1st Mini-Book!

I made my first mini-book! Well, I made an anniversary book for my parents back in March - but that was more of a photograph album with a few added extras. I altered a notebook for my daughter to use as a special diary... but this book I made from scratch, and I'm quite pleased with it so far (not quite finished yet).

The book is based on a tutorial by Laura at Follow The Paper Trail, though she uses envelopes to make pages, and I cut and folded 12x12 pages for everything. I chose the Urban Couture collection from Basic Grey, as I liked the earthy tones and the distressed appearance of the pages. The actual outer of the book is made from a cereal box (cut up and doubled up) as I didn't have thin chipboard handy :) Each page has a flap added to it, which I decided to use as double thickness so that it was sturdier and I was also able to use the off-cuts left over from the construction of the pages.

Each page also has a little file made from scrapping paper and decorated with a tab made from the leftover cuts of Basic Grey papers. Each flap and file was inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The construction from beginning to as it is now took all day - without special dies and handy envelopes to cut up, it was a little fiddly... but thoroughly enjoyable - except for the broken nail I suffered :( So please excuse the state of my short nails showing in any photograph - I'm thoroughly embarrassed about my nails *lol* I'll be adding journalling slips and flowers, ribbon, and swirly inking on the files too... all ready for a few photographs (have no idea which ones yet though!). The ribbons and charms (and even tassels) used to decorate the binding outer edge are all from my stash drawer... I've been waiting to use the little key charms for so long now - I used to have them dangling from my mobile phone (cheaper than phone charms!), and there's also a mini-mini metal tag that reads: "My Heart". Awww... sweet! *lol*

Sibling Symmetry

I love this photo of my two eldest children. That year, Naomi copied everything her brother did - it was so sweet! I used basic grey (sultry) and Crate Paper (Trendy) with lots of stamping (La Blanche and Heidi Swapp)... plus all my fave techniques - distressing, inking, handstitching, buttons, flowers, lacing ribbon, Martha Stewart edge punch... and the butterfly was part of a gift tag my youngest daughter gave to me.

My Hero

Another day of feeling unwell, late nights, kipping during the day... and my darling, wonderful husband always trying to make everything better. I've taken over the dining room again this weekend, scrapping away as much as I can. I have a pile of photographs that need to be mounted and prettied up with a good LO, and as soon as I received a package through the mail with the right papers in for a "Hubby LO", I started planning. He really is my hero :) Lots of hand stitching (yes, ... AGAIN!) and distressing with ink (yes,... that AGAIN too! *lol*) and layering of papers. I used three main papers, but I have no idea what the stripey one is - just one from a batch I had ordered months ago. The other papers used were: Basic Grey Urban Couture Collection ("Brocade"), and FancyPants Fancy Papers (Papa). I also used the co-ordinating "Titles and Tags" from FancyPants (Papa). Luckily, I had two sheets of the 'Papa' paper, and so cut a lot of hearts out from one sheet for the design along the bottom of the LO.

Hope Is...

Hope is but the dream of those who wake ~ Matthew Prior
I wanted to do a white LO, but couldn't find the right papers to use... so I compromised, and used a grey instead (well, grey is just a dirty white... right? *lol*) I used Basic Grey "Snow Queen" paper and Prima "Say It In Pearls" for the bling. I also chose the word "Hope" in a Fancy Pants Glitter Cuts design... then stitched round the actual letters so that the word would show up better. Another LO with a lot of hand-stitching... I must be a glutton for punishment! IRL the LO is actually a lot more pale than it shows here, and the white writing shows a lot better too.