Tag Archive for Books

Day 17 AEDM: Petal to the Metal

I’ve had a huge box full of silk flower petals for over 2 years (or has it been three years?) It’s time to do something with them. Today I figured out what that is…a book cover!

I still need to glue in the book block, so this isn’t technically finished, but I wanted to show the progress so far…

Photo 257

I ripped the flowers off their stems, pulled the petals apart, then stuck a sequin and a mini brad in the center of each one. The mini brad was then stabbed through the pleather cover fabric and fastened.

I’m excited to continue working on this…once it’s done it will be available for purchase under the “For Sale” tab in the top right corner.

Day 15 AEDM: Baby Girl Photo Album

I hinted about it and gave a couple sneak-peek shots in this post.

Here’s the final product…a personalized photo album that I made for my SIL Ali and her soon-to-arrive (in January) 3rd little girl, Ensley Grace.

I’ve been waiting for the perfect reason to use this fabric!

cover

I love adding names to the front of albums. There will be no mistaking to whom this book belongs!

ensley

Satin ribbon tie closures:

ties

The back cover. The paste pages and the photo pages both coordinate with the cover fabric.

guts

Day 9 AEDM: Paisley Peek

Today my good little baby took a two hour nap and I finally got a chance to start on a project that I MUST have finished before this weekend.

Since it’s a gift, I can only show little peeks today. I’ll show the total, finished project after I’ve given it to its new owner.

inside

outside

Don’t Forget to Fly

From the outside, this book looks pretty unassuming. But to my sister Arica and her friend, the title and the contents it will hold mean everything.

cover

Arica’s dear friend is headed off to flight school and Arica is going to miss her terribly. When trying to come up with a good parting gift, Arica found this book, which I repurposed into a journal for her friend.

spine

Not only was the title perfect, but Arica wrote a very sweet inscription that I included in a fluffy cloud inside the front cover.

pastes

inscription

Sister, I hope this journal blesses your friend as she starts a new chapter in her journey of life. May the distance not separate your kindred spirits.

Baby Sabbatical

Not long ago, I found the cutest fabric in Hobby Lobby:

fabric

After my mom and I spent some time hashing out ideas, she created this cute maternity top for me:

cute top

And it fits The Bump and I perfectly!

cupcake

Tomorrow, I will be 33 weeks pregnant. If my mom’s prediction of Baby’s arrival time (read: early!) turns out to be correct, that leaves me only about 5 weeks before I’m officially on Mama duty.

And there’s still plenty to do, like finish setting up Baby’s space:

bassinet

Get all of Baby’s clothes and diapers washed and ready to go:

fuzzibunz

Bake a bunch of lasagnas and quiches and other dinners that can be made ahead and frozen:

PW lasagna

(Just because I’ll take a break from baking for clients doesn’t mean I get off the hook completely!) :)

quiche

All that to say, I am taking some time off from creating. A Baby Sabbatical, if you will. In fact, “sabbatical” is defined as “a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year.”

I can’t predict whether my break will be closer to the two month end or the one year end of that spectrum. That will depend mostly on Baby’s temperament and my energy level. (I sure hope it’s not a YEAR!)

But I can tell you this for sure: I finished my last cake order this morning and I’m only taking orders for custom books through TUESDAY, MAY 25th.

So…if you are planning to want a journal, photo book, or sketchbook made for an upcoming birthday, anniversary, or other special occasion, please order NOW. I want to be able to guarantee I can get it done for you before Birth Day!

In the meantime, I will continue posting about the projects I have completed…until the queue runs dry! :)

Thank you so much for your understanding and for your patronage over the past few years. Your loving support and sweet comments mean a lot to me!

Abbi

Swirls of Belief

When my friend Fallon told me she wanted to have a journal made for her sister, Amber, I was so thrilled to hear the reason: Amber had recently accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

Fallon wanted Amber to have a special book in which she could journal her thoughts as she developed her relationship with Christ.
cover

Fallon requested earthy greens and swirls, and I happened to have the perfect fabric on hand! I also used button letters to personalize the cover of Amber’s book.

amber

Fallon sent me a C.S. Lewis quote to include as the inscription inside the front cover. It was perfectly fitting for the occasion.

pastes2

I also added a silver ribbon as a bookmark.

spine

Congratulations, Amber. You’ve just made one of the best and biggest decisions of your life! Enjoy the ride! :)

Theology, Repurposed

A while back, Kendra, an old co-worker, found several books that she wanted turned into journals. They all had such awesome titles, so I was excited to redo them for her.

stacked

Here’s a photo montage of each title and its inside facing pages. My main goal was to match colors and, if possible, theme.

teach-out

teach-in

service-out

service-in

rules-out

rules-in

revivalists-out

revivalists-in

fire-out

fire-in

This last one is probably my favorite…not only a cool book title:

miracles-out

But the perfect excuse to use this ethereal scrapbook paper. :)

miracles-in

Thanks again, Kendra, for asking me to make these for you!

Joy to the World

My mother-in-love found this old hymnal at a thrift store and immediately knew I could use it to make a repurposed journal.

cover2

Old books are so awesome because the covers feature different variations of embossing or debossing. So neat!

covercarve

Since this was an old hymnal, I used sheet music scrapbook paper for the inside paste pages.

insides

I also added a ribbed brown ribbon bookmark.

spine

Sing it with me, y’all: Joy to the world, this book is done! :)

#70: St. Patrick’s Day Pistachio Yogurt Cupcakes

In September, I started a cupcake adventure. If you haven’t read about it yet, you can do so here.

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I guess I can bake faster than I can blog! That said, here are the shots from the cupcakes I made for St. Patrick’s Day.

The dry ingredients are the typical ones you’ve likely come to expect: flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder.

01dry

And, naturally, the batter starts by creaming together these two studs: butter and brown sugar.

02buttersug

Mmmm.

03cream

Perhaps the name of this post gave you a clue as to what else comprises the batter: pistachios!

04pistachios

No St. Patrick’s Day treat would be complete without green dye!

05dye

To round out the batter, I alternated adding sour cream and the dry ingredients from the first photo.

06wetdry

…and then the chopped pistachios.

07nutbatter

Yummy!

08batter

Then, the suckers were baked until brown around the edges.

09baked

To make the icing, I started by melting a little bit of butter and water.

10meltbutter

Next came the powdered sugar.

11powsug

And, naturally, more green dye and some vanilla extract.

12dyevan

Green, green, green.

13icing

Here’s the final product as a group:

14iced

…Better make sure these taste good.

15single

Um, YUP! They sure do!

Sláinte!

Teddy’s Field Journal

It’s not very often that I get to make journals for kids, so I was very excited when my friend Anne contact me regarding her nephew’s upcoming birthday.

Teddy will be turning 4 this month, and in Anne’s words, “he would love a personalized field journal to write down ‘observations.’”

How cute is that?! Anne did some research about Teddy’s favorites and as luck would have it, he loves green frogs! I happened to have the perfect fabric for his book!

cover

To jazz up the fabric a bit, I added orange brads to give the frog’s warts some texture (eww?)

frogdetail

I also used silver embroidery floss for the bugs’ flight patterns.

backcover

I love the depth that the sewing gave both the wings and the swirls. I’d been wanting to try this technique for a while, and this fabric was the perfect opportunity!

beedetail

Teddy’s favorite color is red, and since no observation journal is complete without a writing utensil, I added a red ribbon pen loop and a red mechanical pencil.

intro

penloop

Teddy also loves the alphabet, so for the inside paste pages, I used lettered paper in coordinating colors. Anne also included the verbiage for a personalized inscription, so I added that to the inside cover as well.

pastes

Anne, thanks for asking me to make Teddy’s book! It was such a fun change of pace to make a child’s journal!

Teddy, HAPPIEST OF HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!! May this book house all your big ideas!