september mini book...

This is my mini book made during September and vaguely based on Shimelle Laine's "Learn Something New Every Day" concept... I started off in the right way with the front cover (got the title right!), but thereafter the similarity ends.  It doesn't bother me that I didn't follow the format... I genuinely didn't think I would, to be honest.... I just wanted to do a September mini book with an entry for each day. Some days contain "learnings" (this reminds me so much of coaching I had at work when we had to write down our "learnings" at the end of each session!), but most entries just contain a note of something or several somethings that I've done that day.  Most entries have photos, but not all of them.

I've still got a few bits and pieces to finish off in relation to the last four entries (when I was on holiday in Aberdeenshire and didn't really have time to do the entries on a daily basis), but aside from that I'm pretty much finished. I quite enjoyed it to begin, but almost sawed my head off by the end of it... I have a very short attention span!  I'm pleased with the finished product, though, and I think it was worth doing. If nothing else, Erin will be able to pick it up in years to come and see what her mum was up to in September 2009 - that was my overriding interest when I was making the entries (rather than the "learnings"), as I think it's probably information that she would never gain knowledge of otherwise and it might be quite interesting for her (in an odd way)!  I'll seriously consider doing another book next September!

You probably can't see it in the photo, but I've "drawn" around the front (and back) covers with lime green Stickles.  The covers themselves are chipboard which has been painted black outside and misted brown and bronze inside. The front inside cover has a clock image done with a clock mask and mists.  I've used distress inks - mainly browns and greens - and other inks/stamping (particularly autumn stamps and leaves) almost everywhere.  There's newspaper on the front cover too.

I love the this photo of Marley on the first page after the tags etc on the inside front cover.  The frog on the opposite page is one of those window sticker things which my brother obtained from some fast food place and was going to throw in the bin on the 1st of September... hence it made it into my book under the entry for that day!  I cut a mini page protector in half and stuck the frog to the back.

Every single page started as a plain white page.  Each page was inked around the edges with beige ink, stamped with green leaves and then drawn around with a black pen.  I used that as the core of the book and then worked from there.  I've also inserted ledger-style brown straight-edged pages between each of the scalloped pages.  I stamped the date in the top left or right corner of each page. Some days have two or three pages, but most have just one page.

I've used this green transparency to mark the half way point between the entries for 15th and 16th September.  The first half of the book is by far the best and I'm really pleased with it. The last quarter is pretty dull, to be fair... you can tell that I had lost interest!  However, I refuse to spend much more time on it... recently I've decided that it's a waste of time to keep trundling on with something you're bored with.  I've just got a few missing bits to add to the last few pages and I'll call it a day at that.