Well, another day in Denver, another snowstorm.  Another opportunity to blog!  Today I wanted to share a fun craft I did recently: my first custom book!!  This was a lot of fun.  I ripped the pages out of an old book, redecorated the cover, cut, pasted, punched, painted, and decorated in the inside pages and then bound it all together with scraps from an old t-shirt!!  And I used only materials that I already had on hand (from old scrapbooking projects of yore) and stuff I got from the local thrift store.  It was a fun artistic and practical challenge.  I made this for my niece who will be turning 7 (I think?) in a couple of weeks.  I'll explain what the different pages are as I post the pictures.

Since I am now working part-time in marketing, waiting for a baby to pop out, and trying to focus more of my energies at home, I've decided to just let myself pursue whatever crazy, whimsical crafts I've dreamed up over the past year or so.  Now that I have the time and energy to devote to them (and not much time and energy to devote to anything physical!)!  So my next few posts will likely be random, strange, completely unrelated crafts or projects I decided to take on in my spare time to feed my creative appetite.  I've decided on two rules for these projects:

1) I must finish every project before moving on to the next one.
2) I can only have 3 projects going at a time.

And I will probably break them both.

I will still be singing with Pure Jukyn (gig next week!) and working on pursuing a long-term project working with songwriting and teens (see my New Years post), but those will most-likely be on hold until after the baby comes and life gets somewhat predictable.  So for now: Creative Jane Rears Her Ugly Head!!

 The Cover.  "E" for Emily!  I found a fantastic post about gluing paper towels to the cover of the book and then painting it to give it some nice texture.  It worked out great!

The first page, and several other pages in here, are just for making notes about things that have happened, thoughts, she has, or anything she wants to write.

The "nicesies" on the inside cover are little notes that say nice things like "Thank you" or "I'm sorry" that she can give to family members or friends when she feels the need.  Sometimes it's easier than saying it!

There are several "Secrets" pages throughout the book.  These are places where she can take some special paper (included in the back of the book) and write down any private thoughts, feelings or "secrets" that she wants to keep special for herself and put them in this pretty envelope.  They are always there for her to look at - for her eyes only!

I added a small "About Me" section where she can write a few small details about herself.

This is just another spot for writing notes - I tried to make the spaces fairly small - big enough to write it, but not big enough that she feels like she has to write a novel.  This is one of my favorites because I found some old wedding invitations at the thrift store that make a cute "book opening" look to this page!

Another Secrets page on the left, and on the right is a decorated plastic baggie where she can keep an "Stuff" she wants to - artwork, movie tickets, notes from friends, whatever!

Another notes page with a more vertical writing space (might be actually too small for her to write in, but oh well).

Another Secrets page, and a small card on the left with a fun mini burlap bag for storing stuff she likes.

More writing space!

 Secrets page and another baggie that says "I'm Bored" with 20-30 activity ideas - many craft and creativity focused - for when she is looking for something to do!

The right page is a place for her to keep photos (I know, no one develops film anymore, but it seemed like there needed to be a place for pictures!).

More writing space on the left, and then a stack of colorful scrapbook paper on the right for writing, pasting, drawing, whatever she wants to do.

On the right is the pretty paper for her Secrets envelopes - you can't tell, but it's purple and shiny.

The back of the book.

And the binding!

Fun!