Our Favorite things

Welcome to the Our Favorite Things Blog Candy Extravaganza! You should have just come from  Dena's blog. If you are just joining the hop and want to start from the beginning, please start at Dena's blog  Dena.This is going to be an amazing event!  Many of you are familiar with Oprah Winfrey's famous "Favorite Things" show where audience members walk away with an array of fabulous gifts.  It was always so fun to see how excited the audience members got with each giveaway.  Well, if you've always wished you could sit in the audience of one of those show tapings, we have the next best thing for you!

Each participant in this hop is going to share a favorite of hers.  It could be a craft-related item or a non-craft related item.  In addition to that, each blogger is giving away blog candy!  This means you have a chance to win at every stop!

Each blogger has her own rules for winning her blog candy, so please be sure to read the rules on each blog for a chance to win.

Without further ado, here is the project I created for this hop:

  I have become a "regular" in my kitchen. Sounds funny, but growing up, I had NO desire to cook. It always seemed like a CHORE, what a dirty word! LOL! Anyway...In the past 12 months, I have really become creative in the kitchen. So much so, I started my own little candy business. So, I thought, for this hop, I should make an altered notebook and turn it into a Recipe Book, something you can hand down to your kids or just compile a bunch of recipes (hand-written or clipped from newspapers or off the internet) and give to a friend. (Someone like a 1st time parent, newly single, college student, or even just your average friend who doesn't know how to cook other than from a box.)


Below are the majority of the items I used for this project. I added a couple after taking this picture.

• Standard notebook
• One 12 x 12" sheet of printed paper and a coordinating plain piece of cardstock. My sheets both came from DCWV's "Prints for the Year Ultimate Stack" that I found at Michael's on clearance.
• Tim Holtz's Distress ink pad in "Tea Dye" and "Black Soot", as well as the blending tool
• McGill's large tab punch (2 1/4" wide)
• ProvoCraft's "Happy Haunting's" cartridge using the Vampire font in 0.75"
• Sparkle Glitter pens by MultiCraft Imports to line each letter
• Martha Stewart writing pen in "Sepia"
• Scotch brand Scrapbooker's 2-way glue
• Mini glue dots (to apply the vellum)

Cut the printed sheet in half. Line up the edge of the paper to the outside edge of the notebook. Make sure to line up images so as to not cut off too many faces. Adhere.  Repeat on back cover. Once you've got the cover sheets glued in place, THEN trim off the excess. (I learned this the hard way.)  Decide how wide you want your spine cover to be and make sure it overlaps the printed paper slightly.  Use your trimmer. (I can't give you measurements on this as it seems each notebooks varies ever so slightly.  This one measured out to be 3.25" x 9.75". Ink up the edge of the spine cover.  Mold the spine cover to the notebook itself, BEFORE adhering, this helps a lot!  Apply glue to spine COVER and then carefully align to the spine of the notebook. Make sure to line up the edges of the paper (front and back) at both the top & bottom of the notebook, this makes it look more clean.  Also, flatten the spine against your work-space to make sure that their are no unnecessary gaps.

Using the Cricut Expression, cut out your letters.  I used the same plain card stock. However, since this was too close to the printed paper, I inked the letters in "Tea Dye" and "Black Soot". It was still a little too similar, so I adhered the letters to the vellum to give some contrast without taking away from the cute paper. To show where the vellum ended, I added the faux stitching lines with the Sepia pen. Adhere the vellum sheet to the notebook with mini glue dots. I placed one at each corner of the vellum and then placed more randomly behind the letters to help ensure it would stay. (I had already rounded the 2 corners by this point.) Ink up the edges of the notebook with "Tea Dye".  The letters write out: "Monster Chow".

 Using the gold sparkle glitter pen, I edged the letters and filled in the "drippings" to add that extra something.   I also took random glitter gel pens on hand and colored in the eyes of the monsters.  Using "Blush-R20" Copic marker I added cheeks to one monster and to the empty heart of another.

For my blog candy, the winner will receive this altered notebook.  I have already cut 7 of the large tabs out for you to fill in and adhere where you want.  To enter to win this fun notebook, please leave a comment below with a way to reach you (ie. email).  I will choose a winner on Tuesday, March 6th. I will announce here on my blog the winner's name and I will also message the winner.  I will then ship out this notebook to him/her.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed what I shared with you today. Please be sure to hop on over to Ashley's  blog (insert link to blog stop that follows yours on the hop) to see what she has to share with you and for more blog candy fun! Happy hopping and good luck to you!
 
Below is the entire blog hop lineup in case you lose your way:
 

Dena - http://missdjones.blogspot.com/

Lisa L.- http://craftylam.blogspot.com

Ashley - http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com

Jennifer - http://craftycardgallery.blogspot.com

Paula D. http://scrapyourworld1.blogspot.com

Cely - http://hawaiipaperparty.blogspot.com

Jamie - http://scrapqueen141.blogspot.com/

Ellen - http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/

Shannon -http://my-o-scrappin.blogspot.com

Liz -http://decadeofscrap.blogspot.com

Wendy -http://gilbyscraftster.blogspot.com

Robin - http://scrapandchat.blogspot.com

 Ashley W.--http://proudusmcwife415.blogspot.com

Altered Notebooks

Currently, my boys are on "off-track", we are in a year-round district so our track is off until Thanksgiving.  However, after we get back, the boys will only be in school for another week before we leave for our family vacation to Hawaii. ALOHA!  When we get back, the whole school district shuts down for 3 weeks for Winter Break.  It is my tradition to try to give a gift to the teachers at that time.  Here is what I made this year.  

Ingredients for Notebook #1:

A notebook/composition book to alter. Close to My Heart "Sentiments" Stamp set.  Stampabilities "Sentiments" stamp clings. Stampin' Up ink in "Going Grey". Jenni Bowlin ink in "Spice Tin". Tim Holtz Distress ink in: "Antique Linen" and "Weathered Wood".  Stickles in "Platinum". Ivory card stock and decorative paper, sorry this is from a collection I bought at Jo-Ann's over 2 years ago and have since thrown away the packaging.  

Measure your composition book and cut your decorative paper slightly longer. You don't need it too wide, just make sure to cover the front of the cover, overlapping the binding slightly.  Do this for both the front & back covers.  (I cut mine at roughly 10" x 7".)  Apply adhesive to the cover, ensuring to get the glue as close to the edges as possible, you don't want your paper lifting.  Carefully lay the paper on top.  Cut off the excess and round the corners of the paper with scissors (Quick tip: don't round before applying the paper, you can't guarantee a perfect match.  Cut your ivory card stock at roughly 10" x 3.5", try to line up your card stock evenly to the binding and gently bend/mold the two together.  Once you've got a slight crease in the ivory paper, apply adhesive to the interior of the crease, again ensuring to get as close to the edges as possible, you don't want it lifting.  To ensure it will stick well, apply adhesive horizontally every inch or so too.  Carefully, match up the top or lower edge of the ivory card stock to the book, using your hands, mold the two together, forming a firm bond.

Using the Distress inks and the blending tool, edge the notebook, front and back, as well as the binding.  Stamp the "thank you" onto the left over ivory paper with the "going grey" ink.  Hand cut the sentiment, excluding the banner edges.  Use the Distress inks on the "thank you" to match, use the "spice tin" ink, to give the edge a contrasting color.  Apply with pop dots.  Stamp "your guiding hand..." sentiment with the "spice tin" ink.  Apply Stickles to the tiny dots throughout the cover to give it that little bling.

There you go, simple but pretty.

Notebook #2

Ingredients:  dark brown card stock for the rosette and the binding, patterned paper for the front & back covers, "Cinnamon" Stickles, Close To My Heart "Sentiments" stamp set, Stampabilities "Sentiments" stamp set, Stampin' Up ink': "Chocolate Chip", "Groovy Guava" and "Creamy Caramel", Demi-Pearls in the brown collection, glue dots and the Martha Stewart Scoring board.

Prepare the cover as stated above.  When inking the edges, I did it directly from the ink pad, no blending tool.  Ink up the binding edges as well.  For the rosette, cut 2 strips of  the brown card stock at 1 1/2" each. Use the MS Score board and score every 1/4".  Ink the edges with "Chocolate Chip" and "Groovy Guava". (Quick tip:  Make sure you choose the same side of card stock to be the "up" side, textured or non.)  Use a strong adhesive to attach the ends together in one big ring/circle.  Using a scrap piece of paper, say a 1" x3" rectangle, attach the rosette with glue dots, form into an oval to flow with the shape of the "thank you" sentiment, also adhere with glue dots to the front of the rosette.  Stickle the dark brown pattern on the cover.  Use 3 different sizes of the pearls and attach to the cover.

Here is a close up of the bottom right, including the sentiment stamped in "chocolate chip" and of the Stickles on the pattern.

Here is the finished project.

Here is another version!

Happy Crafting!