SMASH'ing project

Happy Sunday!

Hope your weekend is going really well.

From now on, my Sunday posts are NOT going to be cards as I want to showcase that there is loads you can do with pretty paper, rubber stamps and a little bit of adhesive so to kick off, my share today is my new Smash book.
For those who haven't heard of Smash booking yet, it's sort of like Scrapbooking, but, err, well gorilla style I guess a good description.  So where a scrapbook page is beautiful paper, lovely photo and well placed elements, smash booking is more simplistic, on-the-go style of documenting your life; unstructured and unfiltered, so if you want to stick in your tube ticket or an article out of the paper and quickly scribble down a note, you can.  It's about capturing the moment and remembering things rather than necessarily making them look esthetically pleasing - but obviously your smash book can be pretty too!

The book I am putting together is all about my family.  I am going to add memories and anecdotes as and when I remember them so that my son and one day his family will have the opportunity to know more about the everyday things rather than the more formal scrapbook pages that tend to document bigger moments in life.

This is the cover of my Smash book.  I had an 8 1/4" x 8 1/4" kraft book from Paperchase that I bought ages ago.  I carefully took off the binding rings and covered the whole from cover with paper from the "Sweet Stitches" designer series paper, (DSP), added a strip of "Chocolate Chip" cardstock, (CS), across the middle and used the noticeboard type image from the "Sew Lovely" stamp set and stamped my name.

I punched out a few faux buttons in appropriate coloured CS.

On the inside cover I adhered some fab 1 1/4" Stripped grosgrain to make a pen loop and just stuck down a piece of "Very Vanilla" cardstock to keep it looking neat and tidy.

I didn't completely cover the back cover, I added the same size Chocolate Chip" strip as I had used on the front. Then stamped all the images from the "Button, Button" stamp set on to a piece of "Very Vanilla" CS using the colour palette that's in the DSP, This is the colour palette I'm going to use throughout this project.  I actually stamped the images off first to give this back strip a more subtle feel.  I adhered this to the "Chocolate Chip"

This is the inside front cover.  This page I am going to add a picture of myself, this is the only page that is going to have anything about me on, and I'm going to get other people to write something in.

I used the "Baroque Motifs" stamp set to add the image and to make it look more like a wild plant, I used the "Ornament" punch with the pointy end cut off to replicate a plant pot.

This is the start of the section on my Dad. I've already planned that the more important people in my life, like my Mum & Dad are going to have double page spreads, but the plan is that if I need more than that I will just add pages to the book between these pages so that section can just grow if it needs to.  I'm using the "Decorative Label" punch, cut in half and stuck behind photos to write peoples relationship to me on.
~ If you are interested, the photo of my Dad is him when he joined the army and the little journalling I added is about the fact that he was shot and put in a prison camp where they didn't bother taking the bullets and bits of shrapnel out, so he had those bits of metal in him for the whole of his life.

Each page is decorated slightly different, either with an image from the "Sew Lovely" stamp set or more organic images like the one from "Baroque Motifs" but stamped with Versamark ink to give a really subtle impression.

I'm also using the "Scallop Envelop" die for the Big Shot to put in the more personal, private memories I have. 



 
This is going to be an on-going projects that is likely to make many months, if not years to complete as I really want to use this book to capture the essence of the members of my family, so I am quite happy to keep going back to write down the little moments - it does help that I have a bind-it-all machine so I can put it back together when I add pages, but it's so going to be worth all the hard work.
Oh, and if you are wondering why I would choose a sewing based theme when the book is all about my family, well, in my opinion, it's the threads from all these people that weave together to help make you who you are - see, there was a logic to the craziness :o)

 Take very good care of yourselves ..... xx



Project Ingredients

Stamp Sets :  "Sew Lovely"; "Broadsheet Alphabet"; "Baroque Motifs" & "Button, Button"
Card stock : "Tempting Turquoise"; "Wild Wasabi"; "Chocolate Chip"; "Melon Mambo" &  "Very Vanilla" .
Accessories : "Scallop Envelop" die for the Big Shot; 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon in "Chocolate Chip" 1 1/4" Stripped grosgrain ribbon in ""Old Olive"& Versamark Ink Pad
Colour : "Tempting Turquoise"; "Wild Wasabi"; "Chocolate Chip "Tangerine Tango"; "Melon Mambo" "Regal Rose"; Wild Wasabi" & "Daffodil Delight" ink
Tools : "Scallop Envelope" Die for the Big Shot; "Ornament" punch; "Decorative Label" punch; 3/4" round punch; 1/2" round punch; "SNAIL" tape runner adhesive & Tombow liquid adhesive