Monday, January 7, 2008

enjoy paper '08

have you seen this? it's elise blaha's new website: paper adventure '08, a year-long journaling project. she's posting a new prompt each tuesday and anyone who wants to can play along. oh yeah and did i mention it's totally free?!

seeing as how i have done so well with my little "three beautiful things" project... (which is coming up on six months; volume two will be full at the end of this month!) ...i thought i was ready to take on a slightly more ambitious commitment. and since i have been lurking on elise's cool blog for a while and loving the things she makes, this seemed like a really good fit.

this weekend i made a minibook to hold the pages i'll make throughout the year. there's a great tutorial on the website if you need one, or you could use a pre-made book, or even just your pages in a little box or fancy envelope or a file folder...or...well, anything you like. having made these a time or two, i just kind of winged it. i took an 8.5" x 11" sheet of really thick chipboard that came in some sort of paper packaging, sliced it in half, painted and sealed the edges and then went wild with paper and embellishments. because hey--it's not a paper routine...it's a paper adventure!!!




(patterned paper: stemma, mambi, doodlebug, vintage ledger paper & more of the infamous bengali newspaper (lol!); clipart: anahata katkin; flowers: petaloo; brads: marah johnson, making memories, doodlebug, sei; chipboard: basic grey; transparencies: my mind's eye, heidi swapp; ribbon: heidi swapp, sei, michaels & misc. scraps; other: colorbox inks, heidi swapp jewels, epoxy sticker from michael's dollar spot, sakura glitter glaze pen, american crafts glitter marker, acryllic paint, papier glass finish; bookrings from staples)

(detail of cover in which you can see one of my favorite bits: the wings of the butterfly transparency are bent up & only the center is attached to the layer beneath so he looks like he is just perching there. cool, no?!) :)


now i just need to make my first page! this week's topic was "balance" ...something i have never been particularly great at...so i guess i will be able to think of plenty to say, huh?! :) tomorrow another topic will be posted and i'll make page two. i haven't decided if i will post the pages as i make them or not. i guess i'll have to see how they turn out!

(back of said book in which you can better see the lovely stemma spot-laminated paper (the black flowers are shiny and have a raised lacquered finish on them--yuuuuuuum!) and the little "enjoy paper 08" charm i made with a heidi swapp ghost letter, plus a chipboard heart & some rub-on letters)

10 comments:

  1. love your little book! thanks for playing along.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, this looks great! What a beautiful cover for a year long fun! And please do post your pages, it's so much fun to see what everybody comes up with!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, great cover! Love it! And heee...please do post your pages!! It's so much fun to see what everyone has made!

    ReplyDelete
  4. OMG! it's stunning! Thanks for showing the side view of the butterfly, it looks great, and totally loving the charm you made!
    You have definately got to post your pages!! we all want to see more!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would LOVE to see your pages. Your book is beautiful. Thank you for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Two more new blogs to add ot the reader (Elise's blog is #500 ... how nuts is that). I love your book. If this is what you were gluing, I would say it's a resounding success ... stunning.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes! I do enjoy paper! Although I do not enjoy paper cuts quite so much - they hurt. Sadly I get a lot of them. I'm not sure why. Maybe paper just doesn't like me as much as I like it... answers on a postcard please (but you'd better encase it in bubble-wrap, otherwise it'll be going for me with those razor-sharp edges in no time.) :o)
    VCxx

    ReplyDelete
  8. well its beautiful and what a nice bit of inspiration. and to think you're gonna fill it up? oooooooo
    :-)
    can't wait to see the insides bit by bit

    ReplyDelete
  9. OMG Lauren, that is amazing! Your work is truely beautiful!!! Thanks for letting us know about Elise's blog! I'll be stalking that one!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Please share the pages as you go, you know that we'll adore them. The cover to this album is nothing short of breathtaking. xo

    ReplyDelete

the *BEST* part of blogging is the comments, dontcha think? thanks for taking time to leave one! ~♥~