enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

i bid thee farewell, june.

1. 06.01, 2. 06.02, 3. 06.03, 4. 06.04, 5. 06.05, 6. 06.06, 7. 06.07, 8. 06.08, 9. 06.09, 10. 06.10, 11. 06.11, 12. 06.12, 13. 06.13, 14. 06.14, 15. 06.15, 16. 06.16, 17. 06.17, 18. JUNE! 19. 06.18, 20. 06.20, 21. 06.21, 22. 06.22, 23. 06.23, 24. 06.24, 25. 06.25, 26. 06.26, 27. 06.27, 28. 06.28, 29. 06.29, 30. 06.30

This was a good month for ripe fruit and fresh veggies. A good month for wearing shorts. For going out to dinner. For reading by the pool. For teaching workshops. For having adventures. For making books. For balloons. For building Web sites. It was a great month to see movies - we loved both UP and The Hangover. This month was the first month that I spent a lot less time at my work work and a lot more time at my home work. Sweet.

an out of town adventure.

A few weeks ago, I got it in my head that I needed to take a trip to New York. I decided I was out of ideas and New York would be a good place to find a few. Paul got home from work and I asked if he was in. He was. We leave Thursday. Paul wants to be sure we get New York pizza. And he is also hoping for donuts. I want to take 500 photos and visit fun shops.

Last night, I made an small album to bring with on the trip. It is 100% Jamaica inspired. You can see the tutorial she made on creating these little guys on Ali's blog. My book looks a bit different because I didn't read the directions - but I feel like this is already a new favorite. Such a cool technique, Jamaica.
To make the paper for the cover, I typed "NYC" repeatedly and printed it out on white cardstock. I added a few "NYC" pages on the inside the book as well.
The remaining book pages are Hambly overlays, white cardstock, regular transparencies and a few pieces of chipboard that I painted black and punched a square hole in.

Ideally, this book will fill up with journaling and paper souvenirs while we are there this weekend. After we get home, I will have my photos printed 4x6 - punch some holes and add them to the book as well.

For "on the road" supplies I will be bringing a holepunch, a black American Crafts slickwriter, a white Sharpie paint pen, StazOn ink, a date stamp and a tape runner. Plus a mini stapler that I still need to buy.

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You can see a previous album on the road from our trip to Kauai here.

Tomorrow I am going to do a BIG POST on my collection of mini books. I will also be answering a lot of frequent mini book questions. If there is anything you would like to know - please ask it in the comments so I can put it in tomorrow's post.

june 29.

Oh Monday. You came quickly. I don't have a Project Monday to share - but hopefully next week will be a big one. I think my website will finally be ready for it's big reveal. (I better be carefully not to hype it up too much.)

We are nearly at the half way point for the year 2009. So far, so good. I am keeping busy and for that I am glad.

today i am...

...wearing my swimsuit...eating cherries...and turning a stack of mixed paper into little books.

here's a start.

I wanted to share what I have started to make with my new art journal kit. I have decided to use it as a little photo journal for Paul and I this summer. I loved in UP when Ellie thanked Carl for the adventure. Eighty years from now, I will say the same to Paul.
Just one photo in there for now. We have started taking walks at night and on Tuesday I set my camera on the curb, started the timer and ran. Which would have been fine once. But we did it five times. Paul's middle name is "Good Sport."
I glued my map pages back to back to get map on each side. And I trimmed around the red frames. Soon they will hold photos and journaling.
I stitched the book together with the string from the packaging. I used a regular sewing needled to poke through all the pages and stitched in and out along the fold. I tied it off with a small knot.
The crosshatch pattern on the red paper makes perfect frames. I will be adding photos in the boxes as we take them.
So that's my take. I'm excited to get more photos of THE TWO OF US so I can add more embellishments and adventures to this little book.