Back to Basics Workshop - Tools featuring the Martha Stewart Scoring Board & Trimmer

We'd like to invite you to our very first Back to Basics Workshop, this Saturday, March 5 from 10am to 12pm.  This workshop is the first in a series of Back to Basics Workshops.  Each workshop will feature either a tool or technique.  During this first workshop, we are featuring the Martha Stewart Scoring Board and Paper Trimmer.  Everyone will get a chance to use the tools to create a Make & Take during this drop in workshop.  Whether you have one of our featured tools at home gathering dust or would like to try out something new, we'd love to have you join us for the workshop.  Our purpose for these workshops is to encourage you to pull out some of those tools that you were so excited about when you purchased them, but never took the time to learn how to use.  We'll show you some fun projects to make with our featured tools that we're sure you'll want to run home and recreate!  Of course, we'll have the tools available for purchase, in case you don't have them at home.  If you're planning on attending or have any questions, please call the store at 503.259.9130 or RSVP on our Facebook Event Page, so we know how many Make & Takes to prepare.

THANKS!

In preparation for the workshop, we've been searching the internet and practicing with our tools.  During our search, we've come up with some great demonstration videos for our featured products.  So if you can't make it to the workshop or do attend and want more information on your tool once you get it home, we thought we'd give you some links to websites and videos from around the web featuring the Martha Stewart Scoring Board and Paper Trimmer.

Check out this video demo showing how to create a box & lid with the Martha Stewart Scoring Board...

Nice demo of how to create an envelope with the Martha Stewart Scoring Board...

And a step by step slideshow on how to craft a rosette, with some nice mood music...



How about one more?  A rosette with a punched edge...

OK, we know you want one more! :)  A pearl is used to finish this rosette.  The presenter uses hot glue to create her rosette, our favorite adhesive for this project and we learn how to create a card with a half rosette...

And now for a few photos and links to create some beautiful projects with the Martha Stewart Scoring Board...

A project for the guys!  We think this is a great one for Father's Day, thanks to the CraftGossip.com blog.

Folded Paper Shirt Card

A fun birthday card created with the Scoring Board & the Cricut from The Green Cricut blog...

Celebrate with Flourish

The Imaginisce Blog combines two of our favorite things, rosettes & banners...

NOEL Banner

And from Martha Stewart Crafts, a great description of their Paper Trimmer...

We'll leave you with a few project photos to inspire you to get crafting with your Martha Stewart Scoring Board and Paper Trimmer...

We'll get back to you soon with some more links to some of these last few projects.  But since we've got rosettes on the brain, we think we'd better take a break & get back to preparing for this weekend's workshop!

Leave us a comment & let us know which of these projects is your favorite!

And of course, we'd love to have you leave us a link to a project you've created with either the Martha Stewart Scoring Board or Paper Trimmer.

If you'd like more papercrafting inspiration or would like to join our online community and post your project photos there, we'd love to have you!

Click on over to Whimzee's Girls Online Community to join us!



Meet Carol Nelson, Our Newest Card Class Instructor

We are excited introduce our newest card class instructor, Carol Nelson. Carol's first class at Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio will be Monday, September 28th from 6:30pm to 7:00pm, $7.00 fee. Call the store to sign up for Carol's class 503.590.8806. She will help us create the two Halloween cards shown here.

Carol wants to introduce herself to all of us, so read on & meet Carol with us....

I have lived in Hillsboro for 5 years now, having retired from Customer Service in the electronics industry in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Now I finally have the time to do the things I love, making cards and other paper projects, sewing and gardening.

I always try to make cards that are simple and can be used for many occasions with little or no modification. I use every little scrap that I can to get the most out of one piece of paper. And I love embellishments!

I sell my cards at a couple of local stores and participate in the Red Sled Bazaar in Sherwood every Christmas. I have also taught at the Peddler's Pack in Beaverton.

I hope you will join me for this class. All you need is a ruler, a pair of scissors and your enthusiasm!

I am always open to suggestions, so if you see something you would like to see me make, please let me know.

Hope to see you at one of my classes soon!

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #1

(Please do not copy our photos or text and paste into another site or print them out. Instead, please pass on a link to our site to anyone who may find this online class useful. Thank you!)

For this class, I'm sharing the steps I went through to create my first acrylic album. I know that many of you are curious about these albums and are looking for ideas to help you create your own. During my creative process, I looked through scrapbooking magazines, idea books and websites. I gathered my favorite ideas and techniques to create an original acrylic album as a 40th Birthday gift for my friend Teresa. Teresa's 40th Birthday Party was a Barndance with a Western theme, so I used that theme to begin my search through Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio for the supplies to create the album.

In this class, I explain the techniques I used to create each page of the album. Please feel free to use this class as a rough guideline in the creation of your own acrylic album. It is not my intention that your album be an exact copy of mine. I think that it's important to find your own theme and supplies that suite your theme. If you need help developing a plan for your album, I'd love to hear your questions in the comment sections in this blog. Also, we'd love to help you choose your supplies at the store, just ask one of the Whimzee's Girls for help on your next visit.

Most of all, don't be afraid to embark on your own acrylic album adventure. The final product will be a beautiful, one-of-a-kind collection of memories of your special event. I'd love to see photos of your creations! Good Luck & see you in the store!

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #2

After deciding to make an acrylic album, my first step was to choose the size, I choose 6”x6”. The album I chose came with 3 silver hinged rings and is packaged in a shimmery gold bag, perfect for gift giving. We have some great new acrylic albums in the store from Clear Scraps & Bo Bunny.

My next step was to head for the Western & Farm section in the store. I was looking for a selection of papers that would include red, blue and some neutrals. A red bandana pattern by Creative Imaginations, was the first to catch my eye. Next, I found a blue bandana pattern with horses in its pattern by Karen Foster. Then, I remembered a floral on a red background that reminded me of calico, it’s a fun paper named Organic Poppy by Bo Bunny. It isn’t Western but I thought I could work it in with my theme. I headed back to the Western section and found a paper with a pile of rope on it named Lasso by Karen Foster. I added a brown & white lined “notebook” paper by Creative Café. Next, I came a cross a denim print, Blue Jean by Paper Adventures. My other choices came out of our clearance bins. We had a couple papers with white washed or distressed wood on them and one covered with old yardsticks. I thought the yardsticks (Folded Wood Tape Measures by K & Company) would be a fun addition. I wanted use the 40’s on the rulers somewhere in my album and the color & textures of the rulers fit in with a Western theme.

Once I had a good selection of paper, I started thinking about embellishments. I looked through my Grungeboard alphabet and took out the sheet of “T”s. I was sad that my set didn’t include numbers. I decided that I would cut a big 40 for the front cover on the Cricut diecut machine. As I was looking all through the store, I came across a large set of letters and numbers in a cupboard that Twila had used for one of her projects. I was excited to find a large 4 & 0 in a font that fit nicely with my theme. But if you can’t find something appropriate for your cover, do consider cutting your letters or numbers on the Cricut. In the store, we have the large Cricut that cuts shapes up to 12” . I chose some rubons with birthday, celebration and friend themes by KaiserCraft and Creative Café. For the back page, both inside and outside, I picked two square frames by Wild Asparagus.

To add a special flair to my album, I chose a transparency by Artistic Expressions called Celebrate. My last addition to my collection was paint. I wanted to use brown paint for the edges of some of my papers and as a background on my inside pages. As usual, I couldn’t find the exact color I wanted, so I chose a brown that was the closest I could find. Then I grabbed a black, a red and a metallic gold. I find that mixing metallic colors with any of my paints gives them an extra depth. You don’t need much, in fact, my gold paint was almost empty, I had to use a toothpick to reach in & get enough out for mixing.

I grabbed some last minute embellishments that I thought fit into my theme, unsure exactly where I would use them: Creative Café’s red felt pocket with a scalloped edge, Creative Café buttons in light blue, red & brown, thin twine in red, blue and ivory, Creative Café brown felt flower trim, 3 bronze hinged rings and a few pieces of coordinating ribbon.

For my adhesives, I chose hermafix squares, spray adhesive and Diamond Glaze. I wasn’t sure at first which adhesive to use, so I wanted to have a choice once I got started on my project.

When I got home, I laid out all my supplies on my table. I wanted to look at everything together and see if anything stuck out too much. I like to see everything together, so I can tell if it combines together in a cohesive way with my theme. I was happy with everything, but I did wonder if the Creative Café rubons would match my color scheme & theme. In the end, I only ended up using one from that set.

I had an idea in my head of how I wanted the inside pages to look, so I got to work.

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #3

I chose to cut my papers into a bunch of 2 ½” squares. I chose 2 ½” so that I could put four squares on each page and still have room for a small border around the inside and outside of the squares. After cutting the squares, I laid them out in groups of four, moving them around until I liked the layout of each group. What I decided, was that I would use one red, one blue and two neutrals on each page. I arranged the squares so that red and blue were at a diagonal to each other, with the neutrals in the other spaces.

I thought a lot about where I wanted these pages with this four square layout to appear in my album. I decided that the four square layouts should have the same layout on their back side, so that I didn’t have to worry about what would show on the back, since most of my papers were single-sided. This way, I could lay a square over another square of exactly the same size on the back page and not worry white would be showing through the acrylic.

I did a lot of thinking about the backs of my pages and what would be seen when I looked into each page of my album. I had never worked with acrylic before and was pleasantly surprised to see how nice it turned out. Before starting, I worked on my layout on my table and by drew sketches of my plans. In the end, I didn’t end up with an album that was exactly like my sketches. I changed things as I went along and thought of something different that would work better or when I realized the pieces in my sketch wouldn’t all fit on one page.

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #4

Pages 1 & 2 and 5 & 6

After much thought, I chose to place my four square layout on two complete pages (two acrylic sheets, both back & front) of my album. Behind the cover is the first set of four squares, I placed this layout on both sides of this first acrylic page (So the squares are on Pages 1 and 2 of the album.) My first step, after peeling off the protective page covering, (Be careful! I forgot to peel the covering off the back side of this page and had to remove my squares, peel it off and reattach the squares!), was to mix my paint to create the color I was looking for. I wanted a nice chocolate brown. I mixed brown, a few drops of black and about three times as much metallic gold as black and I was happy with the resulting color. I used a foam brush to apply the paint to about a 5 ½”x5 ½” area on my page. I applied the paint in one direction (vertically), so the grain would all be in the same direction. Next, I looked at my four square layout and rounded the outside corner of each square with my corner rounder. After rounding the corners, I laid each square down in the wet paint, pushing all over the square with my fingers to be sure there were no bubbles hidden underneath. I placed each square into the paint in this manner, leaving about a ¼” margin between the squares.

I liked the look of my four squares and moved on to cover the tab. I used the red bandana print to cover the tab. I liked the look of the paper and it’s also double-sided, which is a nice bonus, I didn’t have to cover the back side of the tab. I traced around the tab and cut out a piece with my scissors. I used Tim Holtz’s Distress Ink in Tea Dye to ink the edges of the paper. I adhered this piece to the tab with Diamond Glaze (using a foam brush to apply the glaze). The Diamond Glaze makes a nice, shiny surface and also acts as an adhesive.

After allowing my paint to dry, I turned the page over. The paint looked nice and was pretty transparent. I could see the backs of my squares on the other side. I used them as a guide to place my next set of squares on this page. I rounded the corners of these squares and inked them with the brown ink pad. I inked these squares because their edges would be visible and not hidden in the paint like the ones on the front side.


I used this same technique on what would become Pages 5 & 6 of my album. I didn’t want all of my pages to have the same layout. I only wanted one side of each double-page spread to have the four square layout. So when you open the album, Page 1, on the right is the four square layout. Turn the page and Page 2, on the left side is the four square layout. Turn Page 3 and then Page 5, on the right has the four square layout. Turn Page 5 and Page 6, on the left has the four square layout.

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #5

Pages 3 & 4

I was looking for a layout that would complement my four square layout when I came up with this layout. I choose two 2 ½ x 3 ½” rectangles mounted so that they overlap a 1 ½ x 5 ½” rectangle. I used my corner rounder on one corner of each rectangle, to coordinate with the four square layout. I inked the edges of the rectangles with brown ink and used extra brown paint from the four square layout to do the edges of the long rectangle. For the tab, I chose the red bandana paper, laying it down over the tag and tracing around the tag and edge of the album. Next, I used my scissors to trim along my line and my cutter to create a 1” band adjoining the tag. I inked this paper with brown ink and adhered it to the acrylic with diamond glaze. The diamond glaze creates a shiny coating on the paper when viewed from the back side of this page. The red bandana paper is double sided, with a stripe pattern on the back, so the tab and adjoining strip are striped on page 4. I used the same two 2 ½ x 3 ½” rectangles and 1 ½ x 5 ½” rectangle design on page 4, using the hermafix squares to adhere all the rectangles to both pages 3 and 4.

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #6

Pages 7 & 8

This page is the page just in front of the pocket page. I designed its elements to fit around the T that I stitched onto the pocket. I wanted to be able to see the T, so I used the Creative Café brown felt flower trim on the top and bottom to add some texture. I used an extra flower on the tab so the tab looks balanced when the album is closed. I cut two rectangles out of my double-sided papers and placed them on either side of the T. I used spray adhesive to adhere both the trim and the paper on this page.

The following photo is the back side of this page. No embellishments or paper were attached to this side of the page. This is an example of how nice the back side of the acrylic pages can look when some thought into their design.

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #7

Page 9

When I first saw these little pockets, I fell in love with them and set about trying to think of a creative way to use them. I knew since this pocket was red, I could find some way to use it in my acrylic album. I also knew that I wanted to somehow include my friend’s cute birthday invitations in her album. The invitation was huge (5 ¾” x 11”), so I wasn’t sure how to include it in a 6”x6” album. Once I started thinking about the pocket, an idea came to me. I would scan the invitation and print it small, so I could put it in the pocket as a tag. After printing the small invitation “tag,” I used a piece of red twine tied onto the corner, so that people would be able to remove the tag from the pocket. Now that I had decided how to use the invitation, I needed some embellishment on the pocket. Since I wasn’t able to find a T that was the perfect size for this album (mine were either too large or too small), I decided to stitch one onto the front of the pocket. I used thin ivory twine to stitch a large T onto the pocket. I have done a lot of counted cross stitch in my life, so I wasn’t intimidated by stitching. I just thought about how big I wanted the letter and got started. I used mostly a back stitch, but some of the stitch is some other stitch entirely, I’m not sure which one, but it turned out fine. I wasn’t looking for perfection, just to have a handmade look. You could use a white pencil to trace your design onto the felt, but I was in a time crunch by the time I got to this step, so I just jumped in & got started. After the T was finished, I thought it looked a little plain, so I added the flowers using blue twine.

I used my Wild Asparagus frames on the front & back of the pages with the pocket. I laid the first frame down and placed the pocket over it so the frame only showed a bit around the edges. I attached both pieces with spray adhesive. I applied some rubon flourishes from my KaiserCraft set around the pocket. On the back side, I plan to mount the second frame directly over the first one. I didn’t attach the second one before giving the album as a gift, so that my friend could place a photo on the page and place the second frame over it. I used a KaiserCraft birthday rubon on the second frame.


Page 10

This photo shows what the back of the album will look like (before a photo is placed in the frame). The pocket edges only show a bit over the top of the frame.

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #8

For the front cover, I chose the largest numbers I could find. I wish I knew the vendor for these numbers. I found them in a box in a cupboard at the store. I used the same paint on the numbers and T, that I had mixed for the background of my four square layout. I painted one side of the chipboard and all the edges. I left them on wax paper to dry and then painted their back sides.

For the numbers, I chose my favorite papers from my project stash to cover them. I like to apply paper to chipboard using spray adhesive. First, I go outside (spray adhesive has a strong odor and the sticky overspray is almost impossible to remove from things like the table, floor or your clothes). Then I hold the chipboard at an angle, so I can see where I’m applying the adhesive, I spray the adhesive onto the chipboard from about 12 inches away so that it is applied in a fine mist all over the project. If you hold the spray adhesive too close to your project, it gets too thick and can run or ooze out the sides of your paper. After the chipboard is coated with a fine mist of adhesive, I take it back into the house and lay the paper down over the adhesive. I smooth the paper down on my chipboard to make sure there are no bubbles and let it dry (about 30 minutes).

After the paper was attached, I used a foam brush to edge the numbers again, making sure the paint covered the edges of my paper. Next, I took a long piece of ivory twine and wrapped it around the bottom of the 0, tying a knot in the twine on the front of the 0 once I thought I had enough. I wanted it to resemble rope tied around the number. I did the same thing with the red twine diagonally across from the ivory twine. This time, after wrapping the twine several times, I put the ends of the twine through two of my Creative Café buttons (first a medium sized light blue button and then a smaller brown button with a carved edge) and tied a knot on top of the buttons. For both the ivory & red twine, I left about an 1 ½” ends after tying the knots.

After everything was dry and I was satisfied with my twine wrapping, I mounted the numbers on the cover of my album using a foam brush to apply diamond glaze to the back sides of each number. I pressed the numbers onto the cover and left them to dry overnight. The next day, I applied a birthday theme rubon on the back of the cover directly on top of the number 0, to give the back of the cover a little attention.

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #9

For my final embellishments, I replaced the silver hinged rings that came with the album with bronze rings. The bronze rings melded with my theme much more than the shiny silver ones. I’ll save those for a future project. After assembling the album pages on the rings, I cut a piece of thick twine. This thick twine is from my gardening supplies and works well to simulate rope in craft projects. I used the piece of thick twine to tie knots around each ring, so that a piece of twine ran between each ring. To this twine I tied a piece of coordinating ribbon and a piece of both red and blue thin twine. I did the same thing with the ribbon & twine between each ring.

I still had the brown painted T and thought it would be fun to use it in an unexpected way. I used a large needle (from my Making Memories tool kit) to poke a hole in the T and loop blue twine through the hole. I used the ends of the blue twine to tie a red button onto the front of the T. I then used the loop to hang the T from my top bronze ring.

When I set up the album and stepped back to admire it. I was very happy that after using so many different techniques learned from so many sources had come together to create what I felt was a cohesive decorative project.

My friend loved her gift and I still can’t wait to help her place her 40th birthday party photos in the album. I plan to help her decided which photos to include and which sizes to print them in. We’ll get together soon to do the last part of this project. I want to print the photos in sepia tone and in various sizes to complement the Western themes and colors I have so carefully created. I’ll take photos of the finished project and share them with you soon!

Acrylic Album Class Coming Soon...

I'm excited to share my latest project with you! I've got photos of everything I worked on for the creation of my first acrylic album. I made this album as a 40th birthday present for my friend Teresa, who had a big barndance for her birthday party. In preparation, I looked all over the store for papers & embellishments that had a Western look. Some were from our farm section, but others were pulled from other places, including our clearance papers. At first it took me a while to get my head around this project. I was worried about how to put together the pages when you can see down into the album and through the back of each page. But once I started, the project got easier as I went along. I'm taking all my photos on my Thanksgiving trip to Medford and promise to return with a DIY acrylic album class so you won't be afraid to give this beautiful medium a try. Happy Thanksgiving!

Julie's 10 Minute Mini Album Class #4

For a few final touches, use some embellishments from your stash at home. Or find some in the bulk embellishment section at our store. I used a little orange chipboard flower from the Creative Cafe collection, and put a copper brad through the hole. I adhered this to my page with glue dots. And finally for a special touch on the inside pages, I picked some paper maple leaves from my collection and used a glue dot to add one to the corner of each page.

My album was finished in 10 minutes, I couldn't believe it! Such a cute gift in so little time for so little money! Adding these last embellishments did take me an extra 5 minutes after I got home from cropping at the store, but I think they're totally worth it!

I encourage everyone to give this project a try! It's so nice to have that great feeling of accomplishment in such a short time! So many projects in scrapbooking take so long to complete, that it's nice to have a little ego boost to inspire your creativity! And my mom really loved her own album of her Little Pumpkins!

Julie's 10 Minute Mini Album Class #3

Next, use your scissors to cut the ribbon into 12 4" lengths. Take each piece of ribbon and tie it around the hinged ring. There is no particular order for tying the ribbon, but I like to mix my textures and prints so that each ribbon is next to one totally different from itself.

Julie's 10 Minute Mini Album Class #2

After punching each page, use your corner rounder
to round the corners on each page.

Open your hinged ring and place each page onto the ring, with the cover on top.

Julie's 10 Minute Mini Album Class #1

(Please do not copy our photos or text and paste into another site or print them out. Instead, please pass on a link to our site to anyone who may find this online class useful. Thank you!)

This mini-album is a great gift idea and only took me 10 minutes to complete...after I chose my papers and photos. I used 8 wallet size photos for this project. I choose wallets as the size for my photos when I ordered them from the Costco Photo Center. Costco's wallets come 4 to a sheet and are 39 cents per sheet. So each photo is about 10 cents each and for the total cost of $3.12 (8 sheets of 4 photos each), you could make 4 of these mini albums to use for gifts. Next, I chose my papers. I looked at my photos for and thought about the theme I was trying to create and the common colors in each photo. Since these were all pumpkin patch photos, I looked for papers with a Fall theme. I chose double sided patterned papers, so that I could have a little more variety in my patterns and so that the back of each page would look as nice as the front. Another plus about double sided papers for this project, is that they are thicker than most one sided papers. My Fancy Pants papers were 89 cents each, and I chose 3 papers for a total of $2.67. You could choose just one paper for the whole album if you like and then the cost would be less. With my 3 sheets of paper, I would be able to make 3 more albums, using my extra photos. Next I chose a hinged ring to match my papers and hold the album together (75 cents). After completing the project, I did end up adding a few embellishments from my collection for a little extra flair. Feel free to add as many embellishments as you like to your album. To save money, look through your stash at home first and see if you have anything that might match your theme and then bring them to the store when you're ready to choose your papers. You might have everything you need or just need to add a few things from the bulk embellishments section. I also chose to add ribbon to the ring on my finished project. The ribbons I chose averaged about $1.00 per yard and for one album, I needed about 4 feet of ribbon, so the cost was approximately $1.33 per album. As far as adhesives, anything you use to adhere your photos in your albums will work fine on this project. I used a brown Zig marker to write my title on the cover and glue dots to adhere my embellishments. As far as tools, I used my scissors to trim my photos and my large Fiskars trimmer to cut the paper. I used a regular sized hole punch for the holes and a corner rounder to round each page.

My total for 4 mini albums to use as gifts is $14.11 for supplies (not including extra embellishments & adhesives). So the cost for each mini album works out to be about $3.53. I think these are wonderful gifts for moms, dads, grandmas & grandpas, aunt & uncles. Use this mini album format to showcase your kids, their hobbies, your pets, your travels and so many more wonderful events!

Let's get started!

First use your scissors to trim your 8 wallet size photos (2 1/2" x 3 1/2"). You can either trim them with a white border or trim off all the white. Next take your double sided patterned paper and cut 9 4" x 3" rectangles. The extra piece will be your album cover.

Experiment a little with your photos and each paper, lay each photo on the front & back of each paper, checking to see which mix you like. I laid mine all out on the table to see which order I wanted both the photos and the patterns to be in. But don't worry too much about this part! When you choose the papers to coordinate with your photos, you took care of the hard part! What takes the most time in scrapbooking is deciding what to do. So if you're looking for a quick project, try to not spend so much time worrying and spend more time getting the project done! You'll love it in the end and it will look great!

Use your choice of adhesive and mount the photos on the papers. Think of a cute title for your album and use a marker to write it on the cover. Next, take each rectangle and punch a hole in the corner. I punched one of the photo pages first and then held each of the next papers behind it, one at a time, using the first hole as my guide, to be sure my holes were all in the same place.

10 Minute Mini Album Class

This project was a last-minute idea of mine when I was working the crop last Friday night. I was making a pumpkin patch page with the kids' pictures. Since I was using wallet size photos printed from Costco, I had 3 extra of each picture. I was wondering what to do with the extras while I made my layout and an idea came to me. I could make a mini album for my mom that she could carry in her purse and share pictures of her grandkids with friends. I cut each wallet size photo with a white border and measured them. They were 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches and I had 8 of them. I looked around the store and found 3 sheets of double-sided, printed paper from Fancy Pants True Papers collection. I grabbed one copper hinged ring and a hole punch.

I'll finish the rest of this project post soon! :) -Julie

Bo Bunny Chipboard Album Class #5 - Ribbon, Ribbon & More Ribbon

On of the things I love about the Bo Bunny My Word albums is that I can go crazy with one of my favorite embellishments....RIBBON! I like to squeeze in some ribbon where ever I can, in my projects. For this album, I chose lot's of white background ribbons with dots & words like...party, celebrate, birthday. I also picked some lime green shimmery ribbon, a red sheer ribbon with a swirl pattern and a medium blue rick-rack. I don't have too much rhyme or reason to how I pick the ribbons. I usually grab all the ribbons I can find in the store that are coordinate with my paper and make a pile of them on the counter on top of the paper. I try to pick a variety....pattern, solid, printed, shaped (like the rick-rack). I think a bit of everything mixed together looks great in a project like this.

I buy about a yard & a half of each ribbon for a project like this. Next, I cut the ribbon in 4 inch pieces. Since there are 3 rings, I cut three 4 inch pieces. I use the rest of the ribbon to tie on the letters and to decorate the inside of the album. Take your 4 inch pieces and tie them, one at a time, onto the rings. Being a type A person, I divide my ribbon so that each ring has a piece of each ribbon. You can do it however you like, really, one can have too much organization in her life! I just tie the ribbon around the ring once, so that there aren't too many big knots taking up room on the ring and I like the ribbon ends to be a bit longer.

For my PARTY book, I used 7 different ribbons. The number is up to you. If I found wider coordinating ribbons, I would probably only use 5 or so. I think it really depends on how many ribbons you find that you like. As far as ribbon goes, I'm not a "less is more" kind of girl!

Bo Bunny Chipboard Album Class #4 - Painting the Edges

After you cut the excess paper from each letter, it's time to paint. Choose a paint color that runs through each page or one that coordinates with all of your papers. I use acrylic paint. I mix colors together to achieve the look I like. If you can't find a paint in a coordinating color, you might want to give mixing your own a try. If you aren't in to mixing, maybe black or brown would look nice with your paper, eliminating the extra step of mixing.

Instead of paint, you could use a small ink pad to ink the chipboard and paper edges. Personally, I like acrylic paint the best because an applicator sponge allows me to get into tight corners that an ink pad doesn't.

Once you have the paint you like, dip a paint applicator just barely into the paint. Touch the applicator to the edges of your letters, dragging it slowly along all the edges. I like a thin border of paint on the outside of my letters, so I just touch the applicator lightly along the edges. If you would like your border thicker, use a little more pressure when you drag your brush along the edges. After painting the edges, use the applicator along the inside edges of the letters with "holes" in them. (In this album, the P, A & R have inside edges)

Lay your letters on wax paper and wait for them to dry. Do be sure to look at both sides of the letter, so that you can be sure you have covered the chipboard edge up to the paper on both sides.

After the letters all dry, place the rings inside the holes and arrange your album. You can embellish the pages while the album is hooked together with the rings or take it apart for easier access.

Bo Bunny Chipboard Album Class #3 - Trimming the Paper

When you are finished with the front of each letter, the first letter should be ready for trimming. Take the letter & paper and lay them letter side up on a craft cutting mat. Use your craft knife to trim the excess paper from around the letter. Place the knife against the letter, press hard enough to cut through the paper and slowly drag your knife along the edge of the letter, as closely as you can to the letter. Don't worry if you accidentally cut off a little of the chipboard or if the paper tears slightly. We'll cover all the edges with paint later and no one will be able to tell.

Be sure to use your knife to cut out the paper covering the 3 holes in the end of each letter at this point.

Next, repeat the instructions in Class #2 for the back of each letter. Don't forget to remove the paper from the back sides of the 3 holes.