Making custom Word books

Like with Paper Bag Books, I am intriguied by word books. I love most of the ones I’ve seen but they never really seem to be of the words I want. Beach, Home, Family, all good, and some stunning examples, but I wanted to make custom ones for my kids and there is no one selling chipboard versions of individual names that I have seen. I also wanted to push the boundaries a bit, so I came up with this dual sided word book for DD. Her name works because of the letters of it. Having the double Ds in the middle worked really well, but I think it’s possible other letters would work. I like being able to use the ribbon looped around the first and last letters to tie it closed as well.

The process is pretty easy.

1. cut 8 x 12 strips of fairly heavyweight cardstock then score and fold, creasing well, so each one is now 4 x 12. Stick them together well, not just on the edges)

2. pick your font and play with it in WordArt or whatever you use till you get it to be just about 4 inches tall. A really really FAT font works for short word books only, but a tall thin font (like Euphorigenic, here) lets you use quite a long word. Cut out the letters (you can easily do this on a Cricut or Craft Robo or whatever cutting machine you use, as well as doing it by hand)

3. Now the sort of tricky part – you need to lay the cut letters on the 4 x 12 cardstock pieces (put the folded edge at the top!) The first letter needs to be far enough from the left edge that you can fit whatever binding holes you want (BIA, Cropadile, whatever) so leave a good 3 inches from the left edge and where the letter is. Stick it with repositionable adhesive.

4.Trace around the letter and cut it out, but only on the right hand edge of the letter – leave a bit of the left edge as part of the page. This is assuming you are working on a standard left bound word book or a left side page of a dual one like this.

5. What I do is leave the completed page on my desk, and for the next page, work under that one (in a 2d way, not literally UNDER it!)so I can see what sort of overlap I will want. I repeat the process for each page.

6. Once all the page are done, use a couple of binder clips to clamp all the pages in a stack with the letters arranged as you want them to be. Turn over and trim the excess flush with the length of the last page. You may need to adjust a bit to make sure you don’t get a first page that is all letter and no substance – unless you like that.

I do realize as I write this that it’s perhaps not clear for real visual learners. I had intended to photo the last one I made but then…didn’t. I will do, if I get a chance, but I’m teaching at Scrapfever this weekend and sorting out a few last minute details so I may not get to it till next week. But I will add them either in a blog post or as a PDF.

In the meantime, there is a very good video by desdichaedo for making a chipboard book. It is in 5 (yes 5!) parts, so very detailed in the decorating – the first in the series addresses the construction of the book. It’s not really the same as my cardstock one, but the principles of laying out the pages are more of less the same.

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YouTube

Ah YouTube. How did we ever manage without it? OK, so there are some dodgy things on there but for How-To stuff I think it is a real font of knowledge. There are a handful of people who I think do a great job – like many, I love Make a Card Monday by starofmay, the all-too-infrequent uploads by everydayscrapbook, and the videos by Hero Arts and Ranger. One thing that really surprises me is how much information you can get from a foreign language video – the first person I ever subscribed to, 2worldswings, had a great video on using envelopes to make a cool pocket card (love this) in Portuguese and it makes perfect sense (to me anyway). There are some marginal one, to be sure, as well as multiple versions of the same technique (Stampin’ Up Demos all seem to do their own version of a technique, for example, as the videos are probably a selling tool for them) but overall you can usually find what you need there.

I’ve even done a few myself, although “video” really isn’t correct. At present my video camera is stationary in my office window, forming an integral part of our home security system. DH has a tiny one that isn’t great quality and DD has a cheap one that she doesn’t like to share. So my “videos” are really slideshows, with music and subtitles and the occasional Ken Burns effect. I recently moved to a newer version of iMovie that has MUCH better quality. Some day I hope to actually do a live action one LOL! But until then, I enjoy making the slideshow versions and they must suit some people because against all reason I have over 50 subscribers. Go figure. For lots of crafters, it’s just another aspect of the explosion of inspiration on the net, along with forums and blogs.

In light of the recent news of Scrapbook Inspirations ceasing publication, and the continuing rumors of other well-known and longer running magazines struggling, it seems what is great news for crafters who have access to the internet is not so great news for publishers, or for crafters who are not net-savvy. I’ve been on the internet since it was Arpanet. I feel like I know my way around. But what about those crafters who are not internet savvy? If all the books and all the magazines stop publishing crafty goodness, what of them?



Only time will tell. To get a little more scrapbooking (and technology) into my post today (if it works) here is a sample of one of my slideshows, of a minibook I made which uses that envelope from my first subscription-video in Portuguese, by 2Worldswings (still not sure if that is 2 World Swings or 2 Worlds Wings – I really should ask her!)

Boring day – and a slightly rude vegetable photo

Boring, boring day. Trip in to Reading to John Lewis to replace our oven in preparation for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. We have BBQed a turkey before, and a Christmas goose, but not this year!

No real scrapping today, but I thought I would share a classic Thanksgiving story with you, and an inadvertently rude pair of vegetables. Some of my friends will roll their eyes and say “not that again” but it still brings a smile to my face when I think back on it, and today, a smile is just what I need

We had two people staying with us and 4 more invited fairly last minute. I wasn’t sure about getting a turkey big enough at that time of year, but toddled off to the grocery store and I placed an order for a bird with one of the butchers. I went off to do my shopping only to be accosted by the main butcher in another aisle shortly thereafter. He explained that as this is the UK, turkeys are usually only for Christmas so he couldn’t guarantee me a whole bird before 1 December. Huh? He said he could order it, and ask for a whole bird, but when it came it might be as a crown (the breast bit) and the legs (2) separate. With little choice, I said OK let’s order it, ask for a whole bird and see what happens.

On Friday, DS had a surprise early closing (well, surprise to US as we only found out Friday morning). DD was both very sick and very clingy, so DH had to go and pick up the bird. My plan had been to do the shopping after dinner when he was home to stay with DD but it didn’t work out hat way. DH called me from the grocery store and said “The turkey is in pieces. Did you know that?” I told him I had been told it MIGHT be but, no, I didn’t “know”. He then said the butcher said he could build one for me. HUH?? Apparently, the butcher could de-bone a second crown, tie the two crowns together, and attach the legs, he said. He said he would use it as a training exercise for the apprentice butcher and charge us less. OK, I guess said I. At that point it seemed that or nothing so we’d better go with it.

So DH comes home with the bird. I open up the carrier bag, and sure enough there is a “whole” bird. Except it isn’t. It’s FRAKEN-BIRD. It’s pieces of turkey all netted up to LOOK like a real bird but it’s oddly misshapen without the wings. We all stared at it in a sort of stupefied silence then just burst out laughing.

OK, so in to the fridge it goes till Saturday, when everyone is coming for dinner. Saturday morning, DD is nearly human again and asking Dad (hurumph!) for breakfast and I’m out the door for shopping at 7 AM. Home again with all the rest of the goodies, and time to do the calculation on cooking this turkey-beast. It looks to be 5 hours. So I take the bird out of the fridge to put it n the roasting pan and brush on MILs classic garlic marinade, yum, yum.

As soon as I pick up the bird I see something is not right. It is all falling into bits in my hands. I’m trying to maintain control, trying not to drop any thing but it’s like juggling a very large, very heavy, very slimy ball and two slimy bowling pins. I manage to get the bits into the pan and can now see that it is NOT all netted together. The crown is, and the legs are. The legs are tied together but not attached to the crown in any way. There is no way to get it all in the roasting pan with out bits going askew and the legs spreading too wide to fit in the oven. The leg very clearly didn’t come from the same bird — if so it would have been an weird turkey with two left legs and on stilts!

OK — we’ll adjust. Quick consultation and a solution. DH will cook the crown on the BBQ and the legs will get done in the oven. All well and good. Except everything was done at different times and much earlier then planned.

Dinner was fine, tasty and fun but then I got a photo my friend took of Franken-bird — look in the red circle. In a bizarre quirk of perspective, I think you will agree two of the three butternut squash in a bowl behind the bird create a very strange image.

Documenting quilts

To me, documenting quilts makes sense – it reminds me a little bit of scrapbooking.

My MIL is a quilter, and an amazing one. She made us an engagement quilt and it was, in a word, awesome. She made many quilts, and then moved on to “art garments”, taking part in the invite-only Fairfield Fashion show a few times. She helped me make my first quilt, a crib quilt for our son, Alexander, who was born 18 years ago tomorrow, but died within a week from a serious heart defect. It was a tied quilt, in a blue and purple pattern of batik teddy bears, and he was buried with it. I have no other info on that quilt, no photo, no info on the fabric or anything else. After he died, she made a series of quilts to help her work through the stages of grief – which was compounded by a fire at their house which destroyed some of them, although she does have some photos (see the quilts here)

I’ve always loved the idea of quilting myself and still under MIL’s watchful eye did manage to complete a crib quilt for DD (13 yesterday – I can barely believe it!) and have a full size bed quilt 99% complete for DS (shockingly it has been 99% complete since he was about 5 and he turns 17 in January). This year, I have already completed a rag quilt for DD and a small quilt-as-you-go sampler as practice, which works as a dolls quilt. I have the template material to make a template for the border quilting on DS 12 year old quilt (lost in one of our moves across and back over the ocean, and have recently finished piecing another quilt top for him, as the 12 year old one is perhaps a bit babyish now. Oh, and we found, well after his hand in choosing the fabrics for that quilt that he is actually colour blind. I have a few other project waiting in the wings, planned but no real progress made.

I created a little box for myself, using some old Basic Grey papers, with the idea it would house small booklets that would have all the info I wanted to document about the quilts. The base box is actually an old Lindt Chocolates box – I have a bad habit of saving cool boxes for years, thinking they will be perfect for….something. This one was! I sewed on the paper pieces before sticking them on the box surfaces, and assembled them in a sort of “quilty” pattern.

The box opens to reveal a series of booklets, each dedicated to one of the quilts in progress. In the booklets are pages for all the usual documentation, as well as fabric scraps, pattern information, and a page that will allow me to note the progress over the course of the year. I am hoping that having it all down in writing will rather shame me in to making some actual progress in 2010. That’s the plan anyway. As I now have a few scrapbooking friends who also quilt, and one who is something of a quilting maven (she’s the Go-To gal for all quilting questions, and I’ve been trying to meet up with her for weeks now for an evening of basting the layers of a quilt to I can move on with it) there is every chance it may actually work and at the end of the year I might even have one done. Maybe.

In some ways quilting reminds me why I love scrapbooking. Most crafty projects take some considerable time to complete. It takes me ages to knit a pair of socks or a jumper. Crocheting a blanket or slippers takes me weeks, months even. Making a quilt, in the extreme, takes 17 years, but even the rag quilt which was pretty fast, took a few days. Scrapbooking is a much more instant gratification thing. I love that – sending the kids off to school in the morning, then having a page or even two to show them when they come home.

Like many scrappers who quilt, and indeed many many quilters who don’t scrapbook, Moda fabrics are the must have fabrics. Check out the Moda Bakeshop for all things layer cake, jelly roll, and honey bun. But don’t blame me it it makes you want to accumulate fabric stash, to accompany your paper and yarn stash.

Cupcake Cards

Sundays I am usually spending the day sorting out the final bits of the UKS Homepage publishing so it’s fairly unlikely you will see an original post from me. But as I am lolopping around the internet anyway, I thought I might add something I’ve seen in the previous week that made me go WOW!

They look good enough to eat but they are “cupcake cards” by Ingvild Blome on her blog here. Very adorable and excellent instructions. In reality it’s probably unlikely I would make one of these but they are so amazing I wanted to share them.

A Layout of Firsts

Because I am feeling a bit lazy today and because I’ve not quite decided whether I will be blogging every day, I thought I would just post my first ever SI published layout – and also the first layout I made using my new (at the time) Craft Robo for the title. It’s interesting to remember back, way far in my scrapping past, to the first UK scrapbooking site online, the old Yahoo Group version of UKS. There were only about 60 of us, and the message posts flew back and forth, fast and furious. One post – and although my memory could be faulty, I think it was even me that asked the question – queried “What would be your best ever, pie-in-the-sky scrapbooking tool?” Mine was a magic box that let you feed cardstock or patterned paper in on one side and get out perfectly cut letters, in any font you picked, out the other. We all laughed at the suggestions, thinking there was no way in hell such things would ever exist.

When die cut machine like Sizzix and QuicKuts came out it was a step in the right direction, and when the electronic die cutting machines started appearing, I couldn’t quite believe it. Of course many of them required you to buy individual fonts, but the Craft Robo was the first one that offered total freedom. The Cricut (with SCAL) comes a close second. I cannot believe how one tool revolutionized my scrapbooking. For a time, every layout I did had CR cut titles. My stash of letter stickers and chipboard letters just grew and grew as they kept arriving in monthly kits and I never used them. I am back to using letter stickers again (who doesn’t love those tiny little Making Memories and My Little Shoe Box letters?) but sometimes I do still look at my Craft Robo and shake my head with wonder.

That actually got longer than I expected it would! The layout is still one of my favourites, of DS on his first trip to Tokyo faced with a very challenging meal (yes, he ate it) and includes a few more challenging culinary surprises from the trip in a booklet that opens up behind the ribbon tie. DH did a great job, saving a whole pile of paper treasures (receipts, guidebooks, maps, tickets, and brochures), many of which found there way on to the layout, as well as providing all the photos.

Actually it might be interesting to note that the LAST layout I did as an SI commission is the one on the post from yesterday, which got rather pushed aside for the SI No More post

Scrapbook Inspirations is no more

I just got this in my inbox (and did get the all clear to post it publicly):


“Following a review of its performance over the past year, we have taken the difficult decision to close our craft title Scrapbook Inspirations. Its last issue will go sale on 13th November, however a series of special Scrapbook Inspirations bookazines are planned for 2010, with the first one hitting newsstands in February.

The decision has been made as part of the ongoing management of the craft portfolio, which has seen the launch of The Knitter in January this year and some strong circulation performances from the rest of our titles. Declining advertising revenues and shrinking newsstand sales meant Scrapbook Inspirations, craft’s smallest title by circulation, was no longer commercially sustainable as a monthly title.

The four staff working on this title are currently in consultation regarding their roles.

Group Publisher Kerry Lawrence comments: “Scrapbook Inspirations catered to a very specialist market which has unfortunately declined significantly during the last year. We’re really disappointed to be closing this magazine but it’s important we respond to what is happening in the industry. Moving to a model of publishing occasional bookazines will allow us to keep the Scrapbook Inspirations brand alive in a format more suited to the current market. I’d like to thank the team for all of their hard work and dedication during their time on Scrapbook Inspirations.”

That is the official word. From me? Sad news for me personally, as I loved working with the team, and maybe sad news for UK scrapbooking. But I don’t want to dwell on it – I’ve seen many UK scrapbooking magazines come and go (Remember Scrapbooking Memories and More? The 12 x 12 Scrapbooking Magazine? Creative Scrapbooking? and a few others…..) While I am saddened that there is now only one truly “home grown” scrapping magazine that is left (The Scrapbook Magazine) and a few pages of poorly reproduced layouts by UK scrappers in the UK edition of Scrapbook Trends (to be fair to ST, I am going on the posts made on UKS and other places – I’ve yet to see an actual copy of the UK version, but have been told the magazine does not ask for the actual layouts, only a digital photo or scan of the layout and prints that in the magazine) there are, of course, many, many blogs and galleries online. The fact that SI was the best selling scrapbooking magazine in the UK according to the offical ABC audit made no difference in the end. It was recently said to me that the future of scrapbook publishing is online. Hummmm….

While I live my life online, spending waaaaaay too much time logged in to a plethora of sites and blogs, I don’t like eating my breakfast or lunch in front of the Mac (I shower, so no dilemma about reading in the bath, which is the first thing anyone says when a digital magazine is mentioned) so while I am happy to read the US Scrapbooking Trends collection of magazines online I was always glad to have a print magazine I could depend on getting to flick through and feel the paper under my fingertips. I’ll mis that and will be looking for something else to replace it

Oh well. On the bright side at least my kids won’t have to worry about the camera lens trained on them every time they move. And I can scrap only what I want rather than to assignment.

A couple of last words – firstly to Rosie, Cara and Jane. You gals were the best to work with. I haven’t had much experience with magazine editors but I’ve had the odd bad experience, which only made me appreciate you three all the more. To the team – I never had much chance to work with the newly expanded team but have visited most of their blogs and saw very inspiring work on show. Shame I won;t be seeing it every month, but will hope to see much in the bookazines. To the original team, what can I say? You guys still surprise and inspire me with your work. Next, if you have work at the mag I’ve been assured all work will be returned. Once I know where to send you for info on what happens with subscriptions, I’ll let you know, here and on UKS.

Neverender

Although I have read that some people who follow blogs get annoyed by the mix of crafty and personal info, this is my blog and as much a record for me as it is for anyone else who reads it. So scrappers, feel free to skip this first bit.

DH, stupidly, given that both Christmas and his birthday loom, surprised DS with the DVD version of a concert they went to see last year. Neverender was a 4-night concert by the band Coheed and Cambria where they played the content of all four of their albums in sequence over four consecutive nights. They played NYC, Chicago, LA and London. The albums are an extension of a sci-fi comic written by the lead singer (Claudio Sanchez, who has to have the most rock&roll hair EVER) called The Amory Wars. What is weird about this? I am really enjoying it. Usually, I listen to a mix I have assembled in iTunes when I am scrapping – it relies heavily on the music from the 60s (from the box set of every song released on the Stax/Volt label and lots of Motown), some old favourites like Massive Attack and some country stuff by Emmylou Harris, the Dixie Chicks and the Be Good Tanyas, some oddball faves like Bela Lugosi’s Dead and Terror Couple Kill Colonel by Bauhaus and the Hank Dogs as well as some more recent stuff that struck a chord like Oasis and Gorillaz and … well really too much to list without boring you to tears. That should give you an idea anyway. So why I am liking this set I do not know. The music is a mix of everything from emo to hardcore with a bit of heavy metal and punk thrown in. It is NOT what I would have expected in a playlist called Mom’s Scrappin’ Mix!

I am one who is massively intolerant of any music that I hate. So I’m sure both DH and DS thought I would run a mile as soon as the DVDs went in, but instead I found myself complaining a lot less than I expected to. Then I found myself enjoying it. I have always loved a single song, acoustic version, called Wake Up but that was it (and that one is in my playlist) until now.

I think this represents a bit of a sea change. Whereas I once could only tolerate music, no matter what type, played at soft volume when I was scrapping, I now find myself doing things like “watching” (ie listening) to EastEnders on the iPlayer while scrapping, or Radio 4 plays, listening to music I would have run screaming from once, and even popping in a DVD and scrapping with it as a soundtrack. I’m not sure why, but I think it is because I am making fewer straight layouts and more altered art type stuff, more minibooks, more freestyle type stuff, and that makes me go with the flow a bit more. I don’t feel the need to CONCENTRATE so hard on my “art” so having music that I would have once been distracted by playing in the background is now fine. Or maybe, just maybe I am getting hard of hearing as I settle in to old age…who knows?

I suspect DS and his recent passion for the drums MAY have deadened my once sensitive hearing – this layout is not technological at all, although it is built on the back of a GoGo Create club kit box lid so a little “out there” maybe. As I posted on UKS, although I am generally still more acid free than not, I do feel freer to use questionable supplies on a layout since I know the photos can be replaced. Having said that, I also wonder about the HiTi dye-sub printer I use and wonder if it is better at halting acid migration than a standard printer? I must investigate!



Let’s see – for those who care, the papers are Sassafrass Lass, Collage Press, GCD Studios, Jillibean Soup and Scenic Route (I’ll miss them!) and the other bits are KI Memories letters, CI label stickers, My Little Shoe Box letters, a Rock Star chipboard piece from DCWV, a random badge from Paperchase and some old paper from a collage kit. The little ticket, I forget, and the MAN cut from more box bits is based on some chipboard element, out of the packing so no idea. Ink is all Distress ink.

Pretty iPhone cradle instructions

This is the version I am giving the instructions for:

1. Print the template. Cut a full size pattern. Check it against your device – if your phone is a lot smaller, you may need to adjust the template a bit. Paper is cheap – cut as many versions as you need to to make sure your device will fit. Some slight adjustments will be possible simply by folding the template narrower or wider, but a big difference needs to be dealt with here and now.

2. Cut the template shape from foam core. On one side of the foam core, cut through ONLY the paper covering and part way into the foam. DO NOT cut all the way through (if you do, all is not lost – just reattach the pieces on one side with packing tape) – you want the halves to create a sort of a hinge.

3. Cover the front and back with decorative paper. On the front (no hinge), score a line and put the score line on the center fold. On the back (hinge side) stick up to the hinge, then put thin double sided tape along both sides of the hinge. These are the internal edges, if that makes sense, where you cut into the foam but not through it.

4. I used double sided tape along all the thick edges then covered them with ribbon.

5. Cut a base from more foam core – any size you like but bigger than the stand. Mine are usually about 5 x 7. Using and old CD as a base works well too – and gives you a smaller desktop “footprint”. Cover it with more decorative paper.

6. CHECK THE FIT OF YOUR DEVICE. Put it in the caddy. Adjust the feet more open or less till the device fits happily and securely inside it. Attach the caddy to the base with strong double sided tape on the underside of the foot. Now decorate. In this sample I only added two 3″ scallops punched from the patterned paper, stuck back to back, a few nested flowers held together with a big glittery red brad and a small butterfly embellishment (remember, this is for a 13 year old girl!) stuck to the back of the hinge where it won’t interfere with the phone.

Variations – you could def. cut the template from strong cardboard (maybe even cut two and stick them together) or mat board. If that were the case I think I would cut tabs on the paper that covers the font and back then cut a slit in the paper to cover the base and slip them thru, sticking the tabs to the base with the paper over top. Or maybe use a hot glue gue (although that can be a bit messy). You could really bing up the base instead of (or in addition to) any decoration on the back. Cover it with watercolour paper that you stamped and inked and Glimmer misted, making a very vintage version. You can play around with the template to make the device angle back more or sit more upright the angle of my template doesn’t suit your ideal viewing angle. Whatever you do I would be delighted to see your version. Please leave me a comment with a link to it. And ass I said, if anyone is mad keen on the CD case version, tell me in a comment. I am hoping to make another one and will photo the step by steps to add here if there is real interest.

Template PDF

Where technology and scrapbooking collide

Pretty pink iPhone dock

This is a post that totally matches the blog description. And I will add here if you’ve come from ScrapScene, check out this post for more photos of the charger that appears there.

Let’s first talk a bit about the iPhone. We were once NeXt people (points for knowing what that means). We are now, and have been since Steve came home, Mac people. We have more Mac technology than I am sometimes willing to admit to. I still use my first gen shuffle every day. We have a Dalmation iMac and and anglepoise one, still in use. Like rats in the City, in our house you are never more than 10 feet from a Mac product. OK, I will admit that I have a very old PC in place to drive my Craft Robo, and DH has the odd Windows based machine (including a teeny tiny laptop that runs windows in Japanese) and a few that run Linux. DS has a PC games machine. I pretend they don’t exist. We have a few iPhones, and a few iTouch (iTouches? sounds a bit rude, that) and a few video iPods. At some point Apple made the decision to no longer ship a dock or stand with some of these products. The Apple community rose to the challenge and all of a sudden DIY dock/stand/charging station posts appeared all over the net.

Want a dock made of paper? You can download a template here or here or here, see simple directions to fold one from a business card here, or how to convert a coffee sleeve into one here. You can see instructions for folding one from a $100 bill (although obviously plain paper of the same dimension works perfectly fine as well), one you can fold from an old credit card (or gift card) and at the other end of the spectrum, one from a toilet paper roll (dubious design, IMHO)

Want to perform surgery on your kid’s toys? Carve up a hippo here (photo only) or use Legos or Kinex!

How about one constructed from a lot of binder clips? Or just one? or a paper clip (albeit a big one) (PDF and video for this)? This one is a combo of paper, a couple of binder clips and a paper clip (video)

Use Apple packaging or an old mini-DVD cassette box.

Want to buy one? My favourite is the GoGo Stand but the Crabble and the BatRest have their fans.

OK, so you now think I have no life or too much time on my hands. No, but I do like it when DH comes to me with a problem and I can solve it. His query? “I need a stand for my iPhone so I can use it like an iPod (ie press buttons and have a hole for the charging cable) but I want it to look good and be stable. Can you make me three?” After looking at literally 50 links and after three days of making various versions, having him test them out, and then creating a dead boring and bloke-y one for him (folded cardstock, with a notch in the back for the cable, stuck on a cardstock covered CD for stability) I branched out to …. pretty versions. Although it was a bit for fun, I also thought I might come up with a nice little gift for my DDs birthday. She wanted one for her video iPod, both for charging and for watching.

So what I have here are a few versions. The one I like best for stability and functionality is one cut from foam core, covered with pretty paper and scrapbooking embellishments and mounted on a foam core base, also decorated. This is ideal for DD as she has cerebral palsy and has little function of her right hand. The first is more for charging only as I feel the backwards tilt is not ideal for watching, depending on your height. The second one is modified and is more upright. The shape is a modified version of the business card stand, sort of.

The one at the top of the post is very OTT – pink and pretty and built on a CD stand separated and re assembled with one side backwards. This leaves a nice gap at the bottom for the cord to thread thru and there is a gap in the frame to thread it thru as well. The whole decorated piece slides up so plugging in is easier, but it is more designed for charging for a longer period of time. It still needs a small decoration on the lower edge of the frame.

The best version

Got a geek-girl on your Christmas list? One who likes the pretty and the bling? Might make a unique gift. I photo’ed some step-by-steps and will do a post tomorrow (or later today if I find the time) so you can see how the most functional one is made. If you love the super-girly one and really want more info on how I made that one leave a comment and I’ll try to do the same for it.


If you do make one, do leave a comment with a link – I’d love to see it.


For those that care, all the papers used are K&Company. The pretty pink iPhone dock is Que Sera Sera, and the other two are different papers from the Brenda Walton MIRA collection, with flowers and bling added. The very pretty little button flowers on the pink frame are by evalicious – >visit her shop/site.


Apologies if this blog looks rubbish on a laptop. I only just checked it this morning from my laptop and it’s all a bit squished. Oh, and although I did label this “Mac specific” in fact these caddies/dock work for any phone, you just may need to fiddle with the measurements a bit!