Now, did y’all know Stampin’ Up! has a (fairly) new product line called This-n-That? It’s rather like Smashbooks, but of course way cuter (in my opinion, anyway!). It’s a little grungy, a little scrappy, a whole lot of just plain fun.
You can order an Epic Day journal, a fun Epic Day Rotary Stamp, Epic Day stickers, and a set of Epic Day Designer Series Paper. Of course, the colors in the suite are some of my favorite Stampin’ Up! exclusive colors:Basic Gray, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green, and Pool Party, so you can coordinate with the markers and stamps and solid cardstock. See how cute the inside is? (that photo is from Stampin’ Up!…it’s not me)
Anyway, I ordered all the components last spring when it first became available, but I have a confession to make. I was completely intimidated by the front cover, which is chipboard with an embossed hexagon design. Again, super cute, but I just didn’t want to screw it up when I embellished it.
The interior pages include patterned paper that’s a little thicker than the Epic Day Designer Series Paper, but the same sort of prints, so the DSP and the book coordinate. I knew I wanted to use this book to record the funny things my kids say (that are probably only funny to us), and started doing that shortly after I ordered it. But every time I opened it up to write down a “Random Hooliganism” as I call them, I was reminded that the front cover was just “eh” and would have a little pang of creative guilt.
Yesterday, I found myself with some crafting time (and, truthfully, no blog post for today), so I was determined to finish the cover. And I did! And I really, really like it! And the couple of mistakes I made, I could correct or incorporate. Wanna see it? Here!
To embellish it and make it really mine, I first dragged a Pool Party ink pad across the front in several directions. Next, I used my Hexagon Punch and the Epic Day DSP to randomly add some color and interest. I matted a sticker onto some DSP in the bottom left corner, and punched out and wrote a title in the upper right. After tying a few pieces of Seam Binding in coordinating colors onto the spiral, I was quite pleased with my efforts.
My problem now is the new line of This-n-That in the holiday catalog, Season of Style. It’s as cute as the Epic Day one, and promises to help get me organized for the holidays. And I think it’s cover can be left as is. At least for now. So I feel I NEED it…immediately.
If you’d like your own Epic Day or Season of Style journal, you can click on the “Stampin’ Up!” button there in the upper right sidebar. That’ll take you to my website, then click on the “This-n-That” collection when shopping. Easy as pie!
And in case you were wondering, here’s an example of a hooliganism:
6 year old boy: “Mama, what does “por que” mean in Spanish?”
Mama: “Why?”
Boy: “Well, I just wanted to know!”
See, funny to us.
