Earlier this month I sent this set of eight small travel journals to my friend Stacy. She has a great group a friends, seven of whom recently traveled to New York with her to celebrate two of the friends' engagements. This isn't the first trip of this nature, they've had four previous engagement trips which led them to Las Vegas, New Orleans, Miami, and San Fransisco. After each of those trips the gals got together and made a scrapbook for the bride.
Planning ahead, Stacy wanted to give simple travel books to her friends so they could keep track of their itinerary and have a good place for safe keeping of souvenirs and memories.
The best way to include simple pockets was to use #6 envelopes that I had on hand. I cut the flaps off of the envelopes and cut the rest of the folios and end sheets to match that size. Each book includes two envelopes for a total of four pockets.
Paste was used to secure/align the sewn endsheets to the rest of the book block.
The books were lined with
super and a matching paper lining. Endbands were made with the same bookcloth used on the covers.
Each book block was the same size, so I was able to make all of the covers in production fashion.
To keep costs low, I only used materials that I had on hand. The turquoise blue cloth is the prettiest I have in stock, and it was a good choice to pair with the pastel endsheets.
I was pleased to find a different decorative paper to complement each color pairing. Stacy was able to give a unique book to each of her friends. I hope they have fun when it comes to scrapbook time!
Last week I had a request for some custom book earrings with an earth tone color palette. I sorted through my papers to find a variety of appropriate colors, took photos, and sent the above image to my new client. I really love the patchwork of all of the swatches. Number 8 in the center, a rose patterned paper by Debra Glanz of Reminiscence Papers, was the favorite.
After I finished making the earrings, I made a sturdy four flap enclosure, or box, for them. Next, I wrapped the little square box with matching paper and also mounted it to the front of a gift tag. After the box was tied with ribbon, it was slipped into a bag with the gift tag and one of my business cards.
Last came protective padding and packaging made out of an inside-out macaroni box! So there you have it, a custom order from start to finish!