Mini-books

I think I've told you that I'm really into making mini-books at the moment. I think it's because I can combine my love of paper, scrapbooking and calligraphy. I also get to play with some new techniques to see if they work or not. I'm sure that I'll probably get over the current passion, but at the moment they are my current favourite thing to make.

Okay, here's the first one, I made this for my Mum for her birthday.

Box-board covered in Mulberry paper.

Scapwares flower stamped in multi-coloures and heat embossed with clear holographic powder

Scrapbooking tag with calligraphy done in burnt sienna.

This one I made for my sister Jenni (who happens to share a birthday with Mum!!). This is to hold some of her photos - she is a fantastic photographer and you can find her stuff here and here.

Box board covered in mulberry paper

Chipboard frame from some scrapbooking kit I've had for ages

'My Photos' calligraphy done in burnt sienna and then heat embossed with
clear holographic powder.

Photos is one of Jenni's printed on archival inkjet canvas paper

These books are really easy to construct, especially since the box board goes through my guillotine, I really hate having to cut board with a craft knife. I've been using the Crop-o-Dile Big Bite for the holes and the eyelets and I must admit that I'm trying to use up some of my supplies so sometime I have absolutely no idea who made the embellishment that I have used. Still if I'm going to post them with details I might have to start taking some notice.

Jenni and I attended a workshop on making mini-books on Sunday and I'll post those in another post. Similar in construction although I learnt some new techniques for folding paper and adding a spine and the bling that we used to decorate them was quite different and not what I'd used before. I love it when I can incorporate new techniques into what I'm already doing. I'm currently making another book for a friend of Andrew's and need to finish that.

I usually have an idea in mind when I start but just allow the creative process to take over and the book evolves of it's own accord. These books are for sale if you are interested.

Broomecam

This is Andrew on Broomecam last week. He was in Broome for work and as you can see he was working really, really, really hard!!

How cool is this!!

How cool is this layout? I was reading my latest issue of Creating Keepsakes and this is in the computer tricks article from Jessica Sprague (only the coolest of digital scrappers!!). The scalloped edged circle was a download from the CK site, also another cool thing! I was amazed at how easy it was to clip the photo's to the cirle mask. You don't actually crop the photo either it's just sitting out of sight in the background. I love that I can save this as a .psd file and play around with it at anytime. I've done this with a canvas size of 8 x 10 so it means I can get if printed if I save it as a JPEG. I have been toying with the idea of doing an album in this way, all done on the computer then printed as a photo and pasted to cardstock. I especially want to do an album of Bailey and Nathan's 10 weeks in hospital and I think that this could be the way to go. I have some more mini-albums to post, but as I'm maximising the time that Grandma and Grandpa are here it will have to be another post! Till then, enjoy.

Kinder time!

A quick not to let you know that Bailey and Nathan made it into the Dr. Stanley Cochrane Memorial Kindergarten (isn't that a great name!) for 2009. This is no mean feat in our council where kinder places are highly prized, we are very very excited to get a first round offer. I can't believer that the boys will be going to kinder next year, wow time flies. I'll have to post a now and then photo, just to see how much hey have grown.

Playgroup today and meeting up with my sister Jenni and my niece Kristen for Maccas - a very special treat for Bailey and Nathan.

Nathan has escaped, which means it's time to go.

Welcome to feral'o'clock . . .

Been a while . . .

It's been a while since I posted. I must admit the last month has been a bit of a struggle, just getting through the day has been a bonus. I'm into making mini-books at the moment and this is one I made for our friends Megan and Steve for the birth of their new little boy, Riley. I'm absolutely loving my new toy the Big Bite Crop-o-dile, it's fantastic to punch holes in anything. I'm doing a workshop in September with the Calligraphy Society making a keepsake book. I love learning new techniques and improving the way I do things.

Here's one of my little munchkins, aren't they cute. The floor puzzle is a big hit at the moment, they both like to do it together and get very excited when it's all finished. We've had some challenging behaviour recently but it all seems to have calmed down at the moment. The new table has helped with table manners and getting them to eat tea. Andrew and I are making a point of sitting down to tea as a family. I think this is an important part of family life.

The Wiggles are still popular, which is why I can type this post uninterrupted - Wiggle and Learn is on ABC!!! Another favourite is Lazy Town, which is from Iceland of all places. It's all about friends, teamwork, exercise and eating well, all good messages at this age.

I was very excited yesterday when my supervisor delayed our meeting because she's happy with how I'm tracking - means I'm on the right path. I have finally written my first words in my pursuit of 40,000. Having lots of fun tracking down books, manuscripts and scripts on the net. I found a rare book seller that has some fantastic examples of Nineteenth Century Illuminated manuscripts, these are not only rare, I actually thought they didn't exist! I love research and researching information about something like calligraphy just doesn't seem like study at all.

It's going to be a good day, Nanna's coming, she's got a surprise and I'm heading off to calligraphy!

All in a day . . .

In many ways Bailey and Nathan are extremes. While being normal boys they love to run around, jump of anything (although Bailey has more height fear) and do rough play. But when all is said and done they and it's time to focus they like different things.

Bailey loves to do puzzles and he is a whiz at them.

Nathan loves to fly through the air!!! A superman in the making.

Today is Tuesday and that means Nanna is coming - yippee!! Calligraphy doesn't start for another week, but today I need to head over to Monash library in Clayton so that I can borrow some more books - the problems seems to be reading them not finding them!! I have to get some words to my MA supervisor and I'm sure she wants something other than, 'I have no idea what to write!' Currently my focus is on the nineteenth century revival of calligraphy, and more specifically broad nibbed calligraphy. But getting the words out of my brain at the moment is a challenge. Still that was one of my reasons for doing my Masters, to challenge myself intellectually.

Nathan is now helping Mummy to type mkhgfcfdc8ki he love s to be helpul.