My favorite tool as of late has been this nifty thing called a Bind-it-All.
Simply put, it is a little personal bookbinder - it punches holes in paper and chipboard (or even plastic and CD's if you're feeling adventurous), and binds them with wire coils. The books look just like the professionally made notebooks and journals with the wire bindings that you see at bookstores and stationery shops. Very cool. Besides making your own scrapbooks in any size you like, you can bind your own cookbooks, journals, kids' artwork, etc. - the possibilities are limitless!I wanted to show what you could do with it, so I took pictures of a book I made this week for a friend's birthday. She's an avid gardener, so I decided to design her a gardening journal where she can sketch designs, take notes and keep photos. I love how it turned out - I was able to incorporate a bunch of different papers of my choosing. For the covers, I covered pieces of chipboard with patterned paper on both sides, and then punched the holes with the BIA:
I used some paper from the brand new American Crafts Metropolitan line (loving this line!) and the LilyKate collection from Basic Grey. One of my favorite elements was the scalloped tag - I stamped a tag from Sassafras Lass' Fancy Schmancy Tags clear stamp set onto graph paper and cut around the edges- so cute! The dividers were fairly simple - just used some of those tiny boho letters (see previous post) and some ledger journaling spots from Heidi Swapp, along with little Prima flowers.
I've already got ideas for at least 2 more projects in the near term using the BIA - I'm itching to make a mini brag book to showcase little 3x4" photos!
I carry the Bind-it-All as well as the owire bindings and chipboard accessories at my ebay store - check it out - I highly recommend it!!
