Stacey Kingman

Hi, I’m Stacey Kingman and I’m so excited to be sharing a little bit about myself and my crafting with you! I love old stuff and pictures of my family and alphabets...and when I combine these three things with pretty papers and great tools, I am one happy crafting girl.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have this “thing” for little books. I love them! I think it’s because I like closure. Completion. The feeling of actually finishing something. Immediate (almost) gratification. I’ve been scrapbooking for twelve years and I do love it and it is my obsession... but the reality is that I’ll never actually be “caught up.” Never! This makes me crazy sometimes. I need closure. I have to have it. Closure is almost like eating chocolate or crossing everything off a list. Closure gives me endorphins. Or at least a wonderful sense of having achieved something.

This is where the mini-book steps in and saves my sanity. The mini-book gives me that immediate gratification I seem to crave. And the mini-book gives me a sense of completion. I may still have un-scrapped pictures from most of the events between 1999 and today, but I also have small happily completed books of selected family events. I adore these books. They make me so happy. I put them out all over my house. I look at them. Other people look at them. They are not “in progress.” They are not “crafts.” They are finished little scrapbooks. I love this.

I recently completed a little book about our Easter egg hunt this year. THIS year. 2008. I love that I have a little scrapbook with photos from a few weeks ago and it’s finished and it’s meaningful and it’s current and it’s cute.

I could have just done a layout of our egg hunt - actually, I probably still will at some point. But one of the things I love about mini-books is that I can use so many more photos than I would have on a layout, even a two-page one.

For this little book, I chose to create a little section about each child in our family with a close-up photo and three “action” photos of them egg hunting.  I filled these pages in with specific details related to that child’s experience. Each section is unique to the child, and yet the design is consistent from page to page with rub-ons, chipboard, and journaling boxes.

I used the wonderful new Heidi Grace “A Little Bird’s Tale” collection throughout the book. I found that the blues, greens, and purples gave me plenty of opportunity to make my little boy pages just enough “not girly” that I know they’ll love them. Since the guys are all wearing pink for Easter in these photos, I knew this collection would work perfectly – and it did!

Some Techniques:
I wanted to use my own handwriting for this project, but I don’t always love my handwriting. Experience has shown me that the more distressed my pages, the better my handwriting “fits in.” It’s true! So I did a bit of sanding throughout the book. The edges of each page, chipboard pieces, stickers, even the photo edges, if you look closely everything has a tiny bit of sanded texture. No ink, just sanding. The Heidi Grace patterned paper has a white core, so it takes the sandpaper beautifully.

Hand-drawn lines are another way that I can minimize the effects of my inconsistent penmanship while maintaining the personal look and feel of handwritten journaling. A tip: if you make an error while drawing lines, let it dry and then sand it a bit. I also chose to add hand drawn lines to the sanded chipboard pieces, some flowers, and journaling boxes. This collection already has quite a bit of hand drawn detail in it, so my own details were just a natural extension of what was already adorably present on much of the collection!

Book Construction Tips:
Since I am such a fan of the mini-book, I was thrilled when Cloud 9 Design came out with these fabulous board books! Each of the three sizes is special in its own way. I began the project with the 6”X6” kraft book. I had decided that since I wasn’t planning to use the storage box it comes in, I was going make it as chunky as I could. I pulled out an Cloud 9 Design 8” X 3.25” board book and got to work (play).

First I cut the books apart, and then after separating the pages I cut the 8” X 3.25” pages down in length to 6 inches. I covered each page by wrapping patterned paper around the rough edges where I had cut them, then I sanded the edges just a bit, and stacked them for drilling.

Here comes some tool-time fun. I got out my Fiskars Craft Drill and I had my daughter hold the stack while I drilled completely through the stack of chipboard pages. I sanded the holes a bit and inserted big binder rings. Viola, cool book!

In case you are wondering, the reason I combined the two books sizes is so that each child’s section to sort of be a little layered “layout.” So I placed the smaller pages between the larger ones so that when I am looking at Darby’s section, I can see almost all of what is included about her. The small pages are like big tags. They aren’t the most important stuff, but they contain details that I wanted to include.

About the covers- I used shots from the yard with hidden eggs for the front and back covers. These photo weren’t “extras” – I usually take pictures of the yard, house, garden, table decorations, etc. because they make great accent photos and they give a great feel for the surroundings. I think that in the future those who look at the books will have an appreciation for the photos that represent the place as well as the people. The covers tend to get handled so much more than the insides, so I will likely go over the covers with a couple of coats of Mod Podge.

About the Box- The Cloud 9 Design board books come in a great storage box. Since I decided to combine two books, the box was free to store the Easter photos that I didn’t include in the book. It’s embellished simply but similarly to the book and it’s cute enough to be displayed with the book, so if you want to see the rest of the photos from The Hunt 2008, they are right there in the box!

There is such a great feeling of achievement that comes from completing a little book like this. It’s imperfect but complete. It’s current but will be enjoyed for years to come. It’s cute and it makes the kids feel important – because they are! I love that they have each looked at it several times since I completed it. Maybe it gives them endorphins, too.

By Stacey Kingman