A Special Event Book Makes A Great Christmas Gift

Hello, this is Sheila from ShesASassyLady and I am so excited to share with you this wonderful Special Event Book.  This post is a re-run that I made a while back as I really think that it would make a wonderful Christmas gift and it is so easy to do.  Pam at TheBugBytes had been focusing all month on Just Because Cards and although I love that cart I had just made a bunch of cards and wanted to share something else with you! So today I will take you from thought process to completed project. This is a much longer post than I normally do so please grab a cup of coffee or tea or maybe a diet coke or pepsi and sit down and spend a few minutes with me...

I am so excited with this big-little project!!! I say big as it is my first little book of sorts. After deciding to make this project and the size I was going to do I had to come up with a cover that I felt was sturdy enough to take a little abuse and I did not have any thick chip board. So I collected the pieces of cardboard around the office and started cutting and stacking until I felt I had the right thickness.

Before the final cut on my cardboard or should I say future cover I took my papers that I used for the thought process and placed and cut the cardboard exactly the size I wanted.

I ended up using 2 with an old file folder sandwiched in between and I am thrilled with the results. I used an ATG to adhere the three pieces together.

I then trimmed my DCWV Maraposa card stock and covered the cardboard making sure edges were glue with Zip Dry so they wouldn't pull apart.

I marked where the bottom was to I could make sure I had a front and back cover and as I was using the same paper on both it was easier to match and make sure the paper was going in the right direction.

I inked the edges of the dark brown as I didn't want any white edges, just a nice finished look to it.

Here is my front cover and all the different color papers I chose to go inside. They are from the K and Company Life's Journey stack. The nice thing is every page had a different coordinated color on the reverse side. Aren't the papers just beautiful. Make sure you tap the photo to enlarge so you can see what I mean. Next I trimmed off 1 inch of the paper so that I would have an 11x12 inch paper.

Then I used my score pal with a score mark at the center or 6 inches on 1 side and then 3 1/2 inches in the other direction.

Then all I had to do was draw up the bottom to form the little pocket, use the bone folder for a sharp edge.

Then fold in half again, and once again take the bone folder and get clean sharp edge.

I continued with this until I had 6 pages or 12 pockets; 1 for each month of the year.

Well the book part is almost ready.... All I have to do is bind it and decorate it. Look how nicely these colors coordinate?

Next I need to start making my tags. I decided to do a tag I could fit right in the pocket rather than on it as I didn't want to make another book it the space filled up, but I could easily replace a tag or write on both sides if I needed to. It was actually easier to design this on my Gypsy Woman and write with the Cri-Kit Pens than to type up and then print with card stock on my computer. I use my pens whenever I can.

This was the second video I did with the pens, you know I made a blunder with the first and had to redo it!

I took the extra time to ink the little calendar pages and I am so glad I did, they look so much nicer, don't you think?

I glued all the months on the tags and there is plenty of room for birthday and even anniversary's. The neat thing is that if one side gets full I just cut another and adhere it to the back! so easy!

Thought I would show you a couple of the backs. They come from the same K and Company Life's Journey stack and are so beautiful!

Well here are my pages before binding them. I don't mind telling you I am a nervous wreck as I have never used the Zutter Bind It All before and I don't want to goof this up!!!

Let me tell you even though I watched the video several times and read the little book I did plenty of praying when I did this, and God is good - it cut beautifully. I had a little problem with my page order but was able to get that figure out too. If you need assistance in this click HERE for the Bind It All video.

Now that it is all together I will use my little cuts from my wonderful Gypsy and Cricut... my Dynamic Duo to embellish along with other goodies. I am going to keep it lite as I don't want this book to get too bulky.

Now I sure hope you like my little special events book. It sure has changed from thought process to finished product but I love it. I can keep all my dates in one place and plan for the entire month what cards need to be ready and when. After making I realized there isn't a book big enough to hold a years worth of cards for birthdays and anniversaries but this is the perfect answer for what I need. It is pretty and so easy to refer to and update when ever needed.

I sure hope you enjoyed today's project and I hope I didn't bore you with my first videos for a project. This book was so much fun to make and it really challenged me, yet it is something each and everyone can do too.

Thank you for your sweet words of encouragement. Your comments continue to inspire me and lift my spirits.