I made this mini book for my daughter as a 18th birthday gift! She went to South Africa for the summer vacation so I had almost 3 months to pour all my love into creating it in such a way that it was totally unique to her! The look on her face as she paged through it was priceless! With eyes shining she said 'Mom you really know me...I did not know you took notice of that I said"! That was all the appreciation I needed!!
Well here are the pages, much of the personal tags etc were removed for photograph purposes so enjoy the pages and please do leave a comment.
All the pages are cut from thick poster board; I did it by hand :-). On each page I glued decorative paper, sanded the edges with an old nail file and inked all the edges with walnut stain.
The word 'time' is an alphabet that was part of a free kit on the internet. I created 'of my life' on my laptop, tore the edges and inked them with walnut stain. Before I glued down the decorative paper I adhered thin blue ribbon on the front and back covers to secure the mini book with a bow. The trinket is from Bobunny and the key is a random key which I found around the house. The photo frame is a print out from the internet. I fussy cut the frame, gesso'd it and applied glossy accents. There is a acetate cover under the frame over the photo to protect it. I changed the photo of her to black and white and layered a quote on the left hand side of her face. Roses, flowers, a button and feathers completed the look. Lots of fibres and ribbons around the extra large ring binders.
I love this photo of her - it so portrays her...always smiling with a great sense of humour. I stamped imagine of her hand, earring in her ear, fund on the side and lots of bling and inspirational stamps. She models so thus the elegant lady in a black dress - this is also a cut out from the internet.
This page is for all her little secret notes she had stuck in a plastic sleeve. I made my own envelope with decorative paper, attached a 'keep out' sign which resembles a gate. It lifts up to reveal access to the envelope - she now keeps all her little notes in there. The page reads Life Unscripted! The hour glass and clock face is a cut out from the internet while the hands of the clock is Tim Holtz I believe. A butterfly, mini sunflower and some bling completed this page. The alpha is also free off the internet; I fussy cut it and popped up every second letter with tiny foam squares
This page provides photo mat squares for the family. I created the names on my laptop and used thick foam tape to secure to the page. A red heart, some 3d plastic flowers and swirls add a nice finishing touch.
This little envelope insert I created for her to keep track of the things in her life she is grateful for. Being a life coach I constantly remind her to do that and when things seem really bad to her, to take out her note pad and jot down that which she takes for granted. She writes down her little lists from time to time and keeps them in here (I removed them for photograph purposes).
This page is dedicated to her love of music. She is an eclectic like me and has also started to write some of her own tunes. She plays guitar and has a goal to learn to play the piano. All the images, pages you see are printed off the internet. I layered some Prima flowers and added a tiny brown glass flower. Applied glossy accents to the guitar and adhered it to the page with a brad - the guitar swivels out. There is some layering and I added some flower soft to the bunch of flowers in the girls hand. I scattered music notes around the page and also created some tags out of music sheets I found on the internet. The pink butterflies are from my stash and everything is inked with walnut stain.
Her other passion is photography and this page is dedicated to it. I found an unusual picture on the internet in beautiful hues of green and blue - looks much like a mythical under the sea scene (I know its too visible here). I created a envelope with this paper and adhered it to the page in such a way that she could also slide images under the envelope as well as inside. I took photos as close as I could without revealing what she had written and keeps on this page). There is a camera charm, some other embellies and really unique photo's she has taken of friends. Lots of notes, tabs and a net at the bottom of the envelope for more keepsake space. I felt the net added to the under the sea theme :-)
She has a cat called Matt - found him when he was a kitten abandoned near the garbage/dumpster area of the apartment tower we live in. They absolutely love each other and she takes more photographs of him than she does of us her family "smile". So this insert is called 'Ode to Matt" . She has yet to fill it with poems, photo's etc. ..too cute
She has maintained strong ties with her friends back home via social networks etc; plus every year we fly them back home for the long summer vacation. School usually closes here in Dubai mid June and re-opens for the new academic year early September - it is usually the hottest time of the year too and these intense heat can be pretty unpleasant. This page is dedicated to her SA friends and contains photo mats and some embellies. I found a t-shirt on the internet, re-sized it, placed a SA map and the words besties on it. I created the pocket for the photos and also used a TH pin for decoration.
This insert is a envelope I purchased at a LSS. Added a acetate square, a jean pocket and secured a heart that reads BFF. Her best friend lives in South Africa and in this envelope she keeps photos, notes, stubs, trinkets regarding their friendship. The back of the envelope reads party :-)
Like the SA besties page, this one is dedicated to the wonderful friends she has made in the UAE.
She has so many dreams I therefore had to create this page for her. I called it "What is on your bucket list". I provided scroll like tags for various times in her life so she could update her list as she grew older. I know she wants a car when she goes to university and she has dreams of becoming an international model. I secured a corrugated square with brads onto the decorative paper - she can also slide her lists under there.
I found this bucket image on the internet and used some silver crafting wire to create the handle of the bucket. I printed and fussy cut the bucket twice and placed it on the corrugated board in such a way that I could insert some tags into bucket.
This page hold her stubs for all the concerts she attended and all the movies she saw. I created envelopes from decorative paper, created concerts and movies black sleeve on my laptop. Found the images of singers and movies on the internet. Very easy page to create!
The last page I titled "to all the boys I've loved before" and created a corset type of heart to store her little bits in it. So just red hearts with black lace etc. I am a bit of a strict mom so she does not have much to put in there yet - but I am sure once she starts university it will fill up quite quickly :-)
The back of the mini and a top view below:-)
I made this book last year July and more than 80% of this book I created with papers and images from the internet. One does not always need fancy and expensive scrapbook papers and embelishments however beautiful! There are times when the imagination is your best tool ever!
I loved making this for her and she loves her mini book. We hope you enjoyed peeking into the pages and who knows, maybe we have inspired you to create similar. Thanks for stopping by...
