Project Hope

I was taking an overdue peek at Sharon Johnson's blog recently and saw this beautiful accordian card she made using stickers of all things. (Only Sharon could make something this beautiful with stickers!) A few days later, Sharon had a link to this gorgeous coupon keeper that Sharon Harnist made from a file folder. The wheels began to turn in my little head. I wondered how it might work to make some kind of accordian book with pockets to hold either some bookmarks or tags using the new Hope set from Our Daily Bread Designs. This is what I came up with:



Each pocket holds a bookmark/tag. On the first, I left some extra white space for a personalized message:



The other three tags each have a Bible verse of encouragement:







I folded the two outside panels in, gate-fold style, then added a decorated belly band to hold it all together. So this is what it looks like all folded up.



Finished size is 5 1/2" square. You can see from the photo that it's a little thick when it's folded up. It kind of bothers me that it doesn't lie flat, to be honest. If I make another one of these, I think I'll try to design the base into a thin box to accommodate the thickness a little more neatly. On the other hand, it's like a thick scrapbook that doesn't close all the way ... you just can't wait to see all the good stuff inside!

This was really simple to make. I started with an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of Pixie Pink card stock. From a landscape orientation, I scored at 2 3/4", 5 1/2", and 8 1/4". Then I switched to a portrait orientation and scored at 5 1/2" (so I'm scoring down the long side). I folded that long side in to create the pocket, and punched the edge with my Stampin' Up scalloped edge punch. I used Sticky Strip to adhere just the left and right edges of the pocket. The accordian folds do a pretty good job of keeping the bookmarks/tags in place. After that I just embellished the outside with some designer paper and added the bookmarks/tags. If you have any questions, just let me know and I'll update this post with the answers.

Don't forget that with the purchase of the Hope stamp set, you'll receive a free "Hope Pack" (while supplies last). Check out the details HERE. The Breast Cancer Awareness designer papers I used on this project, as well as the pink ribbon brad on the belly band, are both included in the "Hope Pack." [Update: These papers and the brads are also available for purchase. Just click the link above and scroll down past the set and the picture of the Hope Pack.]

Have a great Sunday!

Memory Verse Tag Book

I'm supposed to memorize ten Bible verses for my Bible Study this fall, one each week. The study workbook (it's Beth Moore's Breaking Free study) even has little perforated, business card-size tearouts for each verse, so we can carry the verses with us until they're memorized. The first thing I thought was how much easier they'd be to memorize if I just "prettied up" the little cards a bit. Isn't everything easier when it's prettied up? And of course I was memorizing *while* I crafted :)

I used Stampin' Up!'s Spring Showers 2-sided designer paper and images from the Looks Like Spring stamp set.

Some of the inside pages of the tag book: