It's a cinch! really...

Having promised myself to scour high and low, internet and shop for a reasonably priced Cinch binder, I eventually found one a few pounds less than most, but with a bargain on coils to go with! So I did it... I ordered it, and it arrived Christmas eve so I didn't get to play with it until a few days ago... such frustration!

In the meantime my Big Bite had arrived, and being as compulsive as I am I had to play straight away...before friends arrived to stay... do you remember those really textural collage canvases I did  a while back? No? Here's a reminder...

I marked out the holes and spent an evening punching holes- what bliss compared to using a rotary leather punch! It is truly easy to use, I highly recommend it, and great for difficult places. My only issue is the depth of gap between the punch and base... by the time I put the canvas board in place I could not see my markings so some were slightly out of place... which, if you're a perfectionist like me, is completely horrible and unacceptable. (Still, I have the Cinch now, so not an issue for book cutting)

I had wanted to make some spiral bound artist journals with the set of canvases, and to make them truly unique I have filled them with a mix of papers, coloured hand-made papers to match the cover, water-colour, pastel, black, cartridge, card and charcoal papers- 4 or 5 of each in these 40 page journals.

Yellow- floral series, 40 mixed artist papers

Here's how they turned out- I'm really happy with them so I'll be putting them on Etsy and Creative Stores soon.

My Book, purple, 40 mixed artist papers journal

My Book, pink, 40 mixed artist papers journal

I still have to put papers in the green, red and blue books, but that won't take long at all. 

From then on I shall be using the Cinch to make the holes- and it also cuts through the canvas boards beautifully, making my life so much easier, hooray, more time to play!

PS. there's still a 15% discount on my Etsy stock if you type in NEWYEARSALE2013 at the checkout, but only until the 15th January, so grab a unique bargain now!

Biting the Bullet!

Well, after much debating I've gone and done it!

 In fits and starts over the last year I've been going round in circles trying to decide whether to get a book binder, a crop-a-dile or a big bite... round and round.... you read one review one is wonderful- the best thing since sliced bread, then another review says the opposite! 

So  AAAARRRGHHHHH! What to do????

I've had my 3D book covers sitting around for months waiting to be punched and coiled, I've set so many eyelets by hand on my rucksacks that it hurts- hammers and thumbs don't mix! and I'm always punching holes in my journals... 

With limited funds I've opted for the Big Bite, hoping that it will be up to the job. I shall certainly be putting it to the test- watch this space!!  With heavy card, canvas, fabrics, leather, CD's and plastics regularly used in my projects it's going to be working like a Trojan... I hope!

I really don't like buying tools like this without actually getting a look first, but I've been on the web all afternoon, and as I have found only one Big Bite available I've had to order it. There are no more anywhere, can you believe it?

So, here it is, with promises of so many applications and capability... I can only hope it's not been over hyped. Hopefully it will be here before the weekend, so I'll post on Monday with a rundown of my experience with it. Oh, and wasn't I lucky- I got a blue one... not barbie pink- yuck!

Well, it's now Saturday evening but it's not here... so I guess I'll have to wait till Monday for it to arrive... projects later then! It came on Monday, and I had a quick play... so more to come... soon!

Making paper gift bags...

Wow! I've done it again... I seem to spend less and less on the internet as weeks go by... probably not a bad thing, but even so, it's making it hard to catch up.

Following on, and continuing to redo my studio I've repackaged all my jewellery and accessories with  newly designed cards and bags. I hadn't realised how much stock I still had, so it was good to see it all out at once again. They're all done now so I needed something nice to send them off in, and being fed up with those bulk-buy plastic bags I decided to make my own. So much fun, and you really get into a routine when you are doing 30-40 at a time.

Here's how they turned out- I've created 3 lots so far, each with a different paper; brown parcel paper, crafting magazine and a big glossy arty magazine.

These are the brown paper bags... I've added a tutorial in the How To- Crafts section.  I've added printed labels, and now my own design "recycle" tags. They are so simple to make I shan't be buying another bag again! And if you use different size magazines you can get different sized bags. I recommend gluing 2 glossy sheets together to make a large gift bag and keep the pages upright. They look great if you coordinate your magazines/paper to your stock...

here's a few... using a papercraft mag, and  a glossy art mag....

Double-spread  papercrafting mag, and my own tags....

And single glossy pages

Have a look at the tutorial and have a go... you'll enjoy how easy they are, and it'll save you an arm and leg in future pressie wrapping! If you're like me you'll have been saving all your gift-wrap from years passed so here's a chance to use some of that up!