Smash Book (part deux)

Well, the last post was on my homemade smash book and I wanted to follow up with my thoughts on the real Smash book by K & Company. I had ordered the black one as well as a few other goodies. The first thing I wanted to check out was of course the fabby little pen/glue stick it came with. The pen is very similar to a Micron and I'd say it's a "02" line width, which in normal terms is .30 mm. The glue stick.... ahhhh... the glue stick. First thing I had to do was smell it. That's right... I smell everything. Would you like to know what it smells like WHILE finding out just how CRAZY I am?

Yes?

Well, I think that the glue stick smells like "My Little Ponies" dolls when they're fresh out of the box. But not the new ones.... oh, no. The new MLP's don't smell like the ponies did in the 80's from when I was a girl.

See, I told ya'll I'm crazy.

And in other news, I just admitted to sniffing glue.

But DOES it stick? Oh yes, yes it does. I'm a glue-stick advocate and self-proclaimed glue stick expert. People overlook them too quickly for their handiness, size and capabilities. Just by using a brayer, you can really expand the possibilities of the glue stick. Anyways, the Smash stick seems a bit greasy, but if you need to reposition your paper quickly you can move it and it does to a permanent state dry fast. Once it's down, it's down and if you try to pull it up, you will end up ripping paper.

On to the Smash book itself. I was a bit disappointed when I opened it up and the chipboard cover wasn't embossed! Looking closely at the video and photos, I apparently picked the ONLY one that wasn't embossed. No worries though, I'm not complaining. It's O-Wires on the inside are a little screechy when you open it up. Kind of like nails-on-a-chalkboard-screechy. I'm hoping this goes away with some more use, which I'm sure it will. The paper inside of it is a nice, thick quality. If I take my Smash pen and hold it in place on the paper it will bleed through in about 3 seconds, which isn't too bad, considering. When I draw some doodles though there is no bleeding through to the other side.

I was slightly disappointed that a lot of the graphics in the book are printed in darker colors. This makes the whole "list making/note taking" aspect of the book a bit more difficult... Maybe they'll come out with a fabby little white smash pen. (Do you hear me K & Co. ?)

The book is binded by using three different pieces of chipboard (a front and back cover and spine) then connected them together with what looks like extra-wide gaffer tape. Instead of using the plastic page as I did with my homemade Smash book to connect the o-wired pages to the cover, they had an extra page of paper at the front and back of the binded pages that they glued to the inner sides of the chipboard covers. I've used this method for binding books before and generally prefer it and don't really know why I didn't think of it originally. I will definitely try this next time I make another homemade smash book.



On to some of the accessories...



I purchased some of the dot tape that's similar to Japanese washi tape or if you're familiar with it, the Tim Holtz tissue tape. It doesn't feel that sticky, but it really is, tears easily and stays down. I also got some of the little stickies which weren't very sticky and I had to use the glue stick to get them to actually stay down. They're cute, though! There's ten per design and seven designs total. I also have one of the Smash pads (the quotes) which is super fun. There's 10 designs and three copies of each. The Smash bands are really cute (I love stripes) but they're a very tight fit over the book. I must admit, I'm partial to the band that I made. The other goodies I got are pretty standard; the page marker man with the moustache, mini envelopes, paper clips and tabs are super cute. Oh and the Smash stamp is also fun! It has an adjustable date side and a phrase side. Some of the phrases include, "*Smashed," "Oh, Snap," and "Hot Mess."



Fun stuff! What do you think? Would you want to make your own Smash book or buy one of the new ones?

In the comments from the Homemade Smash book, Renee said that scoring and binding the book may prove difficult. I was able to score the chipboard by taking a ruler and positioning it down the book where I wanted to score and using and a bone folder and my big, scary muscles I was able to get a good score down it. For binding, if you don't have a bind-it-all or cinch, you can always use binding rings and punch holes in your pages, then have an extra piece of paper in the front and back of your book, and glue these to the inside of your cover. This is similar to what I did with the Grungepaper minibook. Hope this helps, Renee!

Well, talk to you all soon! I'll be back with the SUPER HAPPY news soon!