December Pocket Pages Kit and Covered Christmas Notebook using Xyron Products

For thirty days, the Xyron Design Team is creating and sharing various tutorials focused on the holidays. Today, I have two projects: my December Pocket Pages kit that I created to document the holiday season, and a Christmas notebook that I can use to keep myself organized throughout the season. Make sure that you keep checking back on the Xyron Facebook page daily for more inspiration.

To start today's post, I want to share my December Pocket Pages kit that I created. I love all of those fantastic kits that are all around, but really wanted to create my own. I had a few pieces of amazing Christmas paper from the Gossamer Blue Get Happy line, and a great mini kit from Paper Issues.  

The kit is pretty basic. I really wanted to have something that I could take with  me, so kept everything fairly easy to work with and portable. If we do something great over the holiday, I wanted to be able to write about it in the moment. This means that I also kept my Xyron products portable as well. The Iris 12x12 Portable Project Case was a great holder for everything. From my Xyron items, I included  my Xyron Mega Runner, Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape, Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, and Xyron Wedge Shaped Glue Stick. 

I also found some great things in the Target $1 Spot that I could add to my kit. I LOVE the gold!

 And some fun, bright papers!

So to make this fun cover, I pulled out my Xyron 9" Creative Station and got to work. The thing that I really love about Xyron products, is that because the adhesives are edge-to-edge, they completely cover vellum, without seeing any of the adhesive. So that gorgeous gold vellum is in perfect condition.

I manual die cut the circles, then ran those through my Xyron 9" Creative Station.

Then I stacked those and adhered them to the Simple Stories 8x6 Sn@p Binder. 

To add some interest, I then took the die cut from the Merry Memories Limited Edition Swag Bag and ran that through my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker. This way, it wouldn't peel off of the cover.

Those $1 Spot stickers aren't the greatest sticking stickers, so I took a strip of Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape and placed it on a piece of striped paper. Then I adhered the stickers to the Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape, and cut it out and adhered it to the cover with some more Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape.

Add a quick die cut, some Thickers and a red nose (Liquid Pearls) on the reindeer, and there's my cover!

And of course it needed a title, so to make sure that the little title stuck in place, I made sure that it wouldn't move or shift by adding some Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape to the back of the die cut.

I also wanted to share my fun way to keep organized throughout the Christmas season. I love small Moleskine cahiers, as they have enough pages for a larger event, but not too much that I don't use most of the pages. Plus, if I see something I really like, I can always sketch something out.

These are super easy and quick to cover and decorate. I started by running a piece of paper through my Xyron 9" Creative Station. Once that was sticky, I adhered it to the journal, making sure that it would still open easily and lay flat.

Once it was positioned correctly, I trimmed the edges with a kraft knife. If you overcut, just scrape the knife around the edges to rough them up and hide any imperfections.

To start decorating the book, I cut a strip of paper, ran it through my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, and attached it to the book. 

To add some decoration, and again play with some non-traditional papers, I ran a die cut and a piece of glassine envelope through my Xyron 9" Creative Station. Just like the vellum, the glassine can be difficult to work with as most other adhesives you would notice. 

Once that was attached to the book, I tied it off with some Lawn Fawn (Lawn Trimmings-Gold Sparkle Single Cord) and stamped a sentiment using the Catslife Press stamp (1185B). 

Thank you for stopping by to see today's tutorial. Make sure that you check out all of the Xyron's Design Team member's blogs (links are to your right), and the Xyron Facebook page regularly this season to see all 30 Days of Holiday!

Supplies Used:

December Pocket Pages Kit

Xyron 9" Creative Station, Xyron Mega Runner, Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape, Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, We R Memory Keepers Nesting Circles Die Set, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Target $1 Spot (tags, striped tags, mini gold alphas), American Crafts (Shimelle-Haynes, Daiquiri gold Thickers), Elle's Studio (Good Cheer paper), Crate Paper (Notes and Things-So Simple; Maggie Holmes-Openbook), My Mind's Eye (Necessities-Metallic Stripe), Gossamer Blue (Get Happy papers and envelopes), Liquid Pearls (Rouge), Catslife Press stamp (1185B), Paper Issues (Merry Memories Limited Edition Swag Bag), Iris 12x12 Portable Project Case, Simple Stories 8x6 Sn@p Binder

Covered Christmas Notebook

Xyron 9" Creative Station, Crate Paper-Sleigh Ride (papers and chipboard), glassine envelope, Catslife Press stamp (1185B), Lawn Fawn (Lawn Trimmings-Gold Sparkle Single Cord), Moleskine cahier

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Xyron's 30 Days of Holiday: Decorative Wrapped Frames

For thirty days, the Xyron Design Team is creating and sharing various tutorials focused on the holidays. Today, I am sharing how you can change up your current decor to be more festive with minimum cost. Make sure that you keep checking back on the Xyron Facebook page daily for more inspiration.

I have some amazing art, but not all of it is the right color for my Christmas decor. This is a take on the "present wrapped frames" that many people do around the holidays. I started by taking my framed picture, and tracing the edges in pencil onto some kraft wrapping paper that I have.

I then found the center of the rectangle, and lightly penciled in a triangle. This will become my "tree".

I then die cut various sizes of Christmas paper. For this project, all of my papers are from Authentique's Believe Collection. To maintain the tree idea, I used predominately green patterns.

I then used my Silhouette Cameo to cut a large sentiment, which I then ran through my Xyron 9" Creative Station.

I really wanted some sparkle on this project, so lightly adhered a few of the smaller circles to some scratch paper using my Xyron Mega Runner, by tapping the Mega Runner onto your circle instead of dragging it. This way, only a tiny bit of adhesive sticks to the backs of the circles. Then I used some Versamark Ink and Tim Holtz embossing powder in Super Fine Gold to create ornaments.

To finish off each of the circles, and the sentiment, I inked the edges using ImagineCrafts Inks (Bamboo Leaves, London Fog, Pistachio).

Once all of the pieces were inked, I ran all of the larger circles through my Xyron 9" Creative Station. 

Then, I started adding all of the circles, keeping them within the edges of the triangle I had drawn earlier.

To add more detail, I die cut some small red circles and ran those (and the embossed gold circles) through my Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker.

Then I attached all of the small pieces, filling in the gaps with red buttons of various sizes.

Once the piece was complete, I wrapped the frame up as if it was a present, leaving the back open so I could hang it to the wall. Instead of using wrapping paper tape on the artwork, I used Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape so that the seams were hidden.

When the entire piece was wrapped, I used a Uni-ball Signo White pen to add some faux stitching around the edges.

Isn't this just a fun piece to have hanging?!?! I especially love the large sentiment.

Thank you for stopping by to see today's tutorial. Make sure that you check out all of the Xyron's Design Team member's blogs (links are to your right), and the Xyron Facebook page regularly this season to see all 30 Days of Holiday!

Supplies Used:

Xyron 9" Creative Station, Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker, Xyron Mega Runner, Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape, Silhouette Cameo, Authentique Believe Collection, We R Memory Keepers Nesting Circles Die Set, Tim Holtz Embossing Powder (Super Fine Gold), ImagineCrafts Inks (Versamark, Bamboo Leaves, London Fog, Pistachio), random buttons, Uniball Signo white pen, kraft wrapping paper, framed picture from my living room

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Using my August "Faux-Kit"...

I've been making some fun stuff lately. It's almost a relief "shopping" my stash sometimes. I like seeing things leave my studio, without the receipts entering it. Here are my first three layouts using my "kit", and I'm sure that I'll have a handful of cards to finish it off. 

This first layout was pretty fun. I loved these two pic, but hadn't found the right papers or anything to use with them. I really loved pulling the pinks together with the blues, as it complemented the photos well. I also really loved this Gossamer Blue pie chart from the July 2014 Life Pages kit. Sadly, it's the only thing I've used from that month so far... The paper edge is a Silhouette cut, and the banner was just hand cut. To be honest however, the back of that pie chart is a hot mess. Thankfully you cannot see it. I totally broke out my Xyron 9" Creative Station on it though. Seriously, those intricate die cuts are killer to try to glue down all the little bits... This way, it's glued in one pass. Simple.

This layout was inspired by one of the PageMaps sketches from the August 2014 set that worked with Scrapbook Circle DT. I really loved the pie chart shape, and had to include it! I have to admit however, this layout kicked my butt. I had to put it aside and come back later to complete it. I added the title die cut and stitching the next morning. I think it came out okay in the end.

The next layout used quite a bit of the patterned papers from Authentique, My Mind's Eye, Stampin' Up and a little bit of the leftovers of that Crate Paper woodgrain. I will seriously use every last scrap of that stuff! I also used my DIY Simple Stories envelope to place a die cut with hidden journaling. And, if you want the recipe to the most amazing (gluten free) chocolate molten lava cake... It's here. You can thank me later!

I used the ScrapbookSteals Mid-Week-Mojo Pansy 4 Sketch by Brenda Smith. Brenda always does amazing work. I'm always in awe of all of the fun details she uses in her work.

Sometimes you have that one picture that doesn't go with anything else... This pic was just that. I had previously gotten my hair bayalage'd by my lovely hair stylist who works at The Parlor. This place is adorable. Like, all industrial and woodgrain and aqua. LOVE! I really wanted to "highlight" the highlights, so the woodgrain follows the streaks in my hair, along with the streaks in the sky Sass paper, and the dark cloud chipboard pieces. And those chipboard buggers, pull out your Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker on those bad boys and BAM! Done. I'm a much lazier scrapper than I appear, I promise.

I used the ScrapbookSteals Mid-Week-Mojo Pansy 5a Sketch by Brenda Smith.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a few of my latest creations. I swear I will be caught up with the Pansy Series before #10.

If you want more details on the specific papers and embellishements I used, I listed them all out on the previous post. Thanks!

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AUTHENTIQUE PAPER: Sweet Little Girls and the Smitten Collection

Today this wonderfully sweet layout is being featured on the Authentique Blog. I love the pinks, reds and browns especially in the Smitten Collection by Authentique Paper. I even used a  Kiwi Lane DT Doodles. I love sketches. They take out all of the second guessing, and sometimes, that is exactly what I need. For this layout, I only used one page from the Week 43 Doodle.

Check it out today! And tomorrow I will update you on some CHA news, my One Little Word for this year, and a very brief update on my hiatus from the blog. Not completely intentional :)

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Christmas Fun with Xyron and Heidi Swapp!!

Good morning Xyron and Heidi Swapp fans!! I love this season. Seriously, I wait all year for Christmas to come and miss it once it's gone. I love the gifts, the tradition, and of course all of the fun that you can have with decoration and gift wrap. Today I'm going to share a little bit of both.

Meet our resident elf, Stella. She is the perfect foil for the fantastic papers and embellishments from Heidi Swapp's Believe line. I took three pieces of from the 12x12 Paper Pack and layered them all together 1/2" smaller than each other using my Xyron Mega Runner. The Color Magic Jumbo Pennants were each sprayed with a mix of Color Shine in both Chartreuse and Gold Lame.

To make the photograph pop, I added a Believe Banner Delight using the  Xyron's High Tack Adhesive Dots in 3/16".

I then punched out one of the Joy to the World sentiments from one of the sheets of the 12x12 Paper Pack, and added my journaling and faux stitching with a Signo pen. 

Lastly, I used Gold Lame Color Shine on the Color Magic Striped Alphabet. I love the little hashtag, and it works perfectly with the Instagram pic I used!

My second project using Heidi Swapp's Believe line is a decorative bow that I cut using my Silhouette.

Once I cut all of the pieces of the outside of the bow...

...I sprayed a second sheet with the Chartreuse Color Shine, then cut the base of each of pieces.

I ran each of the outside pieces through my Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker.

Once all of the outer pieces were attached to the second set of pieces, I attached them all with a long brad. See how the Color Shine on the inside of the bow covers the white paper?

Make sure that the brad is opened on the inside.

To create the banner that will wrap around the CD case, I cut a border, ran that through my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, then attached that to a slightly larger version and attached it to the case.

Lastly, I used a few more of the High Tack Adhesive Dots in 3/16" to attach it to the case. 

Now it's ready for packing up a fun present!!


Products Used:

Xyron: Xyron Mega Runner, Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/16" Dots, Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker

Heidi Swapp: Believe Collection (12x12 Paper Pad, Banner Delights), Color Magic (Striped Alphabet, Jumbo Pennants), Color Shine (Gold Lame, Chartreuse) 

Other Supplies: Silhouette, Signo Uniball pen, CD case, circle punch, brad

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