A Special Book

I was asked by a client of our IT business (after receiving one of my Christmas cards!), to make a very special birthday card.

The gentleman is turning 90 and just recently had to put his beloved wife into a nursing home. Not a really good week for him, his friends decide to throw him a birthday bash to be held this evening! This gentleman is apparently a favorite within his club, so I knew this had to be special. The person that commissioned me to make it asked that it have space for about 50 people to sign. They suggested maybe A4 (8 1/2 x 11...kinda). As I thought about it, I really couldn't bring myself to make something that size because I knew from experience it would just look a bit tacky.

So off to my local favorite scrapbook shop to see what inspiration I could glean. On one of their shelves someone had created this fabulous mini scrapbook for display, and the inspiration began to take shape. I didn't have any pictures, that probably would have been so good, but didn't have any... Then it hit me, they need places for 50 people to sign. TAGS! What a great idea, and hey, I could make each page a different colour combination, and, and, and... It all got a bit exciting! So below is what I came up with...

If you have looked through my entire blog, you may have recognized the design for the 90. I did a "50" like this on a card in the past. It's just foam core with Japanese paper put on with Jac paper. I cut it all out, stuck it together, then filed the edges with a fingernail file, to age them a bit.

















When I saw the mini scrapbook, the person that created it had used this wonderful stamp that said all kinds of nice things, and they had clear embossed it onto the cover, I loved it and decided to borrow the idea. The "celebrate" is a clear plastic thing I thought would work. I used my ever present favourite Dimentional Magic to glue it on, but because I didn't know exactly how to do it, it looks a bit daggy, but A LOT better than the first one I tried, which will continue to rest comfortably in the bottom of the garbage can...













They suggested this for the inside greeting thing. The leaves and branches are done in Versa Mark, as a watermark.

This is the blue page, the first page. Because this is supposed to be a greeting type card/booklet, I decided that the less I embellish the better. I wanted the words that are written to the birthday boy to be the embellishment. I tried to make the tags little handle things different, although I did digress later in the book, it was getting late.












This is the green page. I think I liked this one best, just because its green and it has leaves on it, two of my favorite design things. The tags on the left just have a leaf punch on the top of them, and of course I had to use my Fiskars leaf border punch.












The yellow page

This page was supposed to be brown, well, one side looks brown. They actually look a lot brown-er in person.












The proverbial purple page.

I know, I know... "orange?" I really love the background paper I used on the left side and when I tested it together with this tangerine-ish colour, I really liked it, and I had to make the facing page match a bit. The words say "You are Brilliant, Marvelous, Awesome, Amazing and a Wonderful Friend" and apparently this is the exact sentiment they wanted to communicate. I stamped it in black, then used a positioner to stamp over it with Versa Mark to clear emboss it, so the letters are raised.

When I delivered this little book, the clients were so pleased, and almost speechless. They hadn't expected something quite so elaborate. I also went and found a box to put it in, but it was a very plain box, so I stamped some leaves on that as well. I also included some archival pens for the party attendees to use.

I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a phone call tomorrow!

YAY me! I'm SO done!

I have finally completed the scrapbook! Its done and going in the mail today! The 21st... not the 1st like I had originally planned. Oh well, at least mom and dad won't get their prezzie early! They know its coming and hopefully they get it before New Years Day!

Here are my last three pages, I don't like them much, but when it gets to be 4am and you won't allow yourself to go to bed till its finished, what can you do?!

Sheesh I was a geeky looking kid!

I thought it would be nice for my parents to get to know my Aussie family as well.

The LAST page I'll ever do!

Scrapbook page - Actress or Ham?

I really like this page... I should it took me TWO DAYS! Sheesh. I discovered that I had so many pictures of my drama team days and I really didn't want to take it to more than a two page layout so I had to come up with an idea to put all 16 of them on one set of pages. I saw a similiar idea on DIY Scrapbooking, but they put the little envelopes inside a bigger one and put a button and string assembly on the front to hold it all together. I just strung organza ribbon across to keep the taped together envelopes from flopping down when mom removes the page. The envelopes are also handmade.

Each picture has its own piece of cardstock and ribbon, and on the back I've written my favorite moment from each play, a line I can remember or the part I played, along with the name of the play and the year. I really relived that wonderful time in my life while I was putting this page together.

The letters were probably the hardest part and my fingers have the blisters to prove it! I took a thin piece of foam core poster board, put jac paper on it, then put on a piece of scrapbook paper from the Flavia collection. I then printed out the letters on plain paper, cut them out, then traced them onto my prepared board. Last, and the worst part, I carefully cut out each letter with my xacto knife.

In the white square on the right side, I eventually journalled about my time with the team and how much I loved it. (sorry the pictures aren't better, I meant to PhotoShop them before I put them on).

Sigh, almost done! My first and last scrapbook.

I'm getting through the pictures, and have come up with a layout for the picture from the last post. Thanks to Michelle I think it turned out ok. The picture, in the first place, was really dark and blurry, I had to PhotoShop the heck out of it to get it as bright and clear as I did, but I didn't dare take it any further. Oh well, at least I have a 5 year old picture of me!

The little rectangle of paper on the left swivels, there are two pieces there and I thought I'd journal what I loved about the farm, and mom could do the same, or write whatever she wanted. Its very plain, but oh well. Keep in mind that this is an 8x8 album, so less really is more!

This is my "cousin" page. I found this background paper at the Scrapbook Superstore and thought it was perfect, and I just so happened to have cardstock about the same color to tie it all together. As you can tell, its a double page spread. I've got a couple of those in this album.

I miss my cousins...

Eeek! Scrapbooking Shelly?!

I said I would never get into scrapbooking because I don't have children and honestly was just never that interested in it. I mean, face it, either you do scrapbooking or you're a card maker... that's what I've been told anyway!

If anyone has any comments on my pages, please, I'd love to hear them! And perhaps some more experienced scrapbookers might have some ideas?? I have one picture in particular that is really special. I have NO idea what to do with it.
















Last time I visited my parents they had my pictures scattered all over with no rhyme or reason, so I asked mom to plunk them all into an envelope and send them to me. I told her not to worry, I wasn't going to destroy them and she'd get them all back. Well, she technically will, but I PhotoShopped all of them, boy are THEY in for a surprise or two! I LOVE PhotoShop! Some of my pictures were so dark and blurry, but they've all turned out phenominal and I know mom will love the results.

If you know her... don't tell! Its a Christmas present!

This is the first page I have ever done. I know someone who doesn't like it, but she knows what I think of that ;-)

This is, so far, the page I like most.

I'm not all that keen on this one. It was the second one I've done.


















And what scrapbook would be complete without a Christmas page?!


















There will be more to come. I'm working on a yellow page right now that I had to run all over today trying to find flowers that would work. Isn't it funny how, well, this MAY just be me, but you figure you have enough of anything you might need for a project. Then a special page might come up, and all of a sudden your creativity takes you in a completely different direction and you have nothing! Nothing you have already got will work for this particular page, and out you go, scouring the city for that perfect piece of cardstock, background paper, or embellishment. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me.

One of these days, I'm going to try a project using only the things I own at that time.... yeah riiight!