enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

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Making progress. Just a few additions these past few days, but two of them lend themselves well to videos. I'll walk you through the new pages below.

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First, I added a BBQ invitation for my friend Megan's pharmacy school graduation. It was about 5×7 and I trimmed it down to 4×6.

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On the backside, I added some handwritten journaling and attached a strip of patterned paper with adhesive and then machine stitched it down in white. I don't know what it is about the machine stitching, but it seems to "finish" off elements just enough that it's worth the hassle of sewing.

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For the next page, I added a plastic sleeve with custom machine stitched "pockets."

summer minibook update #2 from elise blaha on Vimeo.

I filmed a video to explain how to make the pockets. Pretty simple and very flexible. You could do this on a larger scale or create all different sized pockets. If you don't have a sewing machine, you could accomplish something similar with hand stitching and embroidery floss.

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And then I added the text from Sunday's currently post into the book. I filmed a second video to show how I got the text into PSE and then how I adjusted it to make it work for the album. Once I had it printed out, I ended up cutting it down to 2.75×6 inches and machine stitching it to the backside of the grid paper that's included in the album.

computer journaling in your summer minibook from elise blaha on Vimeo.

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On the patterned side of that grid paper, I added a silhouetted photo of my popsicle from Monday. I like to silhouette simple shapes because it can give them a bigger impact. In this case, the neutral kraft grid serves as a great background. While I had the sewing machine out, I added lines onto that scalloped card. Ideally they will be a good place to add journaling about something.

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And you might notice I used my actual popsicle stick in the book. That was more out of need than creativity. My fingers were holding the stick in the photo and it looked silly, so I chopped off the stick in the photo and substituted with the real one.

I hope seeing the process continues to be helpful! I am loving all the sharing because it's pushing my own creativity. I've got to step it up if I'm going to go into it in such detail. 😉

product links* :

See the start of this project here.

AND PS : I'm giving away a summer minibook on Stephanie Howell's blog today!

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36 responses to “summer minibook update #2.”

  1. Alexandra Avatar

    Wow, what a great video! I take that back.. what a great POST overall! I loved it, and I’m so excited to dive into my summer minibook!

    Like

  2. Lisa Fine Avatar

    I love how the popsicle looks. So creative, and adorable.

    Like

  3. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    I’m adoring these videos – the longer the better! Makes me feel like I’m getting creative crafting advice from a friend, not an instruction manual. You are so talented!

    Like

  4. Sarah W Avatar
    Sarah W

    Love your video tutorials. This is an awesome project! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

    Like

  5. amy tangerine Avatar

    love the video of sewing the pockets! how fun- thanks so much for sharing!

    Like

  6. Linda Avatar

    I sewed for the first time on plastic last night and after practicing a few times, it worked like a charm. you are so nice to do all of these tutorials. if they don’t help sell books, then people are crazy!
    Are you familiar with illustrator at all? I use that mostly but pse looks like its is similar but easier. I’d love to hear your opinion of illustrator vs. pse.

    Like

  7. elise blaha Avatar

    thank you! I have never even seen Illustrator in action. 🙂 PSE works great for what I do right now.

    Like

  8. megan Avatar
    megan

    Yeah I made the mini book!

    Like

  9. Caroline Avatar

    How about a workshop on sewing alternative materials like paper and plastic on your sewing machine? I admit I haven’t watched the video yet.

    Like

  10. elise blaha Avatar

    thats what the video is about! But Ill consider a workshop. 🙂

    Like

  11. libbi m. Avatar
    libbi m.

    thanks for the video tutorials. they were awesome! do you think you could do a video tutorial on how to create a photo strip in photo booth. i recently got an i mac and i’ve tried printing them out but have failed several times. thank you for your summer mini book updates. i’m loving the progress. super cute!

    Like

  12. elise blaha Avatar

    Thank you. hmm, I have never printed a photo strip from photobooth on mac… The ones that I have in my book are from actual photobooths.

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  13. kimberly Avatar

    i just bought that orange patterned paper last week at the PS 🙂 it’s perfect for summer!

    Like

  14. Sandy Avatar

    I love this post. You make me want to make an entire book right now. Great job.

    Like

  15. Molly Avatar
    Molly

    i can’t wait to get home from work and watch this video. the first one was awesome. your book is lookin’ good!

    Like

  16. Robyn :) Avatar
    Robyn :)

    Love the popsicle stick idea!!
    My book arrived Saturday, but I am waiting until my Summer Break officially starts on Friday to start journaling and adding things 🙂 I may add some sticker letters and numbers ahead of time though LOL.
    Your ideas are awesome, BTW.

    Like

  17. Melissa Avatar
    Melissa

    Just watched one video & can’t wait to watch the other! You owe it to yourself to buy a Tim Holtz tiny Attacher stapler! It would have been PERFECT for the clear page!! And no; it’s not just a run of the mill small stapler. The staples are cute and hold really tight. I look for reasons to use mine! THANKS FOR SHARING!!

    Like

  18. Jenn Avatar

    such a creative use of the plastic sleeve… I’m always thinking I cold use those sleeves, or the cool envelopes that I get sometimes from etsy sellers…. but so far they are just in a box… I’ll have to try this. Sewing on materials like that is challenging… I used faux leather once (remnant of vinyl) and it did not want to go through the machine…. it is fun to experiment though. do you use just a regular needle for the sewing of papers and stuff?

    Like

  19. elise blaha Avatar

    yep, totally just a regular needle.

    Like

  20. Nicola Avatar

    Hi Elise, You know the front of your mini books, would you consider selling that stamed image as a small print? The Summer twenty eleven one. Our baby is due this summer and it would make a lovely framed print for the nursery, even if it’s just a postcard size. I’m thinking green background cardstock with the white stamped image.
    You may get others liking it for a summer 2011 wedding momento too.

    Like

  21. Clays Avatar
    Clays

    What size did your tiny photos end up being? Thanks for sharing ideas!

    Like

  22. deborah Avatar
    deborah

    Thanks for the cool videos; I’m really enjoying them. And they’re working! I’m heading to your shop now to buy a summer book!

    Like

  23. elise blaha Avatar

    1 5/8 inch. 🙂

    Like

  24. Rachel Williams Avatar
    Rachel Williams

    Where do you get a lot of the stamps that you use? I really like them. The local craft stores where I live don’t have a great selection.

    Like

  25. elise blaha Avatar

    not sure which stamps you are talking about but the one for the cover was custom made. The letter stamps for the hello summer page were from Michaels awhile back. I used to work at Paper Source and bought a bunch there. I tend to use simple shapes and they have some good ones. 🙂

    Like

  26. Rachel Williams Avatar
    Rachel Williams

    thank you.

    Like

  27. Linda Avatar

    you can check out photoboother.com and print that way.

    Like

  28. LaceyA Avatar

    HI 🙂 What color is the green envelope? Is it clover )i’m assuming you got it from PS?)

    Like

  29. elise blaha Avatar
  30. Kelly Cree Avatar
    Kelly Cree

    Elisa, I love watching your videos on using PSE. I’d enjoy seeing you do one teaching how to make a computer generated text page for our mini-books similar to those you make as posters….with color in the background and WHITE lettering. (EX: Live vibrantly) It looks so cool!
    Thinking I could put our family names or events on these.

    Like

  31. elise blaha Avatar

    hi Kelly, thanks so much! At the moment, I am not planning on any poster tutorials.

    Like

  32. Kelly Cree Avatar
    Kelly Cree

    I enjoy everything you do! Keep it up–I’m always amazed at what you end up posting. Neat to see you thriving during this deployment.

    Like

  33. Laura Weiller Avatar

    Hello, I really love the photo idea, but don’t have an easily accessible sewing machine. What do you recommend for such a situation? I’ve thought about trying sewing it by hand, but it seems that would be so much more difficult.
    Thank you ahead of time, I LOVE all of your work.

    Like

  34. elise blaha Avatar

    Hmmm, maybe staples? If placed on the corners it could be cute!

    Like

  35. Laura Weiller Avatar

    Thanks so much! That does sound like a cute idea.

    Like

  36. Bev Avatar
    Bev

    Trying to find the Video on Vimeo of Add text to mini book?

    Like

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