Today was the final meeting of one of my stampers' clubs until September. Each year for the past two, they've begun meeting in September, take off the month of December, and end for the year in April or May. Then, after a summer hiatus, they start up again in September. We meet once per month, and I always bring them a project that I think they'll love, that also focuses on any of the SU special promtions going on at the time.
Since today was the last one for this year, I wanted to make it really good. I felt kind of like I was on American Idol. For those of you who are fans, there's always a point in the show where the judges will say, "At this point in the competition, you need to really wow us."
I wanted to really wow this group, send them off with a great feeling about the great project we did. I also know that they like 3D projects as much as I do. So I began my search. I got a new Stampin' Success Magazine in the mail this week, so I looked in there. Then, I got a weekly email from Splitcoast Stampers with a project in it. I looked at that. But still, I felt like I hadn't found it yet.
I decided to look on my friend and upline, Cindy Lawrence's blog, www.onehappystamper.typepad.com. I always find the prettiest projects on there, and sure enough, I found what I thought was the perfect project for my club. It was the cutest little magazine holder, made out of card stock. You would use it to hold 3x3 cards and envelopes. You can see Cindy's project here:
I knew that I wanted to do this project, but I thought that doing the box and four cards would be too much for the time frame we had today. So I tried to think of what other uses I could come up with for the box. I realized that 4x4 post it note pads fit inside perfectly! I'd definitely found my project.
Next, I needed to choose my Designer Series Paper. I wanted to highlight DSP because of the Buy 3 Get one Free special going on this month. I wanted my club members to know that if they bought three packs of DSP or 12x12 textured card stock, they'd get a free one. Using the DSP on the project was a good way to remind them of the special. I'd used Tea Party DSP a couple of months ago, and they'd really liked it, so I decided to use it again, but a different pattern from the pack. We'd also used another variety of DSP last month for our card project.
So all of that being said, here's how our project came out:
I even put little post it note pads in it, for demonstration purposes. You can see that I used Almost Amethyst card stock and whisper white grosrain ribbon. I also put a small Filigree flower and brad on the front for decoration. I punched a hole through the paper, DSP and card stock using the hand held 1/16 punch. I also thought the sides were plain so I stamped the flower on them from Baroque Motifs using the versamark ink pad. You can also use Almost Amethyst ink but a member of the group had asked last month about how to use the versa pad, and what effect it would give, so I decided to work a quick demo into this project for her.
Here's a closeup of the back of the magazine holder. I see now, that my ribbon started to come off in my travels! However, what I really wanted you to see is the Baroque Motifs flower at the top of the spine. It's stamped in Certainly Celery ink and cut out using the SU Paper Snips.
Here's how it looks with some sample post it pads in it. Again, it seems to have gotten a little smooshed at the bottom, while on the ride home! I did not notice this when I took the photos!! This project is a perfect gift for yourself or for someone else! When I showed it to my husband, an elementary school principal, he said to me, "Could you make me a masculine one? I have those post it pads all over my desk." So that'll have to be on my list of things to do in the upcoming weeks! Teacher Appreciation Week just passed, but this would've made a great gift for one of the week-long gift giving days that we had.
Don't forget about the Designer Series Paper special that's going on this month!
By the way, Cindy found the adorable magazine holder on this blog if you would like to get the directions for it yourself: http://inkingidaho.blogspot.com/2008/08/mini-magazine-tote-tutorial.html There's even a step by step guide included there, for cutting and scoring your card stock.
