School Time Green Ruler Book

Hi everyone! Today we are going green at Simon Says Stamp & Show, with our challenge Good to be Green. Lots of opportunities here, use the colour green, upcycle something, do a project about nature, etc. I made a green ruler binder book, also including some recycled elements.

 

When thinking about what to do this week, my eyes fell on Tim Holtz new Ruler Binder and I decided to make a tag book about my school years. I've saved a lot of copies of the small versions we used to get of our school photos, as well as photo booth photos, and decided to use them all in the same place, some other photos are used in the book too. Some of these were traded, but I was careful to keep quite a few copies myself. I love mini-books for these types of themed projects. I used almost only shades of green, with a little bit of kraft and gold.

I started out by die cutting tags from manila cardstock, and two from natural sticky-back canvas. The tags were coloured with Distress Paint, by smearing Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage on my craft sheet, misting with water and then dipping and dragging the tags through the paint.

I didn't want the book to be the full length of the tags, but a little bit shorter, and cut off about 1.5 cm from each tag. The edges were inked, but not with the browns that I normally reach for, but with Forest Moss. I loved the look, Forest Moss is a dark green-brown colour. All the tags were stamped with layers of stamping, using Archival Inks:  Olive, Library Green, Emerald Green, and Sap Green. A grid and my favourite alphabet background were stamped with Sap Green, which gave a really nice texture to the backgrounds. The sentiments were stamped with Archival Ink Jet Black. I planned where each photo would go before stamping, so that I could use stamps that fit with the photo.

The ruler binding is really cool, with wooden rulers and great looking screws. I stained the rulers with Peeled Paint Distress Stain and dragged them over remaining Forest Moss Distress Ink on my craft sheet, to add a darker colour too.

For a recycled element, I die cut numbers and some letters from clear packaging with Word Play. They were inked with alcohol ink (Meadow, Lettuce, Pesto).

Two of the letters were stapled to the cover, with a Tim Holtz rub-on on top. I used his rub-ons throughout the book, they are perfect for small spaces.

 

I die cut an alarm clock from grungeboard and coloured it with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint. A large Idea-ology clock fit perfectly on top. It was painted with Peeled Paint Distress Paint, and so were the Game Spinner clock arms and the brad. Distress Paint works so well on metal. After the clock dried, I sanded off a little bit of the paint from the numbers. A rub-on was placed on top. 'School' was stamped with Hero Arts stamps. I really love the paint brush stamp and used it on the cover as well as on one of the pages in the book. The reinforcer was die cut from kraft resist paper.

Here's a close-up of the binding mechanism, very cool. I could have added even more pages to this book, and might, if I find photos that I forgot to include.

This is what the book looks like at the back. The canvas tags were adhered to manila tags. Now on to the pages, and some pretty bad haircuts!

To not make this post too long, I photographed them two at a time, the area at the spine is covered with the rulers when the book is bound, about 2 cm, so there is no stamping or embellishments there. It was easier to photograph the pages before binding. I added two pockets to the book, die cut with Tim Holtz Pocket Envelope die from kraft resist paper, coloured with Distress Paint and stamped. In the pockets there is more journaling. I used a Prima wooden house here, which sort of looked like a school, a word band and a filmstrip ribbon.

Most of the stamps are Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous stamps, but I also used a school set from Graphic 45 and TJ Designs, as well as some Hero Arts stamps. The little wooden heart is from Studio Calico.

I wore braids or ponytails a lot. The strip under the first photo is tissue tape. All the stamps and details I used in the book have specific meaning for things that I did and liked. My first teacher had just the same clock that she would ring when it was time to come in from a break.

Close-up of a packaging number. They were glued by spreading a thin layer of Glossy Accents at the back.

 

When I was eleven I cut my hair real short and regretted it immediately (I didn't find any photos from that time to use here). It took a long time before my hair had grown long again. Both of these photos were taken during that period. The pen nib and philosophy tag were coloured with Distress Paint. Tim Holtz ATC stamps were the perfect size to use in this book.

Close-up so that you can see the pen nib better. I collected rulers, so there had to be ruler stamps in the book - and it is also a reason for why the ruler binding fit so well with school memory and photos. The globe comes from Tim's Tiny Things set. This is what the pages look like when bound, when you don't see the two centimetres at the edge.

Here's the second envelope, with more journaling and more photos from this little photo shoot I did together with a friend. The sentiment on the envelope was stamped on a mini ticket.

Photo booth image, we used to take a lot of these, and photo booths were easy to find. I cycled to school every day, which is why there had to be a little bike in the book.

Another memorable hairdo. More wooden embellishments from Studio Calico. I also used Chit Chat stickers throughout the book. The fun sentiment about friends fit quite well on a teenage page.

The last two pages in the book, with a bike stamp, more sentiment stamps and rub-ons, and more wooden embellishments.

 

Show us a new project with something green this week and you can be the lucky one to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp, drawn randomly.

 

 

Have you seen the new feature of Simon's Spotlight? The design team has lots of fun every week picking out fabulous projects to feature. 

 

 

Thank you for looking!!

 

Anna-Karin 

Supplies:
Surfaces: Ranger Manila cardstock; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Kraft Resist paper stash, Grungeboard; Claudine Hellmuth Natural Sticky-Back Canvas; clear packaging
Dies: Sizzix: Tag & Bookplates, Vintage Alarm Clock & Camera, Word Play, Pocket Envelope, Mini Tickets, Mini Labels
Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: Artful Tools, Tiny Things, Way with Words, Going Somewhere, Mini Ornates, Stuff to Say, School Desk, Ultimate Grunge, Games ATC, Ledger ATC, Photograph ATC; Hero Arts: Remember AC028, My Favorite AC030, Basic Lowercase Letters; Graphic 45: ABC Primer 3; TJ Design: Vintage School Days
Ink: Ranger Archival Ink: Olive, Library Green, Emerald Green, Sap Green, Jet Black; Distress Ink: Forest Moss
Alcohol ink: Adirondack: Meadow, Lettuce, Pesto
Stain: Distress Stain: Peeled Paint
Paint: Distress Paint: Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Tarnished Brass
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Ruler Binder, Remnant Rubs Numbers, Remnant Rubs Words, Elements Tissue Tape, Timepieces, Filmstrip Ribbon, Chit Chat stickers, Game Spinners, Word Bands, Long Fasteners, Philosophy Circles, Pen Nibs; Prima: Houses & Buildings; Studio Calico wood veneer: Tiny Hearts, Transportation, Tiny Stars, Potty People, Cameras
Adhesive: Ranger Glossy Accents
Tools: Sizzix Big Shot; Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher