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!

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!

lisa truesdell

every month i feel like i am completely overwhelmed by the work that our guest designer and the creative team turn in. every. single. month. and this month, with the fabulous lisa joining us i was giddy as the pictures started flooding in last week. absolutely giddy!

as always, here’s my personal favorites. make sure you check out each and every gallery as all of the work is phenomenal. and make sure you check the end of this post for our reveal night giveaway winners… there are 5 extremely lucky winners!!

debee

dina

gigi

jessi

katie

lisa

our 5 reveal night donna downey canvas kit winners are :

144. LouAnn Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 6:37 pm edit

164. AllyW Says:
June 15th, 2009 at 7:04 am edit

73. Cathy B Says:
June 13th, 2009 at 8:24 am edit

116. takako Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 4:55 am edit

68. tina Says:
June 13th, 2009 at 7:35 am edit

send me your contact information {info@kennerroad.com} and we’ll get these out to you asap!

happy tuesday!

Leave a comment in this post to enter to win one of five donna downey for prima fabric albums and fabric house embellishment kits. Contest ends monday, June 15th at midnight Pacific. International entries are always welcomed of course ;). Lucky winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 16th.

for those of you who missed out on our june newsletter make sure you check it out {{here}}. we’ve got some special news about our june gift with purchase {they’re fuzzy and oh so cute} as well as our new reveal night chat party beginning on sunday night, june 14th at 8pm pacific because, we may not have a live forum, but we still like to gab.

and please don’t miss lisa’s post below. she’s got the cutest friendship challenge for you that includes a mini embellishment stash giveaway that would make anyone swoon. ;)

yep. we love our customers ;)

xoxo

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

I like that this month our blog projects are based around a ‘friendship’ theme.  I think friends are a really important aspect of our lives, especially women’s lives.  We always have our tried and true friends but every day there are opportunities to meet new friends.  Sometimes though, you have to reach out.  Just a little bit and sometimes a whole lot…it’s worth it though as you never know what type of potential friend is just waiting for you to make the first move.

Something that comes to mind for me is ‘new neighbors’….I tend to always be the new neighbor.  We are a military family and have graced more new neighborhoods then I have friends. :)  I have had neighborhoods where NOT a soul welcomed me.  No acknowledgement or greeting.  I have also had neighborhoods where neighbors have come out of their homes and welcomed us with open arms.  Some with brownies or lists of good places to go around the area.  Some of my best friends have been neighbors.

We’ve had many a beer tasting parties, chili cook offs, 4th of July, Cinco De Maya BBQs  etc have been had in those neighborhoods.  I miss those good days.

Well, we are about to be new to another neighborhood.  I’m nervous and hoping that this is a friendly neighborhood.  So here’s to lots of cookouts and mad games of Spades.

So, the thought of how to welcome a neighbor to the neighborhood became my focus for this blog post.  Not just the offering of help and time but a little crafty gift.  My first idea was to make a little “welcome to the neighborhood” sign, but then realized…”how long can they keep that up?” and instead decided to do something that could be used as a home decor piece for as long as they wanted to or worst case scenario, could be easily re-gifted.  I’m practical like that.

I used mostly the May kit on this project, I pulled in a couple of extras into it for added effect.  I made a little wall hanging, using the chubby little bird stamp that came in the May kit (exclusive to Kenner Road btw).  I added a quick note on the back to the recipient.

I used a leftover chipboard page from a mini album for my base and a wood cut out banner for the top.  I used a crackle glaze for the top of the sticker letters to add a little shine and personality. I also used lots of pop dots to add some depth to the piece.

Thanks for checking out my blog post!

Have a great week!

~Katie Watson

You may have noticed by now that there is definitely a theme that we {the creative team} are working through on the blog this month. When I began developing the Constant Companion kit for May I really kept thinking about friendship, and I love that Jessi’s post on monday was focused around being a good samaritan, something that I believe can really make a difference in the world.

One of the things that i love doing for my friends is giving gifts that are a reflection of who they are and what they love. What i don’t love about gift giving is the price of gift cards and gift wrap. I {like alot of you I am sure…} have really made a focus over the last few years to be as green as i am able and I really believe that giving gifts doesn’t have to incorporate alot of wrapping or cost, it just requires some ingenuity and some personal focus on who your giftee is, and your scraps are perfect for creating quick and beautiful gift tags.

One of our friends recently made a move into a new house and I think there is nothing better as a housewarming present as a fabulous bottle of wine. Once those boxes are unpacked, or during if you’re like me ;), it’s nice to know there is something to savor for all of that hardwork and schlepping of boxes.

This gift tag took all of two minutes to create. I just stacked some of the Sassafras Lass chipboard frames from the May sweet dreams add-on kit and then added some paper {the striped pattern is from the rub-ons packaging} and a “welcome home” rub-on. Then I cut a slit in the top and thread the ribbon through and tied it around the wine bottle. Simple and very quick.

Another friend is expecting a baby in a few months and i found this adorable vintage baby lap quilt at the thrift store last week. I wanted to give it to her wrapped pretty, but I definitely didn’t want to waste a lot of paper on gift wrap. So I folded it accordian style and along with some vintage seam binding I added a bright and cheerful vintage style tag.

To create the gift tag I used some paper scraps from a few of the May kits and added them to the bingo card in the Mister Mister add-on kit. Then I stacked one of the October Afternoon Wild Cards on top with pop dots and added another Sassafras Lass chipboard piece with the “handmade” stamps from the Sweet Dreams kit {again, I used pop dots}. I love that the tag is bright and cheerful but it definitely has a vintage vibe that goes perfect with the quilt.

Here’s to new beginnings on life and home and hopefully next time you need a little tag or card for a gift you’ll turn to your stash. I know the recipient will love that you took the extra effort to create something personable for them, I always do.

happy friday!

ps : sneak peeks are sunday … any guesses on what’s coming next? ;)

today we have a fun sketch challenge provided by our sweet and amazing guest designer joleen.  simply use the sketch to create any layout, project, card or more. post your creation on your blog or in a gallery or our flickr group and then link it up here in the comments section {so we can see & chose a winner} and you can win the sold out all in a row kit from our may release.

projects must be linked here by june 7th at 9pm pacific. winner will be announced on wednesday june 10th. and our international friends are welcome to join in. :)

and make sure you check what the kenner road creative team did below, with joleen’s sketch, for some extra inspiration.

joleen

dina

gigi

jessi

kl

lisa

happy wednesday!

xo

121. April Hall Says:
May 15th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
This is such an AWESOME set! Thanks for the opportunity!

april, send me an email and we’ll get the package out to you asap.

happy saturday!

xo

Leave a comment in this post to enter to win this breathtakingly beautiful porcelain kit from Basic Grey. Contest ends at midnight Friday, May 15th Pacific. International entries are welcomed of course ;). Lucky winner will be announced on Saturday, May 16th.

and don’t miss the post below. we’re giving away a mini vintage add-on kit with every add-on kit purchase during the may reveal.

yep. we love our customers ;)