faire!

I Heart Vintage Image Madness! And a Journal to Love.

Oh boy, it is really tricky and discouraging sometimes figuring out this whole "how can I use images?" issue. Recently, I bought a set of digital images of scanned vintage milk caps and was very put off by the excessive restrictions on use of the images. I ended up just amassing my own collection and scanning them to use in my crafty business. I understand about not selling electronic images you purchase or mass distributing them, but not being able to use them in crafty-business is such a bummer.

So then you can understand how thrilled I was to come across the vintage graphic store, "Vintage Image Madness." Here is an example of why I heart them - a quote from their FAQ:

"I am an artist and want to sell the artwork I make using your products. May I? Yes! I am an artist too and love helping out my fellow artists. Please feel free to sell your artwork using any of our products. I appreciate you noting Vintage Image Madness as a source for your images whenever possible."

The image prices are very reasonable and the awesome option of $25.00 for a month of unlimited downloads is really an amazing deal. I'm hooked. Each month, a free image is offered on the site as well, like this little gem:

My first hand-made journal is in the shop, and I'm very delighted with how it came out. I used a variety of old papers and kraft cover stock. I love kraft paper everything right now. It is so choice, as Ferris would say. Anyway, I also used one of my cherished old-timey clock flash cards as the cover decoration. This was my first project with my new Zutter Bind-it-All. If you would just give this journal some love by visiting it and hearting it, we would be so delighted. xo melissa