Year-Record Books

The purpose of these books is to record the events that took place during the year these people served in their callings. Five books were ordered--one for each member of the presidency. The first year was typed up and presented on the first few pages of each book; the remaining years will be handwritten in. I also added a picture of the presidency on the front cover.

It was fun working with the texture-like print. I thought it made the books look very nice.

Christmas Order

These are two journals also ordered for Christmas gifts. I love this medium size and think they are so handy.

Gifts for Christmas

I made a few adjustments per request on some Christmas orders, and here's how they turned out. It was fun to put the name plates on and see a little personality added to them.

Wedding Photo Album

This was my first attempt at an actual photo album. It was for my sister-in-law for her wedding pictures.
She said she had about 100 pictures she wanted to put in the album, so we decided to go with two books. She chose the paper, which matched her colors, and I loved working with it.
Both books are pretty much identical, except for the designs which are in different locations. I thought the paper made the books look exceptional!

A Recent Order

This was an order for a friend who had me send the books straight to the birthday girls: Sharlie and Kaylinn. The book for Sharlie was a large journal with blank pages.


The book for Kaylinn was similar to the one for Wren--full of fun, colorful pages, sticker, stripes, and swirls.They were both fun projects, and I almost had just as much fun wrapping them up in birthday tissue paper to send out!

SALE!

Part II: Large Journals
Here's the list of large journals that are for sale. The first few contain blank pages, while the rest have print and journal prompts.
(See the prior post for Part I:Photo Explosion Books)

Ideas for blank journals: (Great for the upcoming Family Gatherings!)
*Distant Relative--Not through blood, but in miles. Have each family member write a message to the family (member) who can't make it to the celebrations, then send it to them for Christmas.
*Favorite Family Memories--Have family members record their favorite memories spent together with family, then give the journal to parents or grandparents for Christmas.
* Guestbook--Assign a few pages for the party guests to sign, then use it for future party celebrations too.
*Messages of Celebration--Have the children and grandchildren sign it with loving messages for the grandparents who are celebrating an anniversary.
*Thankful Journal--Use it during the month of November to record all the things you and your family are thankful for. Then read it together on Thanksgiving Day.
*Love Letters--Write love letters back and forth with your spouse.

SALE!

With the holidays approaching, all of my current items are going on sale. Today, I'm posting the explosion books. Tomorrow I'll be posting all the large journals on sale--so be sure to check back!

Part I: Photo Explosion Books
Here is a list of all the photo explosion books available:
(Sneak Peek of photo explosion books--look here to see the original post for this picture)








--Fill them with themed photos (wedding, Halloween, first Christmas etc.) or any random photos you love and want on display!

--Each book comes with hints and tips on how to insert photos for maximum success! :)

--Don't forget to check back tomorrow for more great deals!

26 Haikus for You

This year for Rhett's birthday, I wanted to do another book for him from family and friends, but different than last year's book. So I put together a book of haikus for him. He turned 26, and I wanted to get 26 haikus written by family and friends. I started collecting haikus about a month and a half ago--and what fun it was! Each time I got a new haiku, I'd burst with excitement to share it with Rhett. It was so hard to keep it a secret! They were so great! Everyone's was so creative and unique--some listed off qualities they admired in Rhett, others wrote about memories they had with him. One friend even wrote a line in Portuguese! It turned out to be a great collection. And Rhett loved it. He was impressed with everyone's talent at haiku-writing (as was I!), and he was excited to see what everyone had to write.

Here are some pictures of the book. I was going to make it in the usual style of books I do, but since I had given one to him for our recent anniversary (found here), I thought I'd try something different.

The body of the book was made from one sheet of paper, just folded and cut in certain places to create all the pages. I then stitched in the red pages. Here are some sample pages:

It was a fun size and such a fun project. Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a success! He loves it!

And . . . check back soon for the upcoming holiday sale!

Another Wedding Album and Gift

I had another order for a wedding guest sign-in book. It turned out quite similar to my sister's, except for a different print of paper for the cover (which was the same print used on the bride and groom's wedding invitations) and the ribbon which is orange instead of green. I didn't put any of the pictures in this one--the bride didn't have them yet--so she decided she would do that part.

As a gift to the bride and groom, I made these two 52 Reasons books for them.

Anniversary Gift

Just a few weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated our third year anniversary. As a gift to him, I made this book. But this isn't just any book I've ever made--this is Second-Year Law School Letters.

It all started on a dark and stormy night. Oops. Wrong story. It all started last year when I read Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright. My sister loved the book more than I did, but I did love the idea--write weekly letters to your spouse. In the book, the husband would give each letter to her after he had written it. But me, I decided to keep it a surprise. So last year, during the first week of his second year of law school, I wrote a letter to him. And each week after that. The letters became a record of each week--almost a journal entry--of what we had done that week/weekend, new milestones our daughters were reaching, and then an expression of love and appreciation for the little things he had done for me that week. Time passed through Halloween, the birth of our second daughter, Christmas, travels home for the holidays, Valentines day, law school competitions, Mother's Day, and then the summer. I'm a little disappointed to say that I missed two weeks out of the whole year, but I guess that's okay.

So for our anniversary, I compiled the letters into this book and titled it Second-Year Law School Letters.
The front title page:
The second "title page" had all the dates of the journal entries.
And a few sample pages of the letters. I kept the letters to a half page, which was nice because I didn't feel like I had to spend hours writing a lengthy letter.


And oh how embarrassing to notice typos in my journal entries! Don't look too close!


Ways to use this idea:
*Engaged? Write weekly letters during the engagement of all the preparations, stresses, and excitements.
*Pregnant? Write weekly letters of the anticipations of the labor, becoming a mother, weights and measurements, etc.
*Parenting? Write weekly letters as journal entries. I've started doing this as journals for my girls. I record cute things they do and say, their milestone progress, and anything else I think they'd like to know (and I'd like to remember). Here is a link to a journal I made for a friend's baby shower with this idea in mind.

Wedding Guest Book

This is the second project I worked on for my sister's wedding. She wanted a guest sign-in book for the reception with their engagement pictures on the pages. The book turned out to be 8.5x11. I was nervous about it because I'd never done one this large, let alone one with pictures (which means I needed to tweak the binding), but I think it turned out nice.


I used a quote about love from one her fiance's emails in the front cover, and then filled the book with 25 of their engagement pictures--one on each page. We found metallic sharpies for the guests to sign their names or write a brief message to the bride and groom.

On the back inside cover, I put their wedding invitations as a remembrance for their future kids to see.

I was excited with how it turned out . . . and sad to see it go!