Finished Address Book Front and Back

Here is a close up view of the front title.

Here is a view of the back.

Here is how this project progressed:

I got this alterable address book from Oriental Trading. I’d never seen one and thought it would be great to have one that I decorated myself.

I had an idea about ‘quilting’ the front. All the fabric I have isn’t very bright colors so I thought about using paper.

It’s no secret that I absolutely love DCWV paper. Michaels was having a sale on their mat stacks so I picked up DCWV Citrus Matstack.

I went through the stack, and cut out 2 inch strips from each different paper in the book. I love how bright they are and they all coordinate with each other.

I then took those strips and cut them down again into 1 inch squares.  I tried to go even further with triangles, but when I started to lay them on the address book they just didn’t look right to me so I left the design at just 1 inch squares.

After placing the squares in the pattern of glittered, not glittered, glittered, not glittered that was all I planned on doing, but after I saw it it looked unfinished to me with just the paper on it. I thought it could use some sort of border. I looked through my ribbon, and found this white satin and thought i’d glue it on each seam so to speak.

I started by gluing the ribbon around the perimeter then decided to weave the cross sections so I glued the vertical ones inch by inch. As I was going down, I weaved the shorter width seams over and under and did that all the way down. Then I glued the rest of the perimeter. This picture is the back of the book.

I took this picture to showcase the paper a little more. Wanted to capture the glittering on every other piece.

This was an afterthought as well. I thought the book needed a title so I cut these letters using my cricut. Another bump, I thought i’d use white, but laying them on the book they blended in too much so instead of cutting out more, I just daubed over every letter with this scarlet color that matches the paper perfectly.

Here is the most major bump during this project!

Don’t leave your 4 year old alone too long. I swear this is what can happen in just 3 minutes!

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1. My order:  I had a free shipping coupon which is ALWAYS my motivation to find ‘something’ to buy so I ordered an assortment of nice stamp sets, blank card set, alterable address book, jewels, ATCs, acrylic sheets, metallic brads, tin boxes, alterable white cardboard cigar boxes and some plastic alterable checkbook covers.

2. Packaging / Order Fullfillment:  Everything was received that I ordered. Although not padded, the packaging was just fine as well. Nothing was too fragile that slipping around wouldn’t hurt it.

3. Quality and Expectations: The quality of the majority of items I ordered was as expected. Everything however had this oriental trading plastic over all of it and it just felt very dusty. It obviously or must have sat on shelves in a warehouse somewhere.  Not sure how particular you would be about these sort of things, but for me it just felt for lack of a better word ‘icky’.  I proceeded to remove all of this plastic though, and on most of the items the quality and condition was perfect.

Address book: I have altered this already, and will post my results soon. I do recommend this alterable. I’ve never seen these before and think it’s a great practical project

ATCs pre cut:  These are great. I thought getting precut ones will assist me in eliminating the ‘cutting’ step and making more of these when I’m having creative block.

Buttons:  I give OTC an A+ for the story behind these buttons.  When I initially placed my order with my free shipping code, I thought that these were added to my cart, but after my order confirmation came through I realized they were not in my cart and I had already used my free ship code. So I promptly contacted them over live chat (i love when sites have this. It’s instant customer service.) They said as a courtesy they would ship these out to me and honor the free ship code.  This was great customer service in my opinion.

I ADORE these buttons. Great colorful assortment. The product details said approx. 800 buttons (2lbs). I read some reviews on their site, and people were saying alot of theirs arrived broken. I only had 1 chipped button in the whole lot. Yes I did count them and they came out to approx. 793 buttons which is close enough in my book. 

Yes another picture for you to see the colors. they managed to grab just a great mixed assortment of sizes and colors. I don’t think 5 bucks was too bad for these…what do you think?

Jewels:  These had mixed reviews on their site. I had an idea to cover a lid with jewels in a pattern so thought i’d just get them. I wasn’t dissappointed like some people. the 1000 mini jewels are as expected…mini. Here is a pencil for size reference. The flowers, I definetly got on a whim. Also though that I could glue a jewel mini in the middle of these flower jewels which woould fit perfectly and add a little color to the tops of them.

Stamp Sets: These two stamp sets were pretty huge compared to large sets in stores. This monogram acrylic stamp set was $5 but I thought would be great to personalize gifts or cards.

I think one can never have too many different fonts of ‘birthday’ which is of course the type of cards that one would make the most. This is a cute set where you can build cupcakes, or cakes, with toppers, and text.  Thought this would be great to stamp, color, cut out, and build onto a card front with dimensional adhesives. Can’t wait to try these. Will post my results when I complete one.

Alterable White Cigar Boxes: Okay, here is a definetly word of advice, on some of the items that got not good reviews, I bought anyway and liked what I received like the jewels and the buttons. However, these boxes I ‘wish’ I would have paid attention and weighed the amount of ‘good’ reviews vs. ‘bad’ reviews. I think this one definetly had more ‘bad’ reviews than good, but they were so cheap and on sale ($1.50 for set of 3 sizes) that I’d give them a try.  Well, they looked exactly the way people described. Spines broken, messy glue inside. Yes they are alterable and most of this would be covered, but I didn’t even like the way the lids fit on the top. They were skewed and some of the white paper was so tight, they didn’t go all the way down. Just not a good purchase. I did manage to find a use for them though…you know the photo I setup and took of my japanese bookbinding technique? These boxes I used to prop up the two on the sides underneath the fabric. Oh well.

Overall: I am only giving them 3 out of 5.  I loved customer service, and the majority of the items I received were in great condition and what I expected. However, the downside was the ‘dusty’ warehouse feeling all of the items had, and offering a subpar product like the cigar boxes, most retailers wouldn’t even stock something like that.  I would probably only order from them again if I needed more of those buttons, or some other theme party supply and had another free shipping code.

This is just my opinion on my experience with OTC. Your experience might not be the same. I think it’s important to look for other reviews and make up your mind based on more than just my review. I am in no way affiliated with any of the shops I review. I am just doing this to share with others my own experiences.

Hope this review helps. I definetly recommend looking into other reviews before you make your decision since this was just my one experience with them.

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For me here is what my answers said about me:

Creativity is a release

For you, creativity is first and foremost a form of expression: it creates a special link between the internal and external worlds. It allows you to get a grasp of your powerful emotions, by moulding them into a physical form. In fact, the most important thing for you is to be able to release your emotions. You need to be able to touch them or look at them in concrete form, and to do that you have to find a way to make them come alive. This is how your desires and anxieties take shape. Keeping things bottled up creates a tension that can only be resolved once you have expressed how you feel. This means you have to be strong enough not to let yourself get swept away by chaotic impulses; if you turn your creative urges on everyday life — making a picnic, singing to the baby, choosing what to wear — you can express yourself while staying rooted in reality. Creativity is principally cathartic. It relieves a deep need, an almost primal, archaic impulse. For you, being creative is about having the power to give form to something you feel, to those deep personal issues that are often raw and disorganised. For these reasons you are usually attracted to art that demands physicality, that allows you to express what’s inside, and that unites spontaneity, strength, freedom, power and movement.

I like the part where it says I like taking ideas and making then tangible THAT is definetly true.  Not sure about the emotional release thing though…I’ve never bawled while making a bookmark. 

Here is what it is to date:

I thought I’d put 10 per row, 11 rows. I forgot to add a block per even rows (11) so that adds another block away from the bottom. The way this is now, I’d only have 3 more rows to go if I stick to my original plan of 11 rows.  But seeing it now, That won’t be long enough for even a throw so I might have more work ahead of me. Possibly 8 more rows ahead of me. Luckily I have the room on my batting to achieve this I think.

I also was curious how the fabrics I chose would work together knowingly repeating the same fabrics in blocks. I love patchwork and I think it’s definetly the look I was going for in seeing it now.

The light diamond at the top, then the ‘middle’ color on the left, and the darker color on the right.  This picture makes it look like an optical illusion. Do the top of the blocks go up or down, left or right when you look at it?

I found this batting at a yard sale years and years ago when I just started making this quilt. I’m pretty sure I remember the lady telling me at the yard sale that I wouldn’t need to put a backing fabric on my quilt since this already had it. I didn’t know what that meant at the time. Knowing what I know now, I think I may still have to because I’m not sure I like the seam where she had sewn two pieces of this batting together down the middle. It would show on the back I think alot. I’d rather have a solid piece of fabric.

Now, my next step is to figure out how I’m going to edge it. I want to keep the shape of it (not make it a square) but that I’ll have to figure out when that time comes.  Will update as I progress!

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The books are 4.25 x 5.5 in size. The paper inside was some 24lb copy paper in yellow, pink, and white. The covers come from various scrapbooking paper I had on hand. The string I also just happen to have had on hand (got at a yard sale probably about 10 years ago…wow.) but I’ve learned that embroidery floss could also be used.

This one has yellow paper inside, and this heavier cardstock cover came from DCWV Mango Tango Mat Stack. The string is off white.

This one has the white paper inside, and this heavier cardstock cover came also from DCWV Mango Tango Mat Stack. The string is a turquoise color.

This one has the pink paper inside. I love pink and grey together. This heavier cardstock cover is a metallic silver paper which I love to emboss because it makes it look like real metal to me. I used a Cuttlebug Embossing folder ‘Cherry Blossoms’ from the 4 pack set called ‘Plum Blossom’.  The string I just found in my stash that had a really soft feel to it (not sure what it is made off) and it was off white.

Here is the progress of  how I did it:

First, I cut my paper and cover. I wanted the least waste possible, so made the books from 8.5 x 11 paper cut down to 4.25 x 5.5. Each book has about 30 pages inside.

I marked my holes with a paper guide that I measured and marked, at each half inch mark and layered it on top of my book when I punched the 1/8 inch. holes. I was able to then use this same guide for the other two books.

To punch the holes, I used my recently purchased Crop A Dile II that worked well for this purpose. I’m not sure if your actually ‘supposed’ to punch through as many layers that I did, but it seemed to work fine.

For all three spines, I used the basic stitch pattern. There are other more intricate patterns, but I thought for starters I would use this one.

All in all, I really enjoyed making them, and like I said a great use for paper I had on hand that otherwise, was just sitting in my storage area taking up space. 

Photography Testing…

Not sure if you noticed, but this time I tried a more ‘staged’ look to my photos. I’ve seen this on other sites, and really like how it featured what was made alittle better. One thing I need to remember is to throw my fabric in the dryer for a bit to get those fold marks out.  I took with the candle stick and without, and it’s obvious which I preferred. It seemed to just add ‘something’.

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This stamp I found in the dollar bin at Michaels, Versamark Scarlet red and I colored it in with matching Berol Prismamarkers.

By the way this was  my first use of my laminator!   eh hem…it’s the little things in life….

Two musicians from one of my all time favorite band “Eleven” wrote the song. I learned that after I heard the song for the first time and loved it.

Enjoy!

Here is my first ATC. Called ‘Smile’.

I like the colors and the paper.  In looking at it now after a couple hours since I made it, I wish I wouldn’t have been so random with the way I layed out the paisley shapes still I’m happy enough with it to share it on my blog. Again there is no wrong way to make an ATC. Some will be better than others. I will definetly be making more.

Here are the pieces that I worked with.

Die Cuts With A View Paper (my favorite brand of paper) Mango Frost Design and Solid Paper is what I used.

I got this EK Success punch at AC Moores on Clearance. This is the first time I used it.

I liked the shape and thought I could some how fit them all together in an interesting layout either like a fan or a flower.

The Smile came from one of my cricut cartridges that I was testing cutting some of the shapes out. Luckily I cut the perfect size for an ATC.

I took from Mango Frost Solid Stack, the blue shimmering paper for the base of the card and covered my black chipboard with it.

I took the smile cut out and inked it with Antique Linen Ink to give it some dimension.

I’ll give my card a 3 out of 5 stars.  I think I could do better but here’s to learning from first tries!

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Here is the process of how I made it:

I used the Inkadinkado Mod Birthday Wood stamp for the sentiment and then made a frame with my Spellbinders nestabilities Standard Circle Large set
 

I thought that I needed shapes to fit the motif of the stamp, and I just love circles so instead of stars i played on more of the circle elements of the stamp design and used my 2 inch fiskars, 1 1/2 inch EK Success, and 1 inch fiskars circle punches to make the circle shapes.
 

It needed little circles to fill in some of the blank spaces, so I thought i’d hole punch some of the paper, then I needed dimensional dots that small, so just cut a strip off the side and cut that into little tiny pieces to pop out the little circle shapes. 

Then it was just a matter of trying to place them on the card in some sort of way that made sense. Tried to balance the color, and the different shapes on the card but I didn’t want to have them go inside the frame. That was just for the stamp.

I stamped with Stazon Jet Black for contrast to all the colors. This was going to be it, but as you saw above, I needed some circles to fill in all the blank white spaces and the little circles really did the trick as you can see on the final card again below.
 

So far, this is my third card, and so far I think I’ve learned that my cards come out better when I have a concrete idea as to what I want. A little planning and waiting until I have a complete vision for my card seems to make them a better. 

Here are the details for this card: 

- Size: 7 x 5.5 (roughly. I measured it for a sleeve I made for it but  never wrote it down. 

- Mod Birthday Wooden Rubber Stamp by Inkadinkado 

- Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large 

- 2 inch Fiskars Circle Punch (Extra Large)

- 1 1/2 Inch EK Success Circle Punch 

- 1 Inch Fiskars Circle Punch (Medium)

- Regular office hole punch 

- Dimensional Adhesive 

 - Stazon Jet Black Ink

Here is the breakdown of price ranges, total items and cost before shipping.

Packaging
Just well done. The box wasn’t damaged in any way so UPS seemed to do a good job. The items were stacked neatly inside with brown packing paper to fill the rest of the box to avoid alot of movement to damage the items during shipping.

Here is how the package arrived.

Speed of delivery
I ordered my items on Friday by about 1:30pm and they arrived Tuesday so their policy of ship by 1 business day appears to be true in my case. In comparison to other online stores though, it feels a bit like your flying blind with no tracking number but if they can consistantly ship like they did with my first order, I feel like I am going to be friends with them a long time.

Dollar items

Got two packs of these small tiles. Thought they were a unique accent for a page.

Birthstone sticker gems in two sizes, and some mini gems for accenting.

I do not need anymore plain buttons, these had interesting colors and designs on them and for a buck thought they would be a great addition.

Product Details
In checking some of the items that didn’t meet my expectations, it wasn’t really scrapbucks fault. For example, the fox and panda studded stickers that I love are smaller than I expected. I didn’t pay attention to the dimensions that are in the product details on the site.

Fox and Panda studded stickers. I thought they would be bigger than this but that is my fault for not looking at the dimensions that ARE clearly in the product details for these. I still think they are adorable and I can definetly see them being used on a kids page.

The shiny paper, (that you can see farther down in the pictures) I thought was ‘metallic’. Instead it was high gloss. I have some uses already in mind for that but again it wasn’t what I was expecting but that was really my terminology vs. Best Occasions Brands description.

Dimensional Squares and strips, which i have never seen before. Also some halloween themed alphas and a couple phrases.

Velvet and foil flourishes, watercolor cherry stickers (these match some cherry coasters I bought to make a mini book with), some vellum alphabets. All for $1 a piece.

$1.50 items

More alphabets, and my new favorite thing I am stocking up on are epoxy stickers. I love the glassy appearance of them.

See through phrase tags.

Butterflies, Epoxy lollipops, Halloween stickers with googly eyes. And they are good names too K& Company, Jolees by EK Success.

Gorgeous epoxy floral stickers from K & Company.

Vintage Looking Dimensional Alphabets. Thought they would work great in a Shadowbox idea I have.

I really need more phrases so thought these fit the bill and I love the color scheme.

I have never heard of Forever In Time but they have some really pretty stickers. These too were $1.50.

Yes, more alphabets. These are a mixture of paper and foil and there is 64 pieces in all. For 2.50

Prices & Shipping
There are alot of dollar sticker racks at walmart and target now, but to save me a trip to those stores, for a limited line of products vs. being able to order those same dollar stickers and alphabets at a dollar and 1.50 a piece from the comfort of my own home, I’d go with the latter. The prices are good and fair, the only thing though is I would really wait to order again until I need 50 or 60 dollars worth of things. Mainly because the shipping is high at $7.99. I couldn’t see ordering 20 dollars worth and paying the flat rate again. Another thing would be to order with a friend so that you could split the shipping with them when ordering alot. That would be fair.

Here are the paper packs, chipboard and alphas. From top to bottom, The Colorbok noctourne pack has 395 punchouts, the next is the shiny paper which is a heavy high gloss paper not metallic like i thought, the next is the 40 paper pack, the next is the 100 pack. Finally the last is a prismatic alpha set that i have the matching prismatic paper for. I am on the fence with my choices here. It probably is best in general to see paper in person before you buy so you know what your getting for sure. Still i

Conclusion
I’m left with the feeling that I would definetly order from them again. Like I said before though, I would probably either order with someone to split the shipping with, or wait until I really need 50 dollars worth again (which could be a while my sticker binder is ‘really’ full now! Ahhh what a comforting feeling.

I give Scrapbuck.com 5 out of 5 Craft Scissors. Scissors are a necessity of crafting...another necessity is low cost supplies that allow us to keep crafting affordably and in my estimation scrapbuck.com delivers.

www.ScrapBuck.com

One Important Final Note About my Review
I’ve seen other disclaimers on reviews that I thought i should include my own here. My experience here might not necessarily be what you experience. I am just sharing what I’ve learned through this process. So you can take this as just another review reference as to whether or not you would like to order from them. These are my opinions expressed for the sole purpose to share my experience with others. I am in no way affiliated with scrapbuck in anyway but a recent first time customer.

Thanks so much for visiting!