mini book peek

Here is the mini book I've been working on since Sunday. I'm going to finish the insides with some coloured stitching, especially on the edges of the punched holes to avoid the paper ripping. It's an altered student exercise book so the pages are very thin, and I've stuck two pages together to make it stronger. I made it a year ago as a notebook/journal but as it was still sitting on my shelf, unused, I decided to use it for this mini book about our trip to Melbourne exactly a year ago to farewell Dad. The papers, word and letter stickers are from K&C Company, and my new dymo labeller has been used on the front cover. The only other embellishments used are paper doilies and lots of ribbon. Overall I'm very pleased with it. The trim on the front is Webster's bloomer trim - so lovely! I think I will have to get more. I LOVE it.

I journalled with my sister's old fountain pen - I finally tracked down some ink refill at Office Works. Each day is marked with a cut-down page about 5cm wide. All the pages are binded with my bind-it-all. At 36 pages it is so thick I had to use rings to hold it together.

Everything has gone into the book - travel brochures, food shopping receipts, journalling from notes I kept at the time, even a copy of my eulogy.

mini book

Coming soon... pics of the massive mini-book I've been working on since Sunday. It's got everything, including of course, journalling from the new Dymo labeller. Woo hoo!

Simplest photo book ever

I wanted to make a mini-book out of a stack of photos I had, a little more than 40 I think. I've been wanting to try this for ages. I just used my Bind-it-all to punch holes straight into the photos and used a bit of leftover cardboard as the front cover. For the cover design, I printed the first photo directly onto patterned paper in my printer and I'm so pleased with the result! I inked the edges and it was finished.

And my Auntie Shirl, who I made the book for, loved it and took it to show her friends at the bowls club. She has bought a new house and will be moving soon. These are photos of her house and garden.

You can see the layouts I made from the photos here.

Wedding mini book

Making mini albums like this is a great example of how doable it is to make something cute when there isn't much time. I used my Bind it all to make the book - that took about 20 minutes, after cutting 12" paper into 6" squares and then binding them with recycled cardboard from packaging around the house. The cover is just some patterned paper adhered on with a little ribbon and hand written title. I scanned in the card I made and stuck it on the first page. I decided to use only two or three stamps throughout the album to keep it simple, in the same colour (Tim Holtz antique linen and Staz On black). The rest is doodled with my pen.

A bit of the boarding pass...

The tag from my bolero jacket...

My sister's baby bump...

The lovely couple and my horded confetti...

The place card...

There are many more pages but you get the idea. I'll post a link to the finished album later. Just need to print a couple more photos and finish with a little more stamping. Oila!

Adventure list

It's been a bit of a downer this week, with both the kids sick, and DH having chronic back pain and endless trips to the GP over the past few weeks. My scrap desk is piled high with 'stuff' that needs organising, my christmas cards are sitting in a corner waiting for me to finish making them and I can't find my mojo.

However I took a positive step last night and make myself not so much a 'to do' list but an 'adventure' list for 2010. I picked up my sewing machine yesterday - Mum's old Elna from the 1960's - and it's in good working order, ready to work. I actually am not a sewer...yet. But I plan to change that! My list contains all the scrap and sewing projects that I want to try and at least start, if not finish, next year and I've created a word file that sits on my computer desktop. So no more scraps of paper floating around and getting lost.

I am planning to make a little mini-book, with sections, each one will be labelled "scrap book projects", "mini books" etc and each time i complete a project, I will add it to the little book and write a little about the process. I got this idea from Elise Blaha's blog - i love the idea of changing a daunting to-do list into something inspiring and tempting, with something to show for it at the end. (also thinking of making a toolbox mini-book which I can add techniques and ideas to). More and more, I'm loving the idea of creating mini books with my Zutter Bind-it-all. I love the idea from Creativity Prompt for completing mini projects, rather than just page layouts, which seem to take me hours to do. I love a quicker way of doing things.