Coredinations Blog Hop Extravaganza

Only one week has pass since our last blog hop,and here we go again :)

XYRON has teamed up with one of my favourite cardstock companies-Coredinations for another fun hop- YEY

After having some thought on the project I want to make this time,and knowing how great core cardstock is both quality and diversity wise, I knew what I wanted to do- I'll be making a

 Coptic stitch Sketch book/ Photo Album using color core cardstock for the signatures of the book .

To make a coptic stitched book you'll need-

• 16 sheets of Coredinations color-core cardstock - signature series light and dark each folded in half and divided into groups of 4
• Chipboard or Cereal box cut to size of single segment 
• 3 Patterned card stocks - 2 for the cover and one for the cover lining
• XYRON Creatopia Machine w/ perm. adhesive cartridge
• XYRON glue stick for corners
• Drill
• Waxed Thread at least 10 times larger than the length of your book
• Needle

*I'm going to show you how I made and decorated the cover of my Album/Sketchbook only.

If you'd like to learn how to bind your book,there are many  FABULOUS tutorials by Sea Lemon here

Let's starts

First of, gather your supplies...

For the cover of my book,I'm going to use Lily bee design Destination line  patterned cardstock which was soooo PERFECT for me as the line carries a sheet named  "Destination Landmark" (Landmark-DSP326 ) that has  Europe's map  printed on it, and since we just came back from a family trip to France ,this paper made an awesome front cover for my book

For the back cover I used the 80 Days-DSP321 paper

And Atlas-DSP323 for the lining 

I recycled a Cereal Box for the base of the  hard covers

As I said above, I used the wonderful color core cardstock to make the signatures of the book-

it has a great weight to it if you plan on sketching /drawing /illustrate on it AND you can emboss and sand it as well to reveal the hidden core and give more interest to your page  (like I did in my previous DIY posts here, here and here

To make the hard cover, run the chipboard through your Creatopia Machine

 Put the board glue side down directly on your decorative sheet -leave enough margins all around  the board as we want to wrap the patterned paper on top of the chipboard
After covering both the boards we need to treat the reverse side

 Take your 3rd sheet of patterned cardstock,divide it in half ,run each half through your Creatopia Machine and glue it in place to cover the cereal board print

Now follow the instruction of this great video tutorial by Sea Lemon to bind your book/album


After  you have  stitched your book together it's time to decorate it

Since I decided to use the full sheet without trimming it first,I have the logo of Lily bee Design left on the bottom of the cover ;p
 It's nice and all,but I don't want it on my design,so it's time to cover it

I used Destination Circle & Tag Stickers - DSS34 to cover the logo itself,but actually decided to leave the name of the stock in place as it fits great for the theme I'm going with

On the upper part of the cover where the dotted lines of the map are,I glued some colorful chipboard banners ( Destination Chipboard Stickers-DSC333 )

It's like it meant to be there :D

 To emphasize our visited destination , I framed "France"  on the map, added the date of our flight, a little chipboard plain and some dotted lines connecting the plain to the "Our Adventures" tag

In France,we first came to Paris and then continued our trip to Normandy,so I thought it would be fun to mark our visited locations on the map with a stick pin (this cutie is from Naturals collection by Little Yellow Bicycle  NA-SP50 Wood Words

For the inside of my book, on the stock itself, I decided to leave the logo and wording Coredinations had print  on and not trim it for two reasons-
1. it's nice to see the color of the core,so if you plan to use this book as a Sketchbook  or Art Journal,you'll know what you'll get if you  sand or tear the paper . And you can always cover the logo with tags/ washi paper etc.

2. Since I'm going to use this book as a photo album, and we had visit LOTS of places and different cities in France, I  will use these little extras as a dividers (of course I'll need to cut the dividers tabs first)  and  arrange my photos in a chronological order of each visited city

*TIP- when you first arrange the signatures ,use cardstock with the same colour scheme .
This way you'll create a fun and colorful book with a cohesive  and coordinating look
Coredinations cardstock will make your life very easy with this ^^  task as their stock has a very pleasant color pallet with nice light to dark colour scheme

Another advantage of  using Coredinations Color Core cardstock  when binding your own books is the stock's weight-it's sturdy enough and won't tear easily not when you drill the holes for the binding  nor when you tighten the thread while you stitch it together
And the canvas texture of the pages will give you a great painting base too :)

The possibilities are endless!

Enjoy Creating !

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Graphic45 /Petallo Blog Hop follow up-16" Paper Star Lantern DIY

OMGosh!!! Graphic45 has this AMAZING Steampunk  Spells collection that will make you drool :p The cardstock is so beautiful ,that after having a thought to make a 3D star out of it, I actually had a hard time to make the first cut  :D

In any way,after admiring the design just enough and  overcoming the shaky hands ,I created the template  for the star and made this DIY tutorial for you :)

And so,to make yourself a star like this

You'll need -

• 3 pieces of 12X12" Cardstock- I'm using the Steampunk Spells cardstock by Graphic45 
 - Witching Hour 4500687

 -Tick-Tock 4500686

 - Clockworks 4500682

• XYRON 1/4" (6mm) Double Sided Tape
• Electronic cutting machine 

First of,I created a template for my 16" Paper Star in Photoshop 

(you can grab it from my graphic design shop)

I transferred the design to my Silhouette cutter and cut a total of 5 shapes.

See how I cheated my old A4 cutter to cut a 12" design I planned-I folded the sheet underneath the cutting matt and after cutting the first piece I unfolded the cardstock and cut the second shape on the remaining part of the sheet. :D 

Of course if you have the Cameo which is a A3 plotter ,you won't need to manipulate your machine and will save some valuable time as well lol 

OR, you can just cut the template off by hand-that will work too :D but I'm lazy like that^^

 So here is my cut shape-you need to cut exactly 4 more like this

 Make the creases

 Apply the double sided tape- I used my 6mm XYRON double sided tape

 Tape here...here...and here...

The long fold is glued  to create the 3D shape

 The short folds are connecting the shapes together

 Glue one side together ,turn the shapes over and glue the other side

 Keep doing so with all 5 cones

 Ta Da-finished :)

 Now,if you want to make this Paper Star into a light fixture, don't connect  the 4th and 5th cones to each other  so you can insert a light bulb in the gap

 To see how I made a Blossoming Headband from Petaloo flowers and trims hop on here

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