You're Never Too Old for Coloring Books!

True story. But yeah, the big problem with typical coloring books is they are made from paper that is generally best colored on with crayons. Not my medium of choice. :(

Ah, but no need for the sad face! Nope, no need at all! I am making my own coloring book! And I am making it with digi-stamps printed on my favorite paper for coloring with, my preferred medium, Copic Markers (X-Press It Paper).

This image is going to be part of my coloring book cover. Her name is Ani. She is currently available in Krista's shop: Ani, but if you like her and want to own your own copy than I recommend going on over there to buy her because shop stock is dynamic and she may not be there later.

Ani, colored with Copic markers

I haven't decided on the complete cover yet, but I went ahead and colored my girl so I could enter her in the color challenge (Challenge #36) over on Krista Smith's challenge blog: Saturated Canary Challenge Blog.

I had her printed and had stared at her for the better part of last week just trying to decide what colors would work. After a lot of back & forth I thought maybe the best plan would be to go to Michael's and see if I could find some scrapbook paper with a beachy theme and pull the colors from that. But then last night I stopped by Krista's blog to see what was going on and the color challenge jumped off the screen and hollered "We are the colors for your Hula Girl! We would be PERFECT! Use us!" And I whispered back (because, while the colors hollered at me, hubby could not hear them so it just wouldn't do for me to holler back, so yeah, I whispered) "Yes, yes, you are perfect!" (Oh, and I'm not crazy for having conversations with inanimate objects - or at least the voices in my head say I'm not - LOL.)

Anyway, I started out thinking I would do just a color book of Krista's super cute images, but I am waffling between that and a book of a mix from the tons of digi's I own. And I do have a ton . . . and, to be honest, they really are all cute. I mean, they have to be really cute or I wouldn't have bought them! Right?!?

Well, now off to concur the next challenge - not someones blog challenge, nope, this challenge is to try to match paper to the colored image and find the embellishments that will work with a color book that will need to lay open flat for coloring in. Shouldn't really be too hard because if all else fails I will just color white paper to suit me. :D

Envelope Journal

I made another journal . . . 

This one started (as so many projects do) with a YouTube sitting session. I sometimes spend so much time travelling from one video to the next that in the end I have no idea where I started. That's the case here - I watched a video, linked from that one to another "suggested" video, on to another (rinse & repeat) and then saw one where someone (and I hate that I cannot find the video that provided my first inspiration) made a journal with envelopes. A couple of days later I went on a failed search to watch that video again and ended up watching several envelope journal videos, but never happened upon that specific video again. But I wasn't deterred since I had the general concept.

However, on this subsequent video journey I did come across a video by Kathy Orta that showed her Hidden Hinge process. So I went with that and jumped right in. There are actually two different Kathy Orta videos that show the Hidden Hinge, but since I didn't care if my journal had a specific number of pages I made a slight variation by starting with a fold in the center of my cardstock and measured out 1/2 inch on each side of the center fold and went from there with Kathy's 1/4 inch gusset and 1/2 inch hinge-flap measurings. I ended with 7 hinge-flaps, so my journal has 7 pages. 

I had a couple of boxes of DCWV Linen Closet pre-made blank cards and envelopes that I had picked up on sale a couple of years ago and had only used one card (without using the envelope to go with it) - and, if my project had been a complete failure I would not have felt bad about lost materials. Which is good because I did make a first version that I did not finish. 

Let me tell you about that one right quick. I made the first hinge strip with the 1/2 & 1/4 inch measures - as Kathy provided in her video - but once I had it all folded and taped I thought it looked like the spaces between pages was much wider than necessary so I made a second hinge strip with 1/8 inch spacing between my 1/2 inch hinge-flaps. I made and attached the envelope pages but when I started placing embellishments to determine the layout I liked best I realized that the 1/4 inch spacing was absolutely necessary! So I now have a hinge with seven pages attached and not enough room for 3-D embellishing. Not sure what I will end up doing with that one. :/

So, on with the process: I sealed seven envelopes and trimmed the left side - just enough to open up the ends - not even 1/8 inch trimmed off - maybe 1/16 inch trimmed. I then used a Martha Stewart border punch to open the right side of each envelope. I now had seven envelope tube. I then cut some of the cards apart at the folds and trimmed them to fit as mats on the envelopes and taped the mats to the front and back of each envelope. 

Next up - I measured and cut the covers from chipboard. I measured to allow a scarce 1/8 inch extending beyond the top & bottom but a generous 1/2 inch extending over the open end of the journal. I knew my tags would hang out of my pockets and I wanted them protected from damage in handling and I wanted to allow some, just a teaser amount, of the tags to be peeking out of the cover. I also cut a piece of chipboard for the spine that was the same height s the covers and only as wide as the pages and Hidden Hinge assembly. (Overall size: approx. 6 x 4.5 x 1.5 inches (going with approximate because it is actually a slight bit larger, but not by but about 1/16 of an inch on any measurement)

I used some paper by MME named "Dream" (got it at Michaels) for the cover and some Bazzill textured paper in Quicksand for the spine. I carried the tan (Quicksand) paper over the front & back covers by 3/4 inch - both to give it a "fine" book look as well as to reinforce the Hidden Hinge flaps. Once the paper was on the cover & spine I folded it all to the inside and secured that.

I then added the hinge and pages with as much Scor-tape as I could fit on there and finished the inside of both the front and back cover with a darker aqua (Bazzill textured) paper.

I added embellishments to the pages - some are flowers that I colored with Copic markers to match my color scheme, some is rustic twine in a medium hemp color, some is ribbon trim that I got several years ago and some of pearl flourishes (different manufacturers and I failed to note who).

When I started making tags to put in the pockets created by the envelope tube I added a few pieces of solid papers in aqua and tan to add a little more variety as well as a small bit of the paper I used on the cover. I used some of the same embellishments on the tags as I had used on the pages. I tried to make all the tags different for interest: 

Inside front and Page 1

Page 1 - Tag 1 (front)

Tag 1 (back) - Pages 2 & 3 - Tag 2 (front)

(did not extend Tag 2 to show the back)
 Pages 4 & 5 - Tag 3 (front)

(Tag 3 is a booked tag that is sewn together with twine that came on some Lawn fawn stamps I ordered - I save all kinds of stuff like that for re-purposing.)

Tag 3 (inside)

Pages 6 & 7 - Tag 4

Pages 8 & 9 - Tag 5 (front)

Tag 5 (back) - Pages 10 & 11 - Tag 6

Pages 12 & 13 - Tag 7 (front)

Tag 7 (back) - page 14 & inside back

I'm not finished, but I haven't settled on the rest yet. I will add quotes or Bible verses to the pages and add a title to the cover when I decide whether to gift it or keep it, and then it will be based on who the final owner will be. But since that may be weeks or even months away I decided to go ahead and blog this post now.