Learn Something New: The book

Woot. It's officially September first. Time to go back to school!

I stayed up way past my bedtime last night working on my "homework" aka getting my book all put together.

Here's the cover. It's definitely one of my favorites, ever.

I was super inspired by Shimelle's book from last year, but couldn't bring myself to actually bust up a vintage book (baby steps) so I used the next best thing, a 7 Gypsies Elizabeth book cover. It's somewhere around 5x7, maybe a little bigger, so I thought it would the perfect size for either 4x6 or 5x7 prints.

I took some text patterned paper, gave it a paint wash and then added some machine stitching.

The title is made from the new Basic Grey Basics cardstock stickers, which are, officially, my NEW FAVORITE THING EVER. Ahem.

To make the embellishment cluster near the base, I pretended I was Christine Middlecamp (just kidding). Seriously though, to start, I layered a strip of doily punched patterned paper, a few other strips of patterned paper, some Tim Holtz Tissue tape and a punched star. On top of that, I put a Tim Holtz Ornate frame, inside of which I had stamped a Danielle Johnson Number stamp in Grey ink on white cardstock. On top of that, I layered this adorable tiny typewriter stamp that I recently scored for one dollar at Michaels.

The grommets were big ones (from the fabric section of the craft store) that I "distressed" using brown and black Stazon.

I've put about 50 pages (mixed cardstock and Hambly Transparencies) in here already. That way I can add more (or take away) pages as I need to.

You know me and minibooks though. This thing will probably not be getting any smaller.

The size and weight feels good in my hand, and I love the mix of colors.

This is gong to end up being one fat chunky book. I want to really focus on journaling as well. It's definitely something I want to work on improving.

And this month there will be SO many stories to tell. September is my favorite month. Already in my calendar I have outings with friends, a trip to the county fair, a romantic getaway and big anniversary on the books. Can't wait to document everything.

To that end, I put a set of my second largest book rings (my largest ones are actually just ridiculously big) on the book and am hoping for the best. If all else fails, there is always ribbon or twine, or something else I can use.

I'll be working on this every day (hopefully) but probably only sharing updates on the weekends.. to give myself time to get photos printed and get the pages all photographed prettily.

This month is off to a great start already. :)

Luna Park Minibook

Alright this is the last project (aside from my december daily books) from the "box o'unfinished projects."

Can I get a hurrah?

Don't worry though, I have plenty of projects waiting in the wings waiting for me to get around to starting them. (And then putting them in a box to finish later. hehe.)

So this book was initially flabbergasting me due to the whole mixed layer thing. This is the first book I've made like this, where I really had to take into account many subsequent visible layers. It was a bit frustrating at first, but I really made it work and now I like this book quite a lot.

(Click to make bigger)

This was such a paaaaain to photograph. I gotta get me a tripod at some point.

I did "ruin" it a bit with my terrible handwritten journaling, but well, honestly it was the quickest way to finish so that's the route I took. No regrets, right?

Also, here are some detail shots.

It was Greg's idea to use black and white photos. I really love the contrast between these photos and the papers, but it was a tough call. Here's what the photos look like in color.

Full of delicious kitschy goodness.

Hope you enjoyed!

Dare 167: Currents

I made a scrapbook page!

A single page. It's a miracle.

Seriously, I haven't done a single page layout in about 4 months. It has been all minibook all the time up here.

But if anyone could break my streak, it would be my beloved Dares.

Used up a bunch of leftovers from the Luna Park book (which will be up in a bit, hopefully).

Got a couple of more to work on, but this one was super inspiring.

Much love my Dare ladies!

Messy Desk 2: the revenge of the scrap mess

I know it's hard to believe, but for about 20 minutes there, my desk actually had been totally clean. I know because after I finished the Luna Park mini, I cleaned and recycled and made it all pretty again.

But then of course, I finished a page (for the Dares, yay!) and started up on my Learn mini.

And this is what it ended up looking like. Sigh.

Oh well... if that's the price I have to pay for being productive....

Anyway, planning to photograph the LP mini tomorrow, so hopefully will have that, more peeks of the Learn book, and another fun photo walk post up asap.

Hope your weekend was very nice. Mine was. Besides the crafty happenings, I finished off two rolls of 35mm film and half a pack of polaroids. Good stuff.

;)

Learn Something New 2010

It's nearly that time again!

Time for me to enable you (as Steph says)... I mean, time for me to talk about one of my favorite things.

Shimelle's Learn Something New class begins on September 1st and I am super duper excited to play along.

(Can't you tell? Also, check out my new glasses! Super nerdy.)

What is it? Well, here's the info from  shimelle.com

"Now it its fifth year, this online scrapbooking class encourages you to observe the world around you and learn from your daily experiences and surroundings. We work with a small format album to make thirty daily entries, and we adopt a few short cuts and techniques to make those daily entries possible in even the busiest of weeks. And once you’ve joined, you’re welcome to participate for as many years as you like at no extra cost.

The class includes:
…preparation notes delivered next week
…thirty daily full-colour pdf prompts delivered to your inbox
…access to a private class forum at shimelle.com to chat and share your work
…permanent file archive so you can come back to the materials at any time

Plus new additions for 2010:
…custom printables for paper scrappers
…page templates and a digital kit for digi scrappers
…Try Something New Every Day, a back-to-school workbook with quick and easy crafting techniques that adds an element of challenge and surprise
…bonus technique tutorials (as PDF and video formats) to spice up your creativity
…two live chat sessions: one to start the class and a second to celebrate at the end of the month

Each of the daily prompts includes full colour photos of pages from a range of albums so you can see a variety in styles, from simple scrapbook pages to looks that use more layers to art journals. There are also hundreds of additional samples to view in the members’ forum, so no matter what your creative style you can always find something right up your street" 

How awesome is that?

I actually signed up two years ago and really love the fact that once you pay for the class you can play along every year at no cost. This is the first year however, that I am probably actually going to be making something physical at the time that the class is happening.

Right now, I'm just starting to put my book together. I want to do something simple and manageable, so I can be sure to get it FINISHED. I'm also planning to use the blog as an "aid" so that I can try to keep up.

I'll consider it homework. :)

Do you have any fun back to school things going on? Getting some bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils together? Counting the days till pumpkin lattes are back? Getting your fall boots all nice and polished up?

Share!