Today is a very special day at our house. The little girl atop her daddy's back turns 9! WOW time DOES fly! This is one of the last family pictures that we had professionally taken. It was only days later that I tore the cartilage in my hip socket and life changed for me, for us. So it is with fond memories that I look back at this time. You can see uncertainty in those precious little baby eyes, but now that expression is being replaced more often with confidence and a sparkle. Being that she is now engaged in drawing (and singing - yes, her sweet little voice makes me very happy!) and a playdate is arriving shortly I snuck away to complete this post I started last night, but was too tired to finish.
I selected a more masculine color scheme for this coupon book being most often my projects are quite "girly." My poor husband is surrounded by us - LOL - thank goodness he doesn't seem to mind Ü I thought that I would make this something that could be reused and not overly "heartish." This way I hope that we can all create coupons for the inside and give it to my DH come Valentines day and perhaps use it again for future events or even a little album.
I don't know how many of you are aware that the Craft-a-board that we carry in our store works beautifully with the more "open" or "less-detailed" low-profile dies created by both Spellbinders and Quickutz. It is always important to me that you can maximize the use of the products that we carry in our store and thus my search for a product that you can use to make books, frames, etc. with your Nestabilities.
To create the frame I used two label dies from the large set. I first cut out the main image and then placed my smaller die, visually centering it.
After running it through my machine I then cut my patterned paper piece from the new Rhubarb Tart paper collection. To ensure that this piece would align correctly with my thicker Craft-a-board I placed this piece of paper directly beneath my already cut out window and sent it back through my machine yet again.
As you can see it did not cut all the way through my paper layer, but it did leave a great outline and so I needed to remove the Craft-a-board and using the cut line as my guide realign the die with the paper. I was then able to send this back through my Big Shot and cut my patterned paper piece so that it would align perfectly with my Craft-a-board.
I adhered our family picture behind the frame and then adhered the patterned paper to the top of the frame. I then cut a striped piece of paper for both the back of this image as well as my back cover piece. Additionally I cut another two "circle" pieces. You will see that I cut and sewed the "circle" paper to the striped paper to create pockets for our coupons.
To create the coupons shown in the photo below I simply typed up some ideas using Microsoft Word and printed them out on Neenah Natural White. Inking the Distressed Grid Scrapblock randomly with Tea Dye ink and stamping it at an angle added just a little more texture to what would become my coupons.
Using my stamp-a-ma-jig I then stamped the coupon outline from the Ticket Counter set. I can't believe how often I reach for this set now to complete little gift items. This set comes with some great ideas all ready for you just to stamp, but you can easily add your own sentiments or "gifts" by creating your own Word documents as I have done here.
I then cut out each ticket and inserted them in to the pockets.
We had some brand new "bellies" arrive on our doorstep yesterday and just couldn't help myself - I HAD to use them. You know how it is. These are fabulous! I love felt and so to have these little buttons and flowers ready to go and coordinate perfectly with the Memory Box products we carry... I'm so sorry, but we will do our best to get them up before the weekend. I'll get back in to work again tomorrow and hop to it Ü
I had to show you a closeup of the backing on the cut out felt flowers, they come with adhesive already applied!!! Yippie! The buttons do not, but it was so easy to thread my silk ribbon through the button holes and then add a little glue dot to the back.
The final touch was to add the little Pearl Hearts (yes, that's right pearl HEARTS!) They are simply adorable and I have been waiting with baited breath for them to arrive! I punched a hole in the corner and used a Binding Ring to hold it all together.
I hope this inspired you to create a personalized Coupon book for an upcoming event.
We have also appreciated your patience with our website over the last few days. We appreciate so much when you contact us if you are having problems or frustrations with the site being then we can personally help you. They have been working behind the scenes making changes to the "platform" and so our site keeps going down, which is so incredibly frustrating being we never seem to know when that will happen. I keep hoping and praying for the day that they get it "right", but until then it is entirely out of my control. Sometimes I just want to run in the opposite direction shrieking - LOL! I wake up each day and wonder what it is that they will be changing next, but hopefully it will just make the site more user friendly. Thank you again so much for your continued support!
Well, I'd better start cooking up a storm. Birthday dinners are always per the request of the birthday person - this time round it is home made mac and cheese (easy Ü) and a fruit tart (yep, my little one loves fruit much more than cake - LOL). Thanks for stopping by again today.
