More Custom Orders

In the midst of being super-pregnant, I just finished these custom orders. I'm really excited with how they turned out.

Custom Orders

These are a few pictures of the recent custom orders I've done. One was a "Top 40 Things I Love About You" and the other two were "Thankful Thoughts" mini-journals. I'll post more of them as I get them done.


We had a great Thanksgiving with family. And what made it even better was that I got to help my sister make some medium-sized journals for her friends for Christmas. She did a great job, and I think they turned out beautiful!

A New Size!

So my sister is a genius! I don't know why I never thought of doing a medium size journal, but when she suggested, I tried it out and LOVE it! I'm so excited about how perfectly it fits in my hands and how nice it looks.

Now there are three size options for journals:
The Large Journal (Measuring 8.5x5.5)

The Medium Journal (Measuring 5.5x4.25)
The Mini Journal (Measuring 4.25x2.25)

Bindings

For those of you custom ordering journals, here are some close-ups of the binding options.

Custom Name Plates

As some have requested, here are close-ups of the "Custom Name Plates" you can have done for your journal. I think you can tell which ones I did at the beginning of my book-making, and which ones I have done more recently with more experience. Either way, you can get an idea of what I mean when I say "Custom Name Plate."

More Cover Choices

Here are some more cover choices from my "Manly" collection of paper. It's kind of hard to see, but "L" has Chinese characters printed on it. Click on the picture to magnify it, and you might be able to see it better. "M" is a gold/dark purplish blue paper with Egyptian prints on it. And "N" is a purple checkered with gold and light blue squares.

Cover Choices

Per request to some custom orders, I'm posting some of the different selections of cover paper for journals. This is just the beginning. I call this my more "manly" collection.

Giving Thanks

One thing I've learned in my life is that the more I focus on the things I'm thankful for, the more I'm able to be content with the things that I have. I remember our "Thankful Turkey" that my mom would place on the kitchen counter-top each November. Every day we were to write something we were thankful for and slip it inside the box. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, my dad would read them one by one. Some would be serious; some were silly. We created memorable moments sitting together as a family talking about the things we were all thankful for.

So this mini-journal is for the Thankful record-keeping. It measures to be 4.25x2.25--perfect for carrying around in a purse, handbag, or bookbag for those moments when any thankful thoughts come to you. It's also perfect for a little spot on the night stand for a little thankful pondering before bedtime. It's is filled with the white, 32 lb, watermarked paper.

This is another Thankful Journal--the same size as the first. I think the colors on this one are perfect for the Thanksgiving Holiday.
And really, any of the mini-journals could be used as Thankful Journals. Here are some more that I've done. These all contain blank pages and can be used for thankful compilations, to-do lists, memorable quotes, or anything else.

Travel Logs

These two books were made with the travel-lover in mind. They are both the standard size of 8.5x5.5, and they are great ways to log travel experiences. Both begin with a title page that reads: "One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things," by Henry Miller. And I really like the idea of recording and recalling memories through the five senses, so I put together pages that would do just that: prompts for the experiences abroad.

This first journal has the prompts on each of the 40 pages of ivory, 28 lb resume paper. It is also reversible--flip it over and you have blank pages (the backs of the prompts) for notes, journal entries, etc.
In the top left corner, there is a place to log location, date, and time, and then the prompts follow. They say, "I see," "I smell," "I taste," "I hear," and "I feel." Here is a picture of the prompted pages:

This second journal has a print of the Eiffel Tower on it, and also has the prompts, but only every other page of the 40 pages of 32 lb, white, resume paper.
And here is a picture of the back:

Explosion Book Photo Album

These books are quite fun to make--and have a great surprise inside. They measure 4.5x4.5 and are great little photo albums for the non-scrapbooker.

The first one I ever made was for Rhett, as a late Valentine's Day gift (I think). I filled the pages with some of our wedding and engagement pictures, and then wrote a few poems for him too.

The cover:
The inside pages "explode" open . . .
I love putting a little something on the back cover too:
The second one I did had a Halloween theme. I used pictures from last year's Halloween party of us dressed up like Cap'n Hook, Peter Pan, and Tinkerbell. Here's the front cover:

I also included pictures of us playing the flour game and getting flour all over our faces. The middle pages:
I had to trim down the pictures, and in doing so, I cut off Summer's little feet. So I decided to throw them on the back . . .

For Him/For Her

These books were fun to make. I came up with this idea to give as a wedding gift to the newlyweds. It's a set of mini-books, and to start out with, the boy takes the maroon one and the girl takes the blue one. There are forty pages in each, and the title page states: "Top 40 Reasons I Love You."

The idea is that throughout the first year of marriage, they fill in each of the pages with reasons why they love their spouse. Then, on their first year anniversary, they already have a gift for each other: forty reasons of their love for one another.

Here is a picture of the books. They measure 4.25x2.25 and are filled with the white, 32 lb, watermarked paper.

Here's a picture of the title page. The blue one is exactly the same.

Gift for Hubby

This year for Rhett's birthday, I decided to make a book for him from all the friends that we've made during our law school experience here. I wanted it to be a keepsake from everyone for years down the road. I think it turned out great.

A few weeks before I made it, I gave everyone their pages to work on. Their instructions were to pretty much do whatever they wanted--recall favorite memories with Rhett, thank him for something he's done for them, tell him why he's so super-cool, etc., or just wish him a happy birthday. Then I started collecting the pages--it was almost as fun as Christmas! Each new, unique page I collected got me so excited for the book. I loved them all.

This type of book is not bound with the Japanese Stab binding, like my journals are. It is actually called an Accordion book and can open up so all the pages are visible, or you can just turn them one by one like the pictures show. Because it's an accordion book, half the pages are on the front, then you turn it over and get to see the second half of the pages--a fun surprise for the recipient!

Here is the cover of the book. I used Heather's Cricut machine to cut the letters.


And here are pictures of some of the pages. For privacy, I didn't post pictures of the pages with family photos (but those turned out awesome too). I love the variety from everyone. It adds so much personality.








These are the pages from Summer and me.


And the back cover: