Did you ever stand in a wine store scratching your head and trying to remember what that great bottle of wine was that you had not too long ago? At my age I have trouble remembering a lot of things! Around the holidays gifts of wine from friends and guests are new opportunities to try something different. Some are OK, some not so much, but there is always a bottle or two that you know will become one of your favorites. So you write it down on a little piece of paper (and then promptly lose it), spend hours trying to soak off the label (and then promptly lose that), or for a last resort you keep the bottle. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that kind of space in my new downsized retirement home. Except for the one blue bottle, one green bottle and one red bottle that are part of our outdoor copper sculpture, all empty wine bottles go into the recycling bin. And then, of course, when you want to buy that tasty wine again you can’t remember the name or even the color of the bottle. So I came up with a way to keep track of all those great wines! Using some matboard and my Bind-It-All I designed a great journal to not only keep track of those wines, but also where to find them and information about the wine itself. It may be more info than you care to have, but the inside can be adapted to whatever you need. You can even tape those labels right in the book!
(c) Nancy Roth
First the 5″ x 8″ covers were made from a white matboard that I found at ClearBags. It is a nice heavy weight but yet punches with the Bind-It-All. I found a Mediterranean style printed paper (use lightweight paper and not cardstock so it folds around the matboard better) and covered the matboard using Xyron adhesive. I then lined the inside of the covers with a merlot colored cardstock to finish them off. I decided that the outside needed some protection, so I cut sheets of transparencies the same size as the matboards. On the front one I stamped a wine background stamp from Just For Fun stamps twice to cover the transparency using StazOn black ink. The back transparency was left plain.
(c) Nancy Roth
The inside pages were stamped and printed on white Astroparche text weight paper which gives them a bit of an antique feel. The front page was hand stamped with stamps, again, from Just For Fun stamps and the inside pages were set up in MS Word and then trimmed down to size. There are 50 pages back and front for the wine information. Once I punched and bound all of the pages using the Bind-It-All, I finished off the front cover with a “wine” colored grosgrain ribbon and a brass grape pod charm.
Experiment with some things you have and see what you can come up with. You can even use ribbons or loose leaf rings to put your books together. And the next time you are looking for a great gift for a friend or hostess, add your creation to the bottle of wine and they are sure to remember the times you have shared over a newfound taste. By the way, the idea for this great project came from our wonderful daughter who loves trying new wines, but wanted a way to keep track of them.
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(c) Nancy Roth
Inked Treasures 