Time for Some Fun with Paper

A couple of months ago, dissatisfied with the birthday celebrations at work for a group that doesn't bother to celebrate my own birthday but that assigned me seven birthdays to celebrate without assistance two months apart, I rearranged how we celebrated. So, I now am in charge of personalized birthday things. We are no longer doing large group celebrations where only two people pay for treats the entire group. (Most of my protestation was that I was assigned April and July with partners who were not present to help me buy and make things - AND that was after the May celebration was scheduled at a time when I was not able to be there - no mention of my birthday or anyone celebrating me, so cue the disgruntlement.)

I am having fun with this. There is one other person who "helps" me out. She hasn't done anything yet. I have a couple of rules. If the person has contributed the $3 that we asked for, then they get treats and some homemade paper craft things. If they haven't paid the money but gave us a slip with some information, then I make something for them based on the information that they provided. The December birthdays are coming up, and I have a person who loves the Princess Bride, the music of Journey, and sour cream and onion potato chips. There is also a person who likes indie/artsy movies and music, yoga, and hiking. I made some yoga pose cards and printed off some local hiking trails for the one, and I will be making a note pad holder for the other.

If you read my Saturday posts, then you know that I love creating things with paper. This is probably partly due to my love of journals and stuff, but I also love the process of taking a piece of paper and turning into something that is cute and functional. I especially like using materials that are reused - like cereal boxes - to make my books. I put in a variety of papers and pockets and things that are just fun.

My books are things that I make for me. I make them, but I don't use them. It's one of the conundra that are part of my [ahem] charm. I prefer to make them and then send them out into the world, That reminds me, there is a little free library down the street that I could put a book or two into...

I have an etsy store that has some of my books on it. No one has purchased one from me - so I may need to change my pricing...

Anyway, it is fun to put together different pages and see how things start to look. I make things for friends and acquaintances, but the best ones are the ones where I just make because I want to make something or try something or do something new.

Today's project is to make a padfolio for a person who I've known for a long time. She likes green, and I have a small green notebook that I will use as my inspiration for this project. I will find a green pen, and make a green cover for the notebook that includes quotes from Journey songs and from the Princess Bride. This is going to be fun. The notebook itself is from a subscription box that I got a while ago until they stopped the box release. It's not my kind of book, so it is wonderful to send it out to someone who will use it more.

Here are some pictures of the books I make. If you are interested in purchasing them, please let me know in the comments. We'll talk!!











 

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