I saw this tutorial for bookends and I immediately thought of scrapbook paper. The colors in this kit were so gorgeous, so I decided to give it a try. This project is so simple you won’t believe it.

Supplies:
2 Concrete Bricks (Home Depot has these for 35 cents.)
Kraft Wrapping Paper
Patterned Paper
Sewing Machine (optional)
Adhesive

1. Wrap the bricks with the kraft much like you would a present. Make sharp creases on all of the edges. See…

2. Cut 14 1 inch x 12 inch strips or enough to cover the height of the brick with a little room left over. I then sewed mine together with a zig zag stitch on my machine – that’s optional.

3. Adhere strips around wrapped brick (they will most likely not meet in the back.) Make sharp creases at the corners.

4. At this point you could embellish the front with words, alphabets or other embellishments. I’m a simple gal so I left them plain.

Install on a shelf – beautiful! If you make them, please link me up I’d love to see!

How that is related to scrapbooking, you ask?…Well, I knew when I got Elementary the Sept. Kenner Road kit and saw the Cosmo Cricket Fitting In paper and The Boyfriend Chipboard clothesline that I wanted to make a sign for my laundry room.

I, of course, love the vintage look and the Jillibean Soup corrugated letters  reminded me of the texture of the old laundry washing boards..with that same rippled look.

So, a laundry sign was born but not just any laundry sign…..but because my husband and I have a bit of a wicked sense of humor and laundry is such an arduous task, I decided to make a funny sign. I had saved the vintage flashcard from the kit for a special project, my word was “some”…so I worked that into my sign.

I have a collection of old clothespins, that really I have used quite often in crafting projects, they have come in quite handy.  I used a very cheap frame from Ikea, painted it black with a bit of chippy red…scraped it up a bit and sanded it smooth.

The rest is quite easy to figure out.

My husband thought it was quite funny but alas, nobody heeded my call and did my laundry…oh well, there is always tomorrow!

~Katie

hey there!

this month’s theme of summer reminded me that i have a few summer getaways coming up and every year i try to remember to either make or buy a little notebook to keep with me when i travel. next week we are heading to a wedding in florida, after i’ll be heading to cha, and then later in the summer is our annual trip to cape cod. i use little notebooks to keep track of everything from items i saw that i liked, grocery lists, books i want to read, phone numbers/emails of friends i met, to memory joggers for journaling on my pages later.

this year I decided to make a little vacation jotter using the july kit.

you’ll need:

• your july kit and add-ons
• chipboard (you can use cereal boxes for this)
• 3×5 index cards – you can purchase these blank and lined in either direction
• larger index cards to cut if you plan on making the bingo cover
• a cropodile or standard hole punch
• binder rings (you can get these at an office supply store)
• large eyelets
• gel medium (or other adhesive such as mod podge)
• the corner chomper or a standard corner rounder
• brayer or bone folder

Directions

1. using your cutter or scissors cut two 3×5 inch chipboard pieces.
2. cut a piece of patterned paper to 3×5 inches. apply gel medium to the chipboard and adhere the paper. use a clean brayer or a bone folder to get rid of any wrinkles. do the same to the other piece of chipboard. let dry then cover the back sides of the chipboard as well. let dry overnight.
3. round all four corners of 30 index cards. i used my we r memory keepers corner chomper which allowed me to do a lot at once. you can use a standard corner rounder it will just take a little longer.
4. round all four corners of the two pieces of chipboard. if your standard corner rounder won’t cut through, trace the corners using one of your index cards as a template and use a craft knife or scissors to round the corner.
5. decide which piece of the covered chipboard will be the front and which side will face the back.
6. using your cropadile, punch one or two holes in the top edge of the chipboard pieces. the location of the holes will be determined by the lines on your index cards. (for one hole I’d punch the top left.) be sure to line up the holes on both pieces. i added large eyelets to mine so the ring would slide through easily.
7. using the cover as a template mark a small stack of index cards and punch through using the cropadile – continue until all of the index cards are punched.
8. add rings through the punched holes and add embellishments to the front cover as desired.

you can vary the size of these jotters, use fabric to cover them, use graph paper or other paper for the sheets, and really make them your own. if you make one of these, be sure to link me up!  have fun!

samantha s! we love how she switched it up and created a wall hanging, but it was the sweet and ingenious use of milk caps as her scallop border that really caught our eye! samantha, send us an email {info (at) kenner road (dot) com} and we’ll get your all in a row kit out asap.

thanks so much everyone for playing along and linking us to your creations! look for a new challenge in june with another chance to win :)

xo – the kenner road team

just a picture of part of the sneak peek newsletter that went out a few days ago. newsletter subscribers also received a little hint about our news for april. something about kr exclusive and product.

happy thursday! xo

It’s almost that time, our January kits go live tonight at midnight est {9pm pst}. But until then leave a comment here and we will pick a winner on the 20th to receive these sweet ‘Love Notes’ goodies from Making Memories.

oh. and the newest newsletter has gone out which includes a little introduction to our next guest designer. if you don’t receive it you can view it here. however, you can also sign-up here so you don’t miss out on any of our announcements, giveaways or kit sneak peeks.

xo