Outside of My Box

On Sunday I went and took a class with Carol Wingert! It was so fun!

When I first arrived at Scrapbooks Plus for the class, I put my bags down at a table and then went back into the main store to see what was new. When I came back to my seat I learned that by happenstance I was sitting next to another Inspired attendee! It was so fun to chat with her about the event--and how we're both going next year! Hi, Dolores! I didn't take any photos during the class because I was so focused on finishing, but Pam took a few and they're posted on Carol's blog here... you can even see me there, working away.

I "finished" the book in class, but it's meant to be a travel journal, so it won't be really finished until I travel somewhere and use it! [Plus, it's Carol's design and class and I didn't feel comfortable posting it in detail here.] So I decided that this type of book would be a great way to scrap my Avon Walk. It was such a big event for me and I really wanted to do something special to commemorate it; plus, there is a lot that I wanted to include and the pockets in this were just perfect!

So I grabbed up my bookmaking supplies and some pink cardstock, pink patterned paper, every pink embellishment from my stash that I could find, some pink ink and paints, some stamps, and a pink pen or four and got to work:

Everyone makes this much of a mess when they create, right? Now you can see why Jason gave me a studio downstairs so that this mess isn't always on the kitchen table! :)

Anyway, here's what came out of that mess (click on any of the photos to see them full-size):

This project is very outside of what has been (notice the past tense!) my very small, pretty, very neatly organized Box. Inspired and some of my friends have inspired me to try new and different things. Messy, lumpy, bumpy things. Which is kind of fun, especially when you "mess up" and can just blow it off as adding to the overall look. Like when I painted the Seven Gypsies photo turn and then promptly opened the book, smacking the cover onto the wet paint (see it there by the 39.3?). Anyway, this book is totally not anything I would have made before but I LOVE it!

Let's take a closer look, shall we? The main part of the book is constructed by gluing envelopes together in such a way as to make these honeycomb pockets:

Isn't that cool? There are five envelopes/pockets and a ribbon on each side to tie it all together.

In the first pocket is a card with my Avon Walk story from my Avon page.

On the back of this same card I'm going to put the photo from when I first signed up for the walk, but it's on the big back-up hard drive and I don't know how to get it off and printed, so it'll have to wait until Jason comes home. :)

In the second pocket is a mini-book that includes my entire training blog:

It was loooooong, so I formatted it in Word and printed it onto plain legal paper (which I then cut down into 6 x 12 sheets) and folded and pasted it into an 18-panel (yes, 18!) accordian book, then covered the end panels with cardstock covers for stability. This is the front cover and the back cover says, "Fear is a stupid reason to not do something good."

Of course I never would have included this in a "normal" scrapbook, but I really like re-reading it and remembering the preparation for the walk instead of just focusing on the walk itself; another reason I love this book!

In the third pocket is another mini-book about Event Eve, when we signed in and a few of us sold items to raise money for our walks:

I've had those Making Memories pink letter rub-ons for a zillion years and this is the first time I've ever used them. I'm surprised they still worked! :) The inside pages:

And the back cover:

Tell me, where is more appropriate for a Hiking for Headlights team dinner than Hooters?

The fourth pocket holds another single panel. Front:

...and back:

Inside the glassine envelope is a tag that "decodes" little Emma's message that she wrote on the participant columns, "Good job girls and some boys, too." So cute!

The fifth pocket holds my blog of Overwhelming Moments, another mini-book (pamphlet stitched):

It's stitched together on the side of the book, which is the bottom of the book in this photo. I used one of Sooz's punched tabs as a pull tab and added it to the bottom of the book (mainly because it was the only place where I could put it without it covering up some text). Thanks, Sooz! :) Your butterflies came in handy, too! :)

Re-reading this gets me choked up all over again!

But wait, we're not done there! The coolest thing is that this is a double book! Check it out:

The base of the book is a "Z" made by accordian-folded and -glued chipboard. The envelopes form one half of the book, but there's still "a-whole-nother" half! (Now would be a good time for a bathroom break if you need it, ha ha!)

Here's the back cover. Notice that the envelopes are now on the left spine:

Inside this half of the book I've stitched two folded sheets (making four sheets or eight pages front and back) directly to the chipboard in a pamphlet stitch.

Here's the inside back cover and the first page of the "pamphlet."

Those Terps for Ta-tas shirts were hilarious... especially the girl on the left because you can just barely see it under her other shirt... very funny. :) And on the other page is me and Andrea. This part of the book is pretty much chronological, so this is us starting out (with Starbucks!).

Pages 2 & 3:

I hand-wrote a lot in this book, because I spent so much time on the computer formatting that enormous 18-panel mini-book and the Overwhelming Moments mini-book that I didn't want to do all my journaling on the computer, too. I'm not super-crazy about my handwriting, but I think it's fine like this. I also didn't plan or plot out what I was going to write (like I usually do), I just went ahead and did it (gasp!). :)

Pages 4 & 5:

Our husbands came to one of the cheering stations to cheer us on. Jason's so cute! Mile 23 was a biggie for me because it's further than I ever walked before (in training I "only" got up to 22 miles).

Pages 6 & 7:

If I ever do this again I'm following Andrea's lead and wearing my sunglasses in every shot. :) This is the end of the first day, in which we walked an entire marathon (and then some), and the beginning of the second day. I love the vellum quote I found in an old DCWV Quote Stack, which I cut in half: "Take pride in how far you've come, have faith in how far you can go." How perfect for this occassion! I had really bad blisters so I was nervous about walking on Sunday; I definitely had to have faith that I would be able to make it!

Here is the end of the pamphlet and the "inside inside" cover:

The photo on the left still chokes me up, too! It was great making it to Mile 10 on Sunday because I knew that even though my feet and blisters were killing me I would make it from there on sheer determination alone!

I still had some photos I wanted to include at this point, so instead of just gluing stuff to the inside inside cover I made yet another accordian fold book and glued that down, giving me four extra panels! I wrote on the tab to "pull first lift second." So here it's pulled down:

And here it's lifted/flipped up:

Ooooh, that was a yummy beer. :)

Here is yet another sign that I'm outside my old box. Look at this "alligatoring"!

Whew! That was long! Thanks for sticking around this long if you're still here. :) I had a lot of fun making this book and I know I'll enjoy it for years and years, and it's encouraged me to make more lumpy, bumpy, messy, fun projects (and use up even more of my stash)! :)