V. Paperie June 2017

This box from V.Paperie had an interesting theme: Create for you!

Once you open the tissue paper you are bombarded with bright beautiful colours.

The reason for the box is the greeting cards and that is where I'm going to start. There are three cards by V.Paperie, one says "Happy Father's Day", the second says "Happy Birthday" and the third has no sentiment which means it can be used for any occasion. The fourth one though is the most interesting to me. It is a "Create Your Own Card" sort of thing so I can't wait to turn it into a project. I tried to find out the cost for these specific cards but couldn't find them anywhere so I looked for similar ones. They range between 2 and 6 dollars so I decided to go for the middle road of 3 dollars each: approximate cost for all four is 12 dollars.

Next up is a small sketchbook. The paper is pretty sturdy and its size is 5.2in x 4in. Again I could not find a price for this specific one but I found something similar for around 3 to 5 dollars.

I think this next item is my favourite of the whole box. It is Johanna Basford's Secret Garden colouring book but instead of pages, it is actually 20 postcards that you can colour yourself and send.  This book costs 4.97 new on Amazon.com. 

My second favourite item in the box and the final one is a bundle of markers. These are BAZIC 12 Fine Line Washable Watercolor Markers. They are conical tipped which means you can draw fine lines and they are water-based and bleed resistant. On Amazon.com they cost 4.33 dollars. 

The box almost comes up to 25 dollars, which is what I paid for it. I like this box more than I liked last month's offerings. 

Cuttlebugs and Xyrons, OH MY!!!

          I wasn't sure if I was going to write about cardmaking. Do people really want to know about this stuff? In the end, I decided...oh well, might as well do it I already wrote about bookbinding.

          I've always loved writing snail mail and part of that was making my own stationary and cards. For the most part, I used markers, stamps and stencils.  After a while, I got bored. I needed to shake things up and so off to YouTube I went. I found the world of embossing and adding dimension to cards by having raised parts. I did my research on the machines that do that and finally settled on two machines: the Cricut Cuttlebug and the Xyron Create a Sticker. The Cuttlebug embosses and cuts shapes while the Xyron makes stickers out of anything. I'm going to tell you a bit about each and then show you what I did with them so far.

1. Cricut Cuttlebug: (From Amazon.com) "The Circuit Cuttlebug die Cutting and embossing machine offers a versatile and portable option for Cutting and embossing a wide variety of materials. The only machine that can emboss, the Cuttlebug gives professional-looking results with clean, crisp cuts and deep, even embosses. It works with the entire line of Cuttlebug embossing folders and Cutting dies. It's also compatible with most leading folders and dies. Go beyond paper and cut and emboss materials including tissue paper, foils, acetate ribbon, thin leather, and more."

2. Xyron Create a Sticker Max: (From the manufacturer) "Making your own stickers is as easy as turning the knob. The Xyron XRN500 Create-a-Sticker applies an even layer of adhesive to the back of any flat item up to 5 inches wide. Use it instead of glue dots, household glue, glue sticks or other adhesives."

          So the Cricut Cuttlebug comes with an embossing folder and a die cut that says Thank You. I decided to use what came with the machine before I went all out and bought different dies and embossing folders. I wanted to see how easy it was to use and whether or not it really is as useful as it seemed on the internet. Well...I tried it out, then I used the Xyron to make parts of the card into stickers to stick on the base card (I like to build cards in layers).

          Without further ado here is what I came up with, the white part of the card I did with the embossing folder and I coloured the Thank You using some alcohol markers. The Thank You and the white part I ran through the Xyron machine and then stuck them on some black cardstock that I had in my stash.

          I'm very happy with how these simple cards came out and I've ordered some new dies and embossing folders. We'll see how that turns out. As to the Xyron, that has seen a lot of action in my Omni journal where I'll turn elements that I want to stick into my journal into stickers and add them. I love both these machines!