Tiny Baby Girl Mini-Book

I've been on a bit of a kick lately going through old electronic files and pictures.  I stumbled upon these and thought that I'd share them with you today.  You are hereby warned- this post contains a significant amount of pictures that aren't of the highest quality.  Hopefully the inspiration is worth your time!

I grew up in a small, rural Minnesota town- 625 people in the whole town!  I'm pretty sure any given Saturday there are more than 625 people at the local mall where I live in Arizona.  It was a wonderful youth where you knew everyone, literally.  Just a few doors down lived my bestie, Terri Small. 

Terri had a little sister the same age as my little brother.  Our mother's were such good friends they shared a home sales business, working evenings on home parties together.  We were close... the kind of close that you only really have when young with few responsibilities to distract us.  Needless to say, we moved away when I was almost 16.  Although Terri and I are not super close we do catch up on the rare occasion and when her daughter Olivia was born, I received a slew of pictures of the beauty.  I just had to make a gift and send it off. This mini-book is that gift.

I made this mini-book back in 2008 (how can it possibly be 5 years ago?!).  Back then I didn't even think about taking pictures, instead I scanned each page into the computer.  I didn't bother to take the pages out of the binding and lay the pages flat- just kinda squished the page onto the glass.  As such, the coloring is off and the focus is a mess.  Still, I love the book so much I thought I would share with you.

I can't honestly say where the supplies came from.  Apparently I owned a couple pieces of sandpaper and decided to use it liberally in the design.  This was the beginning of the period of craft supply hoarding.  Pre-Scrapbox.  Scattered all over the house (I don't have much storage).

I'm pretty sure the papers came from Recollections- back when they had a separate storefront and not just a "brand" at Michaels.  Quite a few of the embellishments were also from the same Recollections collection.  In fact, I still have a few pieces of patterned paper from this collection.  Why?  Someone tell me why I still have them!

I'm a strong believer that the pictures make the book.  This series of pictures inspired the color palette and they alone make the book fabulous.  Isn't Terri beautiful?  My goodness...  and this from someone who swore she'd never, ever have kids!

The mini-book was 4 in. x 4 in.- kinda tiny.  However, it's size definitely added to the design and kept the pictures the focus.  This back page was created by cutting the patterned paper at 6 x 6, wetting the paper to make it pliable and then gluing the paper down on the 4 x 4 cardstock page.  After the paper dried in place, I used some sandpaper to pull color off the high ridges and create an aged look.  The layers added some structure and strength to the cover while finishing the book in style.





The blog has become as much a record of our works as it is a method for sharing our creativity.  Thank you for letting me share these pictures with you. Hopefully it inspires a work of your own.