I’m
traveling all over upstate New York this week for work. I’ve set up base camp
in Syracuse and I’m trying to explore since I have a bit of downtime. I looked
up art supply stores and found one within walking distance of my hotel. I
picked up some markers, a couple sheets of pretty paper, and a drawing pad. Back
in my room after dinner, I whipped up a new random book that I wanted to share
on the blog. While I have my camera on me, I didn’t think to bring the cord
that lets me upload photos. Sharing of the book will have to wait.
GO
ORANGE!
I’m happy
to share some ideas for other books, though. When I made my first couple mini
books at the end of the summer, I used them as journals while traveling and
kept a few spaces and a few full pages open to add photos later. I found this
method a bit limiting, so for the France mini book, I didn’t worry about where
I was going to put photos and allowed myself to use all the space in the book
to keep mementos and journaling. This method freed up my creativity and I began
to see everything as a possible page that I could simply add to the book. A few of the more outside-of-the box
pages from that album: (keep in mind that adding pages after a book is "bound" doesn't work for all binding methods - it works especially well with book-ring-bound books.)
The map
Mr. Moggie printed out before we left and carried around in his pocket the
whole time we were in Aix.
The
placemat from the restaurant where we had a delicious jet-lagged lunch on our
first day in France.
A postcard
from the artist who designed the pretty dresses at a shop we visited and a
train ticket from the day we went to Marseille.
I stapled
three business cards together from the restaurant where we had dinner one night
(I taped the itemized receipt from the meal to the back of the page so we could
remember what we had eaten).
I used two
business cards for this page, but on the back I stapled the little paper guard
they put on the handle of the metal pot that held steamed milk for my café
crème and wrappers from a few chocolates.
What can you find around you to make a creative page? Can you make a whole
book from these pages?
***I've
decided to run a series on books over the next few days (weeks? until I run
out, I guess). I'll share some of my favorite books to carry around, what
supplies I bring with me on trips, some easy book-binding techniques, and what
inspires my favorite pages.
Feel free
to use any tip or technique I share on the blog in your own work. If you find a
way to make it profitable, by all means, use it. If you really like an idea
that I've shared, I'd love a link back to my blog or the post where I shared
it; if you like lots of my ideas, consider adding me to your blogroll. If I
share something that I didn't come up with myself, I will point you to the
source; if I point you to another website or blog, please be considerate about
how others want their work attributed.If you make something super neat using an
idea from my blog, I'd love to see a photo of it! Thanks and enjoy.***
