enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

project monday : building a book.

On Friday, our engagement images arrived on a CD. Ninety-three high-res images. I think my little computer wanted to explode. I work with a very little camera and very little resolution. Now that I have seen the difference (and improvement) I am not sure how to go back.

For the past couple weeks, I have been trying to come up with the best way to display the photos in book form. I have had a small (7x9 inch) 3-ring binder sitting around for awhile, and I figured it would be perfect. I purchased a lot of orange, gray and cream card stock to use as the background for simple scrapbook pages. But once I got the actual images and started playing around in Photoshop Elements, I decided to keep the whole book digital. Two page spreads with only the photos, white space & Helvetica in orange and gray. 

I wasn't sure quite the best way to incorporate text into the book and it ended up being a little random. A few spreads have "stories" - little anecdotes that I remember from the photo shoot. Other photos have just a short sentence accompanying them. In the end, it sort of became a letter to Paul. I called him "you" throughout the whole book. The storyboard is what you see above, it's 38 pages.

I contemplated having the pages all printed and bound through a service like blurb, but after a test print of the first page I knew I would do it all at home. The combination of my printer and Lisa's photos is just perfect and I really do love that little orange binder.

Tomorrow, I will share the printed out pages as well as how I am going to house them all in the album. I will also talk about photo paper, adhesive and the only printer you will ever need for the rest of your life.

photos by Lisa Welge

project monday : a favorites book.

I started a new minibook last week to collect "favorites" for the month of August. I will continue to fill it with horizontal photos and other paper memorabilia.

 

In the past few years, I have made many books like this. (Evidence of Lovely is my favorite.) They are collections of fun photos and papers that tell a story only because I like seeing them all together. The photos/papers are mounted back to back with a gluestick and there is no plastic covering keeping them from touching each other. These books may not hold up forever, but wear and tear means they were loved.

If you want to make a favorites book, I recommend looking through your photos on your computer and having some of the "favorites" printed. Be sure to crop them so they are all portrait or landscape. If you find you have a lot of favorite things that lack photos, now is a great time to document them. Get close to your object so it fills the frame. To get the best lighting, you may need to take the object out of it's natural habitat. (I take all my book/product photos on our balcony once it gets shaded. Perfect natural light - and cool wood grain background.)

Small kits to make your own favorites book will be in the update tomorrow. The covers are letterpressed in teal on gray chipboard. The kits are packaged in a 4x6 glassine envelope that can later be included in the book.

Happy Monday! If you have any questions, please ask in the comments and I will respond there as well.

project monday : a 6x6 mini book.

A few weeks ago, I bought a PLAY minikit from Jamaica. (it looks like they're sold out now.) I had it shipped to California and I played with it while I was home. I loved the fun small size that it came in, but I decided to use the pieces as part of a larger book based on the idea of PLAY.

I cut 12x12 papers in half (6x12) and folded them to make a 6x6 book. I stapled them together on the crease to hold it all together.
I slid a ribbon between the staples and backed a photo with paper to keep it in place.
A vellum envelope, left over from a mixed paper book holds a secret note to Paul.
I am sort of obsessed with lined paper for storytelling.

Supplies used : AC slickwriter, sharpie, staples, Heidi Swapp and Kolo photo corners, Paper Source scalloped card and vellum envelope, Happy Tape, Heidi Swapp letter stickers, patterned papers by Paper Source, Hambly, Teresa Collins, SEI & Luxe Designs.

it's the summer of the travel album.

I am off to Tahoe with Paul and his family for the next couple days. Packed with swimsuits, sunscreen and my polaroid, is a simple mini book of patterned papers. I plan on taking lots of photos to fill this up and of course hope to collect all sorts of odds and ends from the places we visit.

click to enlarge.

So far, the book has lots of orange, blue and browns. Hopefully they'll match perfectly with the blues and greens of Lake Tahoe. I will be sharing the after photos of the book by Friday.

Have a great week.

project monday : something outta orange.

Today I have three layouts to share that I put together last night.

On Saturday, my new stamps from Apple Blossom Studio arrived. (The same day Joy's little girl came! For very good reason, it may take awhile for the stamps to be listed - I'll keep you posted.) Late last night, I decided to start a few layouts and see what came about. The only cardstock in the house that is not already delegated to future craft projects was: ORANGE. I just have to be clear, I am not obsessed with orange. Well, I am, but NOT this shade of orange. Not even a little bit. But this is why I own paint. I was able to redo the color and make three layouts that do not look like exactly the same thing.

(click and then click again to zoom.)

Paint is my favorite. Just ask my workshop folks. Primarily for the texture and also because it gives paper shades and layers instead of a single color. I painted two of the papers before I decided how to best make use of the stamps. I use the very inexpensive craft paint found at Michael's. It makes my cardstock curl up quite a bit. I have not found a solution to this, but eventually the pages will make it into an album and then it won't matter at all.

For the first layout, I opened my scrap drawer and pulled pieces that went with the rich purple. Everything fell into place quickly and I choose to use the circle stamp with Versamark which is a watermark ink pad. I never emboss, but went for it with clear embossing powder. That looked cool, but didn't show up as well as I would have liked. So I re-stamped all over the layout and used red embossing powder. (I should mention I am now addicted to embossing powder and have already been to AC Moore this morning to stock up.)

The second layout was painted blue mixed with a little purple paint that was still on the brush. After the paint was dry, I stamped and embossed again with pink and white sparkles. Not very manly for an e&p layout, but fun.

And the third layout uses the stamps as a journaling box. I only had two photos printed and ready to scrap so the focus of this page became this fabulous paper. I made this page to hold a thought, not a memory. Though I suppose the boundaries between the two overlap quite a bit.

It is so nice when the make it work plan works.