mini picture book.......finally

Hidey Ho! 

How is everyone doing?  I got to stamp today and it felt so good!  Its been a long time and I really missed it. 


I finally got the other mini picture book done for my cousin and I took pics of the process for you in case you would like to make your own little book. 

Here is what it ended up looking like:

Punch Potpourri (hostess set).  Basic black, crumb cake, poppy parade and old olive cardstock.  Poppy parade and soft suede inks.  Big shot, little leaves die, sticky pearls, double ribbon punch, Newsprint DSP and a bunch of my favorite Tombow Multi glue. 

Cute eh?   This measures 3" x 3".  Small enough to fit in your purse or pocket.  Here are the step by steps for you:

Start with your cover.  This measures 3" x 11".  Score at 3", 3 1/2", 6 1/2", 7", 8 15/16". 

Now for your inside pages.  Again, this measures at 3" x 11".  Score at 3", 6", and 9".  This will leave you a 2" little piece.  I wanted 8 pages in mine and so cut 3 of these.  You can have more or less depending on your need.  Fold it mountain and valley style.

Put some glue on the 2" section and glue it to a 3" section.  Do this for all 3 pieces so you have one long continuous piece.

Since I only wanted 8 pages, I cut off the last 3" and 2" sections.  This will make sense in a minute......I think.

See what I've got going on here?  Both of the 3" sections on either side will glue to the cover.  Now if you didn't want pages or wanted to put pics on both sides of the panels then you could just glue one of the 3" sections to the cover and the rest would pull out like an accordion.  Does that make sense?

Here I've only glue down the left 3" section of the crumb cake to the 3" section of the black.  See how you could leave the right side unglued and it would fold out? 

This is the other side of the cover.  There are 2 sections.  One should measure 1 15/16" and the other will measure 2 1/16".  Stick some glue on there (get it?  stick some glue?  I crack myself up) and glue them together.  This will make the flap of the book and will make it sturdier. 

Here you see that I glued down the left 3" section to the cover and ran a stripe of glue down the inside crease of the pages.  You don't want to glue the whole inside together because then it wouldn't fold  flat for viewing.

Here is a little pearl of wisdom for you, it would be so wise to sponge your pages before you ever glued them in the book.  Its a little more cumbersome after the fact.  ;)  I cut the Newsprint DSP into 2 3/4" squares and glued them in after I sponged the pages.

Now its time to glue in your pics.  I printed mine out as wallet size and then cut them into squares. 

I know, I jumped a little here didn't I?  I covered the flap with some more DSP, then used the double ribbon punch, the little leaves die and cut out the flower.  I just got the sticky pearls (really not my style, but I like it here).  I glued down everything with the Tombow really well and tried to keep everything pretty flat.  That way when she puts it in her purse or pocket the cover won't get messed up.  

Oh yeah, I also rounded the corners of the flap.

Velcro.

I tried to punch it with my 3/4" circle punch but it wouldn't work.  Anyway, this makes a nice tight closure.

Adding the black cardstock matting behind the pics makes these pages pretty sturdy.  My sweet cousin has a 2 year old and hopefully she'll be able to look at this book and her baby strength won't annihilate it in 2 seconds. 

There ya go!  Cute little picture book.  Now go forth a make a bunch!  Let me know if you have any questions. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I know I've been pretty sporadic lately but things will get back to normal.  More on that another day. 

Blessings, b.

around the house

Since I haven't been stamping at my desk, 16 feels she can leave sculptures for me.  Good use of my clear blocks, eh?

Larry, Moe and Curly.  I got these at Michael's for stocking stuffers. 

homework in her jammies.

texting with my buddy.  Love you girlie!

16 has to read and annotate Catcher in the Rye.  She is so happy about it.

the boy's homework that isn't getting done.

I haven't sat at my desk in a few days.  One of my goals this year was to spend more time stamping with my friends and creating things for my family, instead of hanging on the computer.  So far, not a whole lot of computer but, not a whole lot of stamping either. 

I'm researching the problem.  Will let you know when I figure it out. 


Blessings, b.

picture book

Howdy stampers!  How're things going for you?  We've had a busy weekend around here. 

We are switching our cable company and the guy is coming tomorrow.  The guy will need to get in my bedroom.  UGH!

Its amazing how much dirt and "stuff" you see when someone is coming over.

Not that my room is super sloppy or anything.  I make my bed everyday and the clothes always go in the hamper. 

What I really noticed was the dust.  The dirty ceiling fan.  The dust on top of the t.v. cabinet.  The dirty windows.  The dusty treadmill.

So I spent a good part of today cleaning.  Nothing like having a stranger in your bedroom to prompt you to get some stuff done.  Now I have a dust free bedroom.  The spiders behind the cabinet even got evicted.

Gross, I know.

I also cleaned out the vegetable beds.  I still had a bunch of bell peppers on one of the plants.  My onions are still doing good and I planted some carrots.  I need to get some broccoli seeds. 

I also got the pictures taken of the book I made my grandma. 

I saw a cute little book on Lisa Johnson's blog several months ago and it reminded me of the little book kits that SU! used to sell.  This book is just like those. 

Elements of Style set.  Basic black, crumb cake and very vanilla cardstock.  Soft suede and basic black ink.  Neutrals patterned DSP, 3/4" circle punch, small heart punch, vanill seam binding, corner rounder.

Its pretty small.  It measures out to 3" x 2 3/4".  For the tag, I punched the heart first and then centered the circle punch over that and punched.  Does that make sense?

I had bought my daughter a necklace for Christmas and it came in this cute little purse/box thing that had a magnetic closure. 

So, of course I took it apart and used it on this.  Its pretty groovy actually.

I stamped each page with the scroll/swirly stamp from Elements of Style in the black ink before I put the pics on there. 

That is the boy's Senior pic.  Isn't he handsome? 

This was really easy to put together, but I wasn't sure at first and didn't take pics of the putting it together part.  I'm going to make another one for my cousin so I'll take step by step pics then.  If you have any questions now though, just let me know. 

Alrighty then.  It seems like I shouldn't be sore just dusting and working the veggies but I am.  So this old broad is going to bed. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

December Daily, finished

Hey stampers!  I hope you had a wonderful day.  So many of you were in the snow and ice and I hope you stayed safe. 

I had a sick little girl home today.  Poor Grace was throwing up all night.  She was upset when I told her she would have to miss school today because then she wouldn't get another Perfect Attendance Award. 

So I stayed home today and disenfected things.  And cuddled and watched movies.  She is feeling a little better now but still weak.  So we'll see if she makes it to school tomorrow.  Must have been some weird stomach virus because nobody else at home got it. 

So tonight I wanted to show you the rest of the December Daily. 

Day 21

day 22

day 23

day 24

day 25

So there you have it.  I did it very differently this year and I think I like it better.  I'm not sure why I was trying to do all 2 page spreads. 

Next year I think I will buy one of those 1/2 binders.  The ones that hold 5.5 x 8.5 pieces of paper.  That way my pages can be in page protectors.  I don't think anything will happen to these since I used the Tombow Multi glue but I'd feel better if they were in page protectors.  You can buy those binders at any office supply store.  Also, that way I'll get 2 pages out of one sheet of cardstock.  This book was 6 x 8 and I could only get one page out of each sheet. 

Alrighty then.  I did get my Grandmother's book finished the other day.  I just need to take the pics of it.  So I'll be showing you that next. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

vacation is over

I love vacation.......but today I had to go  back to work.  Tomorrow the kiddos have to go back to school. 

Time goes by so fast.

I'm going to try and be quick tonight.  No blah, blah, blah from me.  

You're welcome.

I got the rest of the pics printed for the December Daily.  Here are a few more days for you.

Day 13

day 14

day 15

I know it seems hard to read here, but in person its fine.

day 16

day 17

day 18

day 19

This page is a little hard to read, even in person.

day 20

Okie dokie, thats it for today.  I'm pooped and ready for bed. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope everyone is staying safe in the snow and ice.  The weather reports show some scary stuff.  Just stay home if you can.  I'll be thinking of you.

Blessings, b.

back from the dead

Okay, I didn't really die.  For a few days there I just felt like I wanted to.  Especially when I'm laying there, coughing up a lung and a pile of tissues is threatening to overtake me, and the children are home on vacation.

"I'm bored." 

"What's for lunch?" 

"Mom, the computer is doing something weird." 

"Where is my fill in the blank ?"  etc...............

UGH!  I love my kids.

Now, I did get to read a few books.  I reread the last Harry Potter.  I wanted to go see the movie but haven't quite made that yet.  And I read the first 3 Anne of Green Gable books.  I've never read them before.  I loved them!  Have you read them?  (I've been trying to read more of the classics this past year.)

I love reading about that time period.  Things were so much simpler then and Anne has such a wonderful outlook on life.  She makes the best out of everything.  I'm trying to be more like that. 

Things are very uncertain for me job-wise for the next school year and so I've been trying to make the best of everything.  Trying to see what opportunities are available, what other paths I can go down........trying to be somewhat excited for changes to happen instead of dreading them.  I have a hard time with change. 

But you know, when you're laying on the couch, (for more than 10 minutes because you actually do get up and fix the computer or help them with the dial on the washer or play a game of Scrabble where the biggest word you can conjure is "snot"), and contemplating your life, you notice how dirty the windows are.  Or the spider webs that are softly swaying in the heater's breeze.  Or the accumulation of cat hair on the back of the couch.  Or the dust on the lamp shade.  Or............the list goes on.  Really not the best of environments to be contemplating your life.  Kind of depressing actually. 



What was my point?  Really, I was going somewhere with this.  Give me a minute...................................

See?  I've been interrupted 13 times (not joking) since I sat down to write this and have lost my train of thought.  Its a wonder I get through the day.

It'll come to me.  Probably at 3:00 in the morning and then I'll forget again by tomorrow. 

Anyway, Mommy is definitely feeling better and things are starting to run smoothly again.  I'm playing catch up on so many things. 

I know, you'd think I'd be catching up on cleaning.  Yeah,.......no.   Although the laundry is done ;)

I've been getting the December Daily done.  And I am done except, I ran out of ink.........again.  I'm only 1 picture away from it being complete.  Woo Hoo! 

Here is the front cover:

Classic Numbers (retired) and Christmas Classics set.  Confetti white, early espresso and daffodil delight cardstock.  More mustard and real red ink.  Brights and Neutrals Patterns DSP, sticky rhinestones and dimensionals.


I started this without an album to put anything in.  Ali was making hers 6"x 8".  So I thought I'd just do the same.  Now I'm just too cheap and lazy to go find an album it will fit in so I just punched some holes and put book rings in them.  It works really well but I'm a little concerned about the fact that the pages are not protected.  I used the Tombow Multi Glue on everything so I don't think anything will fall apart.  Time will tell I guess. 

Then here are days 1-7.  A few weeks went by and I didn't even sit at my desk to do the Dec. Daily.  BUT, I did keep taking pics and a running list of anything that happened each day.  So that when I went back to put it all together, all I had to do was find the pic and put it together.  Next year I hope to be more on top of it everyday or so.

day 8

Not much happened this day so I put in Grace's Christmas list.  The boy didn't make one this year and nobody can find 16's. 

day 9

What you may notice is that I quit making each day a 2 page spread.  My life is just not that exciting to accomodate that.  So I started doing 1 pagers. 

day 10

This page didn't photograph very well. 

day 11

day 12

Alrighty then.  I have more done but I'll show you later.  I need to get the ink and finish printing the pics. 


Holy cow!  I just reread this whole post and its so long and hardly makes sense!  See what happens when I don't talk to anyone except myself and teenagers in too long?  I just ramble.  Okay well, maybe you just skipped all that talk and just went for the pics.  Does anybody read all my nonsense anyway?

Thank you so much for stopping by and keeping things tidy around here.  I hope you are all staying healthy.

Blessings, b.