Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Stamp Organization Using Xyron Laminate Magnet Refills

I have to say that one of my late night obsessions is watching stamp videos from Jennifer McQuire and Kristina Werner. They have some amazing technique videos, and I love watching their projects come together. One of my goals for next year is to get myself a bit more organized so that I'm not trying to look for the products that I want for my projects. This includes stamp organization. I grabbed most of my inspiration from Jennifer McQuire's stamp organization post HERE. She has an amazing system that works for my growing collections of clear stamps and manual dies.
I followed Jennifer McQuire's whole system (minus the fridge container... I used a basket instead) for her stamp storage. However, the floating metal dies were driving me nuts. So I pulled out my Xyron 9" Creative Station and tossed in the Laminate Magnet Refill.
To start, I cut down some cardstock to fit in the envelopes and fit the dies that I wanted to store. It really doesn't matter what color or style, you won't see this anyway.
Run those through your Xyron Creative Station, then cut the edges down to the size of the paper.
Place your metal dies on the magnet side of the sheet, and place inside your envelopes as if they were the clear stamps. For my stamps with matching dies, I placed the dies on the back of the envelope.
This even works with the leftover strips and smaller die sets.
I will admit, that once I did this, I realized that I could have saved a few steps by just running and entire sheet of 8.5x11" cardstock through my Xyron using the Laminate Magnet Refill. I then, would have cut that into sized pieces as I went. Hope this helps keep your matching dies more organized!

Products Used:
Xyron 9" Creative Station, Xyron Laminate Magnet Refill, Target Room Essentials Branch Weave Small Bin, Avery Elle Stamp and Die Storage Pockets, Brother P-Touch Label Maker, white cardstock Pin It

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

December Pocket Pages Kit and Covered Christmas Notebook using Xyron Products

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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

Covered Christmas Notebook
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