Lead On

Hello Hello 

 So I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had something under wraps, well today is the day that I can finally let you all in on my secret...

for one- because it's no longer a secret and two because- it took place on National Scrapbook Day (which at the time I thought was really fitting).

So this is what I did (on the advice from a friend) I made...65 mini books from scratch in about 2 months that are all themed (in colors only) to our local school district.

Every year the Pirates Cheer Club has what they call 'the Early Bird Breakfast' where parents can enroll their student(s) into next year's cheer leading squad for a little bit cheaper. My friend who had the idea that my mini books would sell very well at this event, has two of her own girls in cheer leading...so being that I've been wanting to establish my name a bit more locally I decided to take her up on her advice because you all know me well enough by now to know that I like a good challenge.

So I set out in early March to figure out what exactly I was going to do. I needed an idea that would be easily 're-created' in case someone else wanted to order it. Idea upon idea started coming to me and after much deliberation I came up with the idea to do several different mini books because not everyone likes the same thing.

In total I made 8 different styles of mini books which is what I want to share with you today, each of the styles that I made. Later on in other posts I will follow through with each style individually.

So if you'll scroll back to the beginning of the pictures, you'll notice that the 1st style of mini is the infamous toilet paper roll mini album with a ribbon closure. So far as I can tell, these seem to be the favorite of lots of people.   

The next mini that I came up with is a 2 ring binder with the clear CD envelopes as the pages. In my mind's eye I can see this one being perfect for Instagram photos so it happens to be my favorite of all the minis that I made. Along the same lines and keeping with the 2 ring binder, I made a second style with the pages being made from regular office envelopes. Now as for making these pages, I have to give the credit to Laura over on YouTube @ Follow ThePaper Trail. I followed along one of her tutorials awhile back and so that is where the inspiration for these pages came from, they may not be exactly like Laura's but close enough.

The next mini that came along was just a standard spiral bound mini with white card stock pages, this one is the typical 'old school' scrap book with blank pages to add all your ephemera in right along side your photos. What followed behind that was another Laura inspired envelope mini, I think the closure on this one is my favorite of all of them...when I get into each style specifically I will go into more details on that. The next style I created I had actually learned several, several years back - in fact it was one of the first mini books that I had ever made and bound with ribbon - I guess it just stuck with me because once again it is right up there with a few of my other favorites. I call it my ribbon bound mini and like one earlier that I mentioned, this one is set up as an 'old school' scrap book...blank card stock pages to add in anything & everything. The next to last mini that I made was once again a Laura inspired book, can you guess what the binding is? Ironically enough, other than the beads, it is bound by ribbon also except that each page has a bead in between so that you can fit all the stuff on to the pages themselves leaving the pull-out pages for photos and/or ephemera only. And finally the last mini book I created is my version of 'pocket-style' scrap booking that is so popular right now. I used two book rings to bind the book and once again when I get into the details of each style of book I will explain my idea of 'pocket-style' to you better.

For now though this is it, thankfully. This project was definitely a challenge and completely time consuming...was it worth it...? Not so much, but do I regret takin' it on, not for a minute - it has made me figure out what is more important to me, so for a 'lesson well learned' I am grateful.
Thanks for stoppin' in!
just B