Wedding Anniversary Gift -- Sneak Peek

Here is a little sneak peek of a gift I've made for my son and daughter-in-law...it is a late 1st anniversary gift.  I did a collage video of Dana and Kyle's lives growing up and as adults, that was shown at their wedding.  The typical kind of video shown at weddings.  I decided to take those photos used for the video and make into an album as a gift.  The cover shows them along with their son Nick with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop.  They had a beautiful ceremony overlooking the ocean in San Diego.  It was wonderful!  I hope they enjoy the gift.  We will see them soon and are looking forward to the trip!

Continue to Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

A Different Paperbag Book

I was surfing and saw this video at the Following the Paper Trail blog.  Laura does a wonderful tutorial on a different type of paper bag book.  I was surfing because I was looking for some gift ideas for Christmas and her how to video gave me the idea for the mini book I made for the best friend.  Becky and I have been best friends since high school.  When the idea came to me I wanted to be able to document our lives at different points over the last 35 years.  They would be events of significance and obviously ones of both of us for which I had pictures that I could use for the book.  This is the front of the book.  Becky loves sunflowers so I chose papers from a pad of K&Company papers I had.  Susan Winget is the designer and the paper pack was Spring Blossom.   One of the pages had a bike on it with a basket of flowers where the predominant flowers were sunflowers, just what Becky likes.  By the time I cut down the paper you mostly can just see the basket in the lower left corner and the flowers that cover the front and spine.  I used a matching green leaf patterned paper for the back that coordinated with the background behind the flowers.  I used some Tim Holtz distressed inks to ink up the edges of the pages and give them that shabby chic look.  In the spine I put a grommet to thread through the chain and charms that I added.

For the cover of the book I used the inside of a file folder.  If you have worked in an office you might be familiar with them.  They are red press board file folders with brown cardboard dividers in the middle, typically two or three dividers and are bound with really strong fabric across the spine to endure much handling and many papers in the file.  We were tossing some at work because they were starting to look pretty shabby on the outside, but the inside was still in relatively good shape.  Besides, I was going to cover it all with patterned papers.  I chose to cut the edges of the cardboard insert about 1/4 to 1/2 inch larger than the edges of the paper bags.  This provided about a 1/2 inch or so wide spine to affix the paper bags to.  The pages of the book are paper lunch bags.  I had a number of embellishments, but needed to pick up some others to make the book in its final form. For the front here I used a beautiful yellow butterfly, a metal plate in the upper right corner that says Best Friends and a remember when sticker in the lower left corner.  On the four corners of the book I used some Tim Holtz metal picture corners.  They worked perfectly and will help preserve the corners of the book and keep it from wearing out too quickly.  On the front I added a pretty glass looking button and on the back a grommet through which I tied some thin matching ribbon and affixed a small brass key to the end.  I then wrapped it around the end of the book and looped it around the button to be used as the book closure.

If you visit  Following the Paper Trail you will get the exact directions for how Laura puts together the paper lunch sacks.  I found it to be a very easy tutorial to follow and I made quick work of taping down the bottoms of the bags and attaching them together.  Then I had to choose coordinating papers from the paper pack.  I tried to coordinate colors as it was mostly floral papers that I was using. 

Once I got that done I started pulling pictures.  They start with our high school graduation pictures and proceed through our weddings, baby's, class reunions, trips back and forth, Christmas family photos, and pics of us with our families.  On the inside of the cover is a small envelope with a sentiment on vellum paper.  Our class song...Friends by Elton John was printed on vellum also and mounted to the left of our senior pictures.  The next pages mirror each other with a few pics of our weddings. I tried to mirror the photos, so one of her and her attendants, one of me and my attendants...you get the idea.  You also see ribbons sticking out of the bag pockets.  I put additional pictures on card stock and then put a grommet in the end of each card and looped an organza ribbon through it.

I also found some Jolee's embellishments for graduations, weddings, babies, etc. and added those to the pages as well.  I found that the paper bag bottoms that proved to be the short pages in between the regular sized pages were great for the embellishments or sentiments.  It allowed me to use more photos on the larger pages too.  I also used lots of different stickers and sentiments as well as stamping up and inking other sayings about friends and time and fixing those on the pages.  Additionally I stuck in some bling and more butterflies, because what flower garden is complete without butterflies.  The final two pages and the last pocket were mostly pics of Becky and me through the years.  Talk about a walk down memory lane...and boy the hairstyle and clothing changes in 35 years!  Good for lots of laughs for sure.  Great memories as well!  I hope she enjoyed receiving it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Until next time...Imagine, Create, Enjoy!   



Paper Bag Photo Books



1st Attempt -- Christmas Album



A couple of years ago I saw at a local craft store a sample paper bag book for which they were offering classes.  Well with Christmas approaching I really couldn’t afford the class, but I did have a supply of scrapbook paper, embellishments, and some brown paper lunch bags I could use to try my own version of this idea.  Well, that was then, and a year and a half later I have thoroughly enjoyed crafting these great gift ideas.  I also have managed to sell a few to my friends who readily admit, crafting is not their thing!   I have used different papers, depending on the theme I wanted to highlight, i.e., Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Travel.  So for this first attempt I used paper I had in stock, a my tab punch, my handy Cricut machine and stickers and embellishments in my stash.  To secure the spine of the book I punched seven or eight holes with a standard hole punch. For this first one I cut individual lengths of ribbon and slip knotted them around the holes. That didn't work so well, the ribbon I chose was rough and they want to frequently work loose. On future books I changed my strategy at the suggestion of a co-worker and have now started weaving a matching ribbon approximately 36 inches long once down through the spine and then turned around and wove it right back up the spine.  At the top I then tied a bow.  You can also attach jewels, beads, trinkets, whatever you want to personalize it.  Here are a few samples of other themes.



Travel Album



Fishing Album



I varied the themes and methods but the general idea comes through.  For the fishing book I used two or three different colors of twine I had laying around, doubled it up and wove it through the spine.  I also added a couple of small fish hooks.  This is my son Nathan and his fiance Laurencie's brag book for when they go fishing.


Puppy Love Album



Inside Pages Puppy Love Album





 This book is for a dog lover friend and former co-worker.  The ribbon has little paw prints on it and I managed to find some paw print and dog bones papers for the insides.  She loved her little Dog Album. 

Recently there have been a number of friends, friends of friends, aquaintenances who have been diagnosed with cancer.  I wanted to do something that would allow them to record this part of the journey in their life.

Front of Album

I came across these embellishments at JoAnn’s, themed around cancer.  Surely that sounds a little weird, but it gave me an idea…here is a sample of what I gave my friend. 



Back of Album





To these survivors I take off my hat. You are exceedingly strong and I admire you. 



If you are looking for a simple, imaginative, way to treat someone with a special gift that will help them store their memories, this is a perfect little project.  Until next time... Imagine, create, enjoy!