More Maya Inspired Reinventions

My

love with Maya’s book

continues. I was very happy that the author made visit to the blog and linked back to me from

this post

. She also set up a

flickr group

to showcase the projects that everyone is creating. The beauty of a book like this is that everyone is using different materials and really thinking differently about buying fabric when there are so many fabrics out there that could be reused.

For me, it is important that my current projects use fabric that is already in my stash. For a span of time, I really enjoyed visiting fabric shops for different materials or remnants that I could use. So many of these are still laying around in my stash and I am ready to get them in use.

First up, I pulled three cotton tea towels out of my stash and whipped up three of the Fold and Tie Cases. There are so many uses for these. Her book showcases the case as a packing aid. Since I am endlessly addicted to office supplies, that is the use I went for. Since I made three, I may rotate them around to see how handy they are. More than anything, I love that they are completely machine washable.

Last up is another summer bolster. This time I made it out of remnant decorator fabric. For the amount of fabric that I had, this was the perfect use for it. I took a photo of it in front of the first bolster that was made to show the size difference that comes from using different materials. Neither are made using the dimensions Maya calls for in the book. I adjusted the size based on how much fabric I had on hand and wanting to minimize unusable scraps. The first bolster snugly fits one comforter. I have two quilts rolled into the second bolster and there is still plenty of room to add another, if not two. I love having these for extra linen storage but also extra pillows. Again, fully washable so I have no qualms about throwing them around and lounging all over them.

More pictures of all of my reinvention projects are available in

my Flickr account

. So, what do you think? Any reinventions happening in your home?

Quick and Easy Mini Albums

I think this is the most fun little project I’ve done in a while. These are the mini toilet paper roll albums that I spoke of

here

. Each little album is made of 4 recycled toilet paper rolls with a cover made from the backing from a couple of note pads I had laying around the house. Rather than paint the rolls, I covered everything in paper. With all the crafting I have done lately, I have been trying to use materials that were already in my house. Into the album went assorted purple scrapbooking paper, scraps of card stock, eyelets (normal and decorative plate), twine and stickers.

Each album page has two journal/picture cards that pull from the end and two smaller cards that sit in the pocket that was created when the paper used to cover the roll was overlapped. Rather than add pulls on the end of the pocket inserts, I reinforced the ends with random stickers from my stash. The cover of each album is embellished simply with a metal plate eyelet that has a friendship related quote on them.

These little albums are perfect little gifts for graduations, Mother’s/Father’s Day, birthdays, etc. Fill them with love notes, money, pictures and anything else that inspires you. These three will be gifted to friends this summer. Two are brides and one is a birthday girl. I will leave the brides books blank so they can use them as wedding thank you’s for a friend or for another occasion. The one for the birthday girl will get filled with notes and other things by me and maybe a couple of gift cards.

I love these albums so much that I’m sorry to say you may see many, many more of these in the future. I still have lots of paper and embellishments in my stash that need to be used. For now, more photos can be seen in

my Flickr account

.

In terms of tools I used a paper cutter, corner rounder and crop-a-dile to punch holes and set eyelets. And in case you are inspired to do it yourself, this is the YouTube video that sparked it all.

Field Notes

Last week, Field Notes sent an email offering a free 3-pack of the Red Blooded Memo Book free with any purchase. There was no minimum purchase so I went on over an placed an order for a pack of pencils for three dollars and some change. The free pack of memo books is $10 value so this was a very good offer from the Field Notes company.

I have been following Field Notes for about a year now but I have never used any of their products, mainly because I was worried about the size. I had never actually seen the notebooks in a store. And I was right. The photo below is to compare the size of the Field Notes Memo book with the Moleskine planner that I currently use.

On the positive side, the Field Notes could fit into the back pocket of the Moleskine or held in place under a band. However I use it, I do want it to work with or within my planner system so these two will be getting familiar with each other.

You’ll see another post soon about my current planner (18 month Moleskine weekly) and how I will alter for the next year since new 2013 planners are hitting the market and I Moleskine doesn’t offer an 18 month planner option that could easily transition from the existing 18 month planner. More on that later.

For now, I would love to know if any of you are Field Notes users and how you use them.