Grungeboard Meets YourStory & Give-Away

Hello everyone! I know it's been a while and again, I'm sorry. We've had a couple crazy months that I will go further into detail down the road, but I really just want to get to the fun stuff! Is that OK?

Alright...About a month ago Jenny over at Craft Test Dummies asked me to do a review of the ProvoCraft YourStory. I was more than ecstatic, to say the least! I had bought the machine when it first came out and needless to say we've had a love/hate relationship since. I also know this machine has been on the market for quite some time, but if you really take the time to get to know it and get the learning curve, you can make some wonderful projects and gifts. You can read the first half of the review Here. I bombarded Jenny with so much information (and to be honest I could have done twice as much) she had to split the review into two parts and even cut out some parts, so don't miss the second half either!

During the process of creating some projects for the review I binded a book made out of Tim Holtz Grungepaper and Grungeboard using the YourStory. Ummm... in case you're brand new to the blog, you know of my love for all things Tim Holtz. Serious. Love. For. The. Man. If you use Tim's products, you know what I'm talking about; if you follow his blog, you "understand"; and if you've ever taken a class or met Tim, you TOTALLY agree and share the love. And if you've met Tim's Business Manager, Mario, just shut the place down... he's the best of the best of the best. Back to reality, grungeboard and grungepaper have to be in the top three of my favorite Tim products (I really love my distress and alcohol inks). I wanted to see if I could actually bind my own book with this leather-like material. And guess what? You TOTALLY can! You can get the basics of the process from the review at Craft Test Dummies. Jenny had suggested I do a tutorial from start to finish, but let me know what you think! OK, enough with the jabbering... here are some photos from the project...








Isn't it awesome that you can use your Tim and Ranger Ink products with the YourStory to bind your own book? I would suggest if you do heat-bind your book that you do your 3-D embellishing after you bind. I didn't decorate my cover until after the fact; it would have been impossible if I did otherwise. My book is probably about 1/2" width and that was about the max that the YourStory could fit into the binding mechanism. Also, do TWO full heat cycles to ensure that the glue melts between each page.

Now, for some more, and if I say so, SUPER fun stuff... if you're a fan of Tim Holtz, you probably know that today marks the first day of the Twelve Tags of Christmas. If you don't know, basically, Tim makes a Christmas themed tag every night for 12 days using his awesome products and utilizing his beyond amazing techniques. Mario is also doing major behind the scenes work and massive giveaways on twitter, so be SURE to follow him, too! Speaking of giveaways.... let's do a Tim-A-Way!!! (Uh, No, I can't actually auction off the man, as much as I'm sure you'd all like that) I'm going to do a BIG giveaway, in honor of Tim's talent and Mario's massive generosity, and the Twelve Tags! You're all going to have to wait until tomorrow evening (I have a busy day with a kiddo's school function and then two ballet classes) to see just what's up for grabs. But to wet your whistles, there's going to be grunge, inks, tools, and one more super-duper surprise you'd probably never see again... because I found it in the back of my closet and forgot about it from a long time ago. :) We'll see what you think. Photos of goodies will be posted tomorrow (Thursday, December 2, 2010) and the random drawing for the winner will be on Monday (December 6, 2010). It will definitely be up tomorrow night by the time Tim posts his third tag. **Thankfully, I'm in the same time-zone and a night owl so it's easy for me to follow him**

Enjoy and see you all soon!!!