delight in life

travel book: completion

This book started back in September, when I said, "I should make a book." That was the extent of my progress until I stuck it onto my April goals list, and now it is done!

It's a 3.5x5 book, one spread per destination. I didn't need a lot of room because this isn't the place to share details of the trips. I've got blog posts and minibooks and scrapbook pages for that. All I really needed was a place to keep my boarding passes. Mission accomplished! The main embellishment on each page was a shipping tag and a scrap of fabric.

(The boarding pass on this one says LA, but we went through to San Diego. I couldn't find the LAX-SAN stub.)


I like the simplicity because it allows me to continue expanding it. Shipping tags and fabric scraps and graph paper are easy to come by, and book rings mean I won't run out of space.

 

 

 

arts & crafts at work.

At work we just finished a big project, which meant it was time to create a display for our "Wall of Fame." The project was challenging and stressful for all of us, but this is my kind of de-stresser. There's another crafty lady on our team and between the two of us our brainstorming got crazy pretty quick. I wasn't sure how we'd even do what we decided on, but we figured out how to make it happen and I think it looks great!

We were working on the joint business agreement American Airlines now has with Japan Airlines. To commemorate that we made a ginormous globe out of blue fabric and polyfill with a plane flying between Dallas and Tokyo with our team's faces in the "windows."

All of the white banners around the globe highlight different aspects of the project -- and everything is translated into Japanese.

I worked on the plane and the red felt letters. I'm not a great draw-er, but it was a really fun morning when I spent three hours at my desk studying "how to draw a plane" google results. And is it weird if I say my favorite part of the whole project is the ampersand on the tail fin of the plane? Because it is.

It was really fun to spend a few days at work doing something crafty and stress-free. And I smile every time I see our handiwork at the top of the stairs.

letterpress madness

I was excited to hear about a sale at Linda + Harriett through Twitter a few weeks ago. The prices were so low and I went a bit crazy buying stationery. It all arrived last week and I love it all so much!

These flamingo cards are my favorite:

But these gorgeous thank you notes are a close second:

And I loved these pretty pink pencils packed in as goodies!

Can I have three cheers for pretty paper?

the goodness book

I wanted to share a few pages from my goodness book. I purchased the book here -- just a big block of blank pages and a pretty cover. For me, it's basically a collection of pretty things that I didn't want to throw away, but didn't belong anywhere else. I like it! It is 3.5x5, so a 5x7 photo fits into a spread, which I think is fun. And I really, really love the yellow and white graph paper.

the stack (part 2) : olivia edition

Another handful of layouts from my stack. These tend to feature my friend's baby girl who I adore. The photo in this first one is a recent favorite from our visit in January. Olivia loved the iPad and Angry Birds.






That's all! My album and page protectors came last week and all 31 pages are now safely tucked away in a book. I'm so relieved to not have that pile lying around anymore.

the stack (part 1)

This is the stack. Layouts that have been sitting around for years, waiting to be put in albums. (Click on any of them to see larger!)

I was feeling pretty homesick when I did this one about a year ago. There is some journaling in the brown envelope.


(A furry friend decided to get in on the photoshoot.) I think this is one of the oldest in the stack -- it was done in October 2008.


One time Delta lost my suitcase bad. For like 3 days. It went to Denver! (I've never been to Denver.) When it finally came back to me it had all sorts of crazy labels stuck all over and I thought they looked super cool, in addition to telling the story of my suitcase's big adventure.

by hand

I've made several books to give as gifts but I've never kept one for myself before. I recently filled up my go-everywhere purse notebook (this really cute book) and thought instead of buying another I would make one.

It went pretty well, but I'm glad to say the ones I've given as gifts were better. It's been a long time since I made one and I was pretty rusty. The paper on the inside of the covers got wrinkled and dried that way, which is totally the kind of thing that could annoy me until the end of time and make me stop using the book. BUT. The outside paper is so beautiful that I will just pretend I don't even see the wrinkled inside covers.

And after I squished the book under my boxes of fabric for a few hours, the cover stayed closed, making my wrinkly mishap even less noticeable. Phew!

i don't know what to title this

Monday was the kind of day that really makes you wish the weekend came more often. I think I cried three times over three separate things. Yeah. Long day. To my immense relief, Tuesday was much, much better. All my usual calm-me-downs were involved: music in my ears to tune out the world at work, Angry Birds, lots of hot tea, and playing with paper. It was a good day.

Deep breath, and here goes Wednesday.

next. (already?)

I went to Joann's last night to get the final supplies to finish my quilt (now that I know what I'm supposed to do!) and was so upset to realize when I got home that I hadn't purchased enough binding material. Luckily, I had purchased all the necessary supplies for my next quilt so I went ahead and started work. I now officially have two quilts in progress, which may qualify me as crazy.

In order to narrow down the colors and patterns I wanted to use, I snipped these swatches from all the options and played with them till I got a combo I liked. Now I'm just plugging away with my rotary trimmer!

My knight in shining armor is going to pick up what I need from Joann's today so I can get started on the finishing. (He is the best, am I right?) My goal is to have it finished this weekend!

be mine

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chris and I are going out tomorrow night to avoid the rush and grab the 2-for-$10 Tuesdays deal at the movie theater. But! I made valentines and I can still share them today.

These are very simple cards. I've made elaborate ones in the past, but this year I just wanted to keep it easy. I started with those doilies, which I had in my stash from past valentine projects. At Paper Source I found these rad teal vellum envelopes on clearance, so I bought approximately one jillion of them. Some flat cards, a cute stamp, some cardstock to pull in the teal, aaaaand done.

In a weird coincidence, as I was looking on the website for the link to that stamp, I discovered this card is remarkably similar to one that Paper Source came up with for their workshops. Great minds think alike, I guess?

I wrote a short note near the bottom and sealed the envelopes with patterned tape and pretty envelope seals from K is for Calligraphy. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the envelopes all together because they were cute! Oh well. Next year! Happy Valentine's Day!!