Thursday, September 22, 2011

Anatomy of a Mini: part one


Realizing this may be of interest only to my scrappy friends (and to those of you who are diehard romantics), I thought I'd devote some time to the innards of the anniversary mini-scrapbook I made for the Gutsy Dad.

At the end of August I participated in a free two-week workshop from BPC called "Words to Live By." Every day, for 12 days, a different instructor introduced a special word with thoughts and ideas about how to interpret it creatively. I challenged myself to view each of those words in the context of my decade of married life.  

These are the results.

A word or two about the album: this is a 6 x 6 mini album, which started out completely naked. I love this size. Jump rings and the lack of page protectors make it possible for the pages to be as chunky as you want. It's very easy to use 4x6 photos (full bleed), crop photos down to fit inside, or to reprint favorite photos at much smaller sizes at home. I also love the freedom of being able to have elements hanging off the margins of the pages.  

The cover of this album can be viewed here. It's the first time I've stitched through so many layers (the chipboard letters, the patterned paper, the cover itself), and I am so pleased the needle held. I didn't trust the adhesive on those letters and took a cue from Karen Grunberg to stitch across the bottom of the letters.

Above and below you can see the title page. Since the album cover had that cute window through which to see and read the "words to live by" tag, I felt I had to do something to protect the printed tag from smearing. What you may or may not be able to see upon closer examination is that I added a page (the aqua strip) connected to a 4x6 transparency overlay.  In the photo above, the overlay is over the right-hand page. Below, the overlay is "open," and the title page is exposed.


Our first word was "give." I could've gone in a million directions with this word. Ultimately, I decided to focus on the greatest gift I have received from the Gutsy Dad: strength.

The photo is from our second wedding. (I'm fairly certain you can click on the photo below to read the journaling.) I think my favorite thing about this spread is the pennant I made (upper right).


That's it for today. Stay tuned for future installments detailing the innards of this mini-book.

Yours in scrap-geekiness,
The GM

1 comment:

Fizi said...

I would love to have taken part in this class. I did look at the feeds each day but as all my scrapping stuff was still in boxes, and as during the second part of the class we were on family hols in Torridon in Scotland, I saved the links to use later. I am, therefore, going to be looking for inspiration from your blogs and will eagerly await the instalments! I think I may even steal your idea for our upcoming anniversary. Hope you don't mind.