It's always fun to see new crafty supplies that are out there and share them with you, and it's even more fun to give them away. This week, thanks to the folks at the Xyron company we'll be taking a look at some fabulous new photo albums they've got available, along with a charitable take on one of their classic products.
After the jump, check out these new products with me and enter to win one of these goodies for yourself!
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First up, we have Xyron's 12″ x 12″ Everyday Stories photo album. This luxe leather-bound album is awesome in that it's completely contained on all sides, like a box. Upside? It keeps dust and light completely blocked out from your album! The album comes with 6 insert pages to get you started, and it really gives you a great starting out point in terms of layout ideas. Check out the following picture; while die-hard scrapbookers will definitely be interested in the 12″ x 12″ layout pages, there's also various pocket sizes and layouts to encourage more creativity.
On the next page, check out the medium-sized Everyday Stories album.
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Checking out the 8″ x 12″ Everyday Stories album, I was inspired to bust out some of my husband Josh and I's past vacation photos. I absolutely love the sneak peek window built into the album's cover for your favorite picture from the collection:
This medium-sized album doesn't skimp on any of the high-end style the 12″ x 12″ size album boasts. It's self-contained box format closes with strong magnet closures on one side for easy access to your pictures, while keeping it tightly shut when not being shown off to friends.
Again, one of the things I liked a whole lot about these photo albums is the variety of page layouts available. The albums come with 6 empty pages to get you started, in various layout configurations for your scrapbooking and photo album assembling sessions. Both of these photo albums, along with extra insert pages are available on Amazon.com.
On the next page, we get down to sticker making business.
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I also got the chance to try out Xyron's iconic X shaped sticker maker. This handy little sticker-making dynamo is their breast cancer awareness edition–you can craft with a conscience knowing that 50 cents of the sale of every one of these pink ribbon shaped machines goes towards The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
I call this a sticker machine, but it's a machine only in the sense that it does something really handy and fun for you with very little effort on your part. There's no batteries or electricity to deal with, and the whole sticker making process is totally simple. Let's take a look at how this sticker maker works:
Paper, fabric, ribbon, whatever you're making stickers out of goes in this slot–you can put something in that's fairly long, it just can't be wider than 1.5″. (1.5″ wide isn't big enough for you? It's okay, Xyron also offers sticker makers in 2.5″ and 5″ widths.)
Your finished sticker comes out on this side. The process is really simple–when you put your sticker item through the in slot, you come over to this side and pull the sticker paper through and tear it off. I don't want to sound like a cheezy “as seen on TV” promoter, but it's that simple! One thing to keep in mind with these stickers–they're for indoor use only. You're basically adding a sticky backing to whatever it is you're putting through the sticker maker. So if you're putting a little piece of paper through, it's still going to be a piece of paper when it comes out, it'll just have a sticky backing. The stickers you make won't be ideal for say, putting on your car window, but they'll be perfect for scrapbooks, notecards, embellishing your office's pesky TPS reports, whatever you can come up with.
The underside of the sticker maker shows where the sticker paper goes–it's very easy to replace the generous 20 foot sticker paper cartridge that comes with the machine. This sticker maker comes with permanent sticker paper–if you're interested in stickers that can be moved after stickin' em, Xyron also offers repositionable sticker paper for their machines.
On the next page, check out a fun quickie project you can make with the Xyron sticker maker and get one page closer to winning one for yourself.
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As a crafty girl that also has braces, I've got quite a lot of empty braces wax boxes lying around waiting for crafty goodness to happen to them. When I was playing around with the Xyron sticker maker, I was inspired to get them out to make some little trinket boxes!
All you need to do to prep one of these empty boxes for embellishing is hit the top of it with a rag and some nail polish remover – that green paint will come right off! You'll also want to scrub out the inside of the box a little, because there'll be some wax residue from the contents it used to hold.
Then I cut some small pieces out of scrapbook paper to fit the bottom of the boxes, and sent those through the sticker makers! I used a popsicle stick to help push the paper into place once it was sitting inside the bottom of the boxes.
Next, to jazz it up I put some pieces of ribbon through the machine for the inside of the top lid of the box. (If you're using a ribbon that has a design on one side but not on the other, put it thorugh the machine design side down so when you stick it in the box's lid it'll be facing outwards!)
Here's what the ribbon pieces looked like coming through the sticker maker. You just tear off the piece of paper, remove the top plastic layer, and you're left with ribbony sticker goodness on that backing paper! I put these on the inside of the clear box lids to add a little color and depth to my trinket boxes.
And there you have it! These little boxes would be fun for storing your sewing needles, a few buttons, or they could be a cute little tooth fairy box for your kids! Basically, I'm loving this sticker maker–I can't wait to play with it some more and come up with more projects to make with it! There was only one problem we found with the machine… Josh and I couldn't seem to fit our pet chicken Lady Cluckington through it…
Now it's your turn to win some of these fun goodies for yourself! Leave a comment on this blog post about anything at all by Friday, September 17 at midnight and you'll be automatically entered to win. There are three prizes this week–you could win a large or medium Everyday Stories photo album or a breast cancer awareness edition of the Xyron Create-a-Sticker machine!
Leave as many comments as you like, but only one valid entry per person will be counted to keep it fair. After the contest closes, the three winners will be chosen using random.org and notified by email. If you're notified that you're a winner and don't respond with a mailing address in a timely manner, another winner will have to be chosen. (So make sure he*****************@gm***.com is on your email service's safe list!) Good luck everyone, and happy commenting!
