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Great Gift Ideas

This year’s holiday season is sneaking up on us–and paper crafters know how quickly these next couple months can fly by. Take the stress out of the holidays and get a head start on your projects now!

This month, Sara brings you two great holiday gift ideas that you can personalize for the lucky recipient: A CD sarabinder™ for the music lover and a sweet sarabook™ for your close family and friends. Read on for instructions and tips–happy holiday paper crafting!

My CDs sarabinder™
By Sara Naumann



Click here for larger image.

Sara’s tip: Take advantage of the glossy surface on Super-Size Slide Mounts with alcohol inks! The glossy side doesn’t absorb the ink like a porous paper does, so you have lots of time to blend different colors or different amounts of ink together for a cool watercolor-like effect. You can use the applicator tool to apply alcohol ink to the slide mount, or simply apply drops of the ink directly to the surface.

Supplies:

Instructions:

  1. Use the ink applicator to cover the spine, back cover and 1/2" of the front cover of the binder with stream alcohol ink and let dry. Cut a 3 1/2”x5 3/4” piece of blue dots with words paper. Glue the paper to the front of the binder, aligning it against the straight edge of the spine. Ink the edges and the spine of the binder with black. Cut a 4”x5 3/4” piece of multi stripe paper so the stripes run vertically. Tear along the long left edge of the paper, then ink the torn edge with black. Glue the paper over the right side of the front of the binder, overlapping the right side of the blue dots with words paper.
  2. Wrap a long length of black grosgrain ribbon horizontally around the middle of the binder, leaving long tails. Attach the ribbon to the surface of the binder with Glue Dots™.
  3. Place one Super-Size Slide Mount glossy side up on a work surface. Use the ink applicator to apply stream and butterscotch alcohol inks to the glossy surface of the slide mount. Apply one color at a time and let the inks run together to achieve a “bloom” effect. When dry, ink the edges of the slide mount with black. Cut a 3” square piece of tan cardstock and use alphabet stamps and black ink to stamp “my CDs” onto the cardstock. Frame the stamped cardstock in the window of the inked slide mount, positioning the phrase so it is in the bottom right corner of the window. Glue the slide mount in the center of the binder, overlapping the ribbon strip.
  4. Fill the binder with dividers and pockets to store CDs, then close the binder and tie the loose ribbon tails into a shoestring bow to secure shut.

Words of Inspiration sarabook™
By Sara Naumann



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Sara’s tip: Repetition is a great design element to explore when trying to achieve visual balance. On this sarabook™, I glued a piece of dotted magic mesh to the bottom of the cover, but I also repeated the dotted pattern throughout the cover on various papers. How? I just placed a piece of dotted magic mesh over my papers, then rubbed decorating chalk over it. The chalk will go through the holes in the magic mesh, transferring the dotted pattern onto the paper underneath.

Supplies:

Instructions:

  1. Cover the front of the blank book with dark brown texture paper. Use a 5/16” hole punch to punch three holes in the paper where the pre-drilled holes are on the blank book cover.
  2. Cut a 5” piece of dotted magic mesh and glue it across the bottom of the cover, 1/4” up from the bottom edge. Cut a 4 3/8”x5” piece of ivory marbled paper and ink the edges with black. Lay a piece of dotted magic mesh over the top edge of the marbled paper, then rub pink decorating chalk over the mesh to transfer a pink dotted pattern along the top of the marbled paper. Repeat along the bottom edge.
  3. Cut a 4 3/8”x 4 1/4” piece of tan vellum. Crumple the vellum, then smooth out and lightly ink the surface with black. Glue the vellum centered on the ivory marbled paper. Computer journal “Words of Inspiration” onto tan parchment paper, then crop to 3 3/4”x3 1/2” and ink the edges with black. Lay a piece of dotted magic mesh over the bottom of the tan parchment paper, then rub pink decorating chalk over the mesh to transfer the dotted pattern. Glue the tan parchment centered on the tan vellum.
  4. Cut a 6 1/2” length of pink with brown stitching ribbon and lay it down the left side of the layered papers, overlapping the left edge of the journaled tan parchment. Wrap the top end of the ribbon over the top edge of the ivory marbled paper and secure on the back, then cut the loose bottom end of the ribbon at an angle. Glue the layered papers centered on the front of the book. Attach the three black flowers in the bottom left corner of the journaling, overlapping the pink ribbon strip.
  5. Cut three 8” lengths of brown “V” twill. Tie one length in each of the holes at the top of the book to bind the cover and pages together, then decorate the inside pages as desired.