Caraway Anything Book

Meet Caraway, a one-of-a-kind journal perfect for recording your thoughts, your stories, and your daily life. (see Caraway in my Etsy shop)

Caraway is made from a recycled Capri Sun box.

Caraway is 9 1/2 inches wide by 5 1/4 inches tall and is filled with 50 items, which means you have 100 layered pages to fill. The pages provide an inspiring background for you to record you treasures.

Caraway comes with a ring charm that includes a tiger eye donut made from a semi-precious stone.

The top binding ring contains a ring charm made up of beads and a donut made from tiger eye, a semi-precious stone. The ring binding on Caraway allows you to add in your own items. Simply remove a page as a template, and use a standard hole punch to insert your own items such as menus, letters, envelopes, product packaging, or photographs.

A receipt from the USPS adds color to this quirky journal page.

Each two-page spread contains several items to inspire you. Many of the items are narrower than the pages, adding layers of interest that show you a different background each time you turn an item. The mix of items and colors is a visual treat throughout Caraway.

Smaller items like postage stamp and a restaurant order form add visual interest.

Caraway contains an intriquing mix of recycled and upcycled materials including patterned paper, cardstock, menus, greeting cards, marketing materials, product packaging, paint chips, evelopes, postal receipt, guest check, and a door hanger. These items have been saved from the landfill and add beauty to each page of the journal.

Tabs line the journal edge so you can label pages for easy access.

The edges of Caraway are lined with paper and ribbon tags to help you find your way through the book. You can write on the tabs so you can quickly find the page containing your specific memories. Some of the pages extend beyond the book covers to add another layer of interest to this journal.

A library pocket with a decorated shipping tag.

Caraway contains a library pocket where you can stash smaller items that you don't want to glue to the pages. The pocket comes with a shipping tag that is painted and collaged--waiting for you to add your photos, ticket stubs, or other memorabilia.

Scraps of reclaimed paper from my studio add interest to the Caraway pages.

The colors inside Caraway range from greens to pinks to blues to orange to purple to red. In fact, every color of the rainbow appears inside this journal. Just turning the pages is a visual inspiration.

A Russian postage stamp coordinates with the patterned paper on inside of the cover.

Many types of small items appear to embellish the Caraway pages including washi tape, tabs, clips, postage stamps, rubber stamps, baker's twine and business cards. These small treasures inspire you to add your personal touches to Caraway.

Recycled envelopes and business reply cards are layered on patterned paper.

Envelopes like this business reply mail (above) envelope wait to hold your small trinkets and treasures. You can safely tuck things inside, or clip them to the outside, or glue them in place. It's all up to you!

The back cover shows the Anything Book name, bar code identifier, and my signature.

Like all Anything Books, Caraway takes its name from a word on an found item insider the journal. The name appears on the back above the unqiue bar code identifier, along with my signature. Caraway is a one-of-a-kind journal waiting to hold your special memories.

Visit my Etsy shop to see Caraway and my other Anything Books.

Mundane Anything Book

This Anything Book may be called "Mundane" but it's anything but boring! (my Etsy shop)

The Mundane Anything Book includes ring fringe on the center binding ring.

The Mundane Anything Book is made from an upcycled/recycled Chia pet box. This one, the Chia Cat, is bright green and red and is perfect for anyone who loves cats. It measures 8 inches wide by 7 1/4 inches tall and incorporates 50 items so you have 100 pages to fill.

This air mail envelope is waiting to hold your treasures.

Part journal and part scrapbook, an Anything Book can be anything you want. There are 4 journaling sections where you can write longer stories, collect quotes, or just express yourself. The other pages can hold your words along with items you glue, staple, or clip in. That means you can add the tiny items of your daily living along with photographs, ticket stubs, and shopping lists.

Found items like this boho glam photo add personality to Mundane.

Each Anything Book takes on the personality of the items inside it. Mundane starts off with attitude! Its contents run the range from the funky boho portrait seen above, to Louis C.K., to the Wizard of Oz, to Marilyn Monroe. Add to this the mix of patterns, textures, and the variety of materials, and Mundane rises to the extraordinary.

The layering of patterns and colors give Mundane a unique feel.

The pages of Mundane will inspire you to express your personality on its pages. Think of them as a colorful backdrop for your own ideas, words, and snippets of your life experience. Layer on your own content like a deluxe pizza ingredients over a perfect crust and you get Mundane.

Small touches like vellum, washi tape and baker's twine add elegance to Mundane's pages.

It's all about the layering. Patterns on textures, contrasting colors side by side, and unepected touches like baker's twine and washi tape add to the viseral experience of Mundane. The visual interest never ends. Turning each page is a voyage of discovery.

The variety of items on every page will inspire your creativity.

Mundane incorporates a wide range of materials including patterned paper, cardstock, book pages, menus, greeting cards, product packaging, paint chips, evelopes, photographs, file folders, vellum, sheet music, a library pocket and a magazine cover.

A variety of tabs let you label sections and quickly find your treasures and memories.

The beauty of Mundane is the ring binding. This allows the book to expand as you add your own items to pages. You can also insert your own pages by simply removing a page to use as a template with a standard hole punch. Also, if you Mundane starts to get too bulky, you can upsize the rings to 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inch rings available in most office supply stores or the office supply section of your favorite discount store.

A postage stamp from Mongolia sits over a strip of sheet music.

Mundane would make a great gift for someone special in your life. But it would also make a great gift for yourself. With 50 items where you can write and attach things, there's room for many, many treasured memories.

Mundane is signed by me and dated.

Like all Anything Books, Mundane is a unique book that gives you a one-of-a-kind canvas to record your life, your memories, and keep your treasures. It has its name on the back, along wtih my signature and its bar code identifier. No two Anything Books get the same bar code identifier. It's just one way they are each special.

Check out Mundane in my Etsy shop and see my other Anything Books.

Presents! Presents! Presents!

I've been super busy the last few weeks making holiday presents for my family. I've got some pictures to share with you here.

One of my nephews is a sports nut, especially baseball. Not only does he play, but he coaches and umpires. His family makes an annual trip to Chicago to watch his favorite team, the Cubs, play in Wrigley Field. This is a concertina with plain pages so he can insert any pictures he wants, and I've assumed they will be related to baseball. In the back, I've created a photo holder envelope out of double side printed cardstock. That's the tab you see sticking up in the back.

The next project is for a niece who is a senior in high school this year. It's a coin envelope book with a magnet closure with lots of tags inside. This image is the top half of the book with details. I trimmed down the envelopes so a #5 shipping tag would fit inside nicely, and designed the book around the envelope size. There are three kinds of yarn sticking out of the top from the tags. I do like a lot of yarn frilly stuff.

Here's a view of the bottom details. I used the outside paper to make the simulated tape holding the pieces together. That's why they blend into the cover. I also stamped related bird images along the front of each envelope with coordinating birds stamped on the tags.

Here's a view of the envelopes and tags and their stamps. I used several colors of the Tim Holtz inks to distress the entire project at each phase. This was my first envelope book, and I was working out the engineering as I went. As a result, this project is more of a prototype for future envelope book. I'm really pleased with how the magnet closures work, but next time, I'll hide them under the paper. I've got an idea for digging out some of the cardstock so it might even be flush with the surface. New ideas to try on future books.

Last year, I made this niece a book and filled up the pages with quotes that I thought she would enjoy. This book is blank so she can make her own mark on the world. I only hope that she really will use it! After seeing my handwritten quotes last year, perhaps she won't be afraid to write in this one.

This is the project I'm most excited to share. My oldest nephew got engaged about a week ago, so this is their first Christmas together as soon-to-be-newlyweds. I wanted to give my future niece-in-law a gift to help her mark this stage of her life's journey. It's a lunchbag book designed to collect information about their holiday traditions as a couple. Each two-page spread covered a different aspect of the holidays where she can record details and tuck away mementors, including:

• holiday decorations
• special events they attend
• favorite holiday music (with a place to put in a CD)
• Christmas eve events
• Christmas day events
• favorite recipes (with a deck of recipe cards)
• special memories
• holiday magic

I love the juxtaposition of such precious memories into such a routine object that seems to be temporary. I constructed the individual bag pages and only sewed the segment together at the end. I was planning to tie a narrow wire-rimmed red ribbon along the spine, but now that the book is finished, that seems like too much frilly stuff. I selected the papers from my stash and matched them to the recipe cards I found at Hobby Lobby.

{Note: I've added a few more pictures of the Holiday Traditions book. Click on any picture to view a larger version of the photo and see more details.]

The bottom of the lunch bag makes a natural flap on some pages. This spread gives her room to write in their holiday decorating traditions. And the facing page allows her to add a photograph.

This spread allows her to record the names of their favorite holiday music. Because my nephew is a band director, I'm sure music will be a part of their lives. On the right page, I've added an image cut from a Christmas card I received years ago. Behind that image is the lunch bag top, so the can slide in a CD of their favorite holiday songs to really record the memories.

This spread has the bottom of the bag on the left page. She can write on these pages things like their Christmas morning menu, or put in pictures. I've created a recipe holder by punching holes into recipe cards and inserting a book ring to hold them together. I'll slide the recipe cards in between these pages.

San Francisco Travel Memory Book

I'm too tired tonight to start the next project, so I decided I would blog this one and then hit the bed. I've already triaged my holiday gifts, and I'm going to call people tomorrow and explain that I don't have their gift done, but will finish it after I return to Phoenix. I'm sorry it has come to that, but I won't drive myself crazy to finish projects when I know people won't mind at all.

So, here is the second finished holiday gift for my family. This one is for my sister. She visited San Francisco this year, and hasn't done anything with her photos. I've made this book using a combination of travel guide pages, scrapbook papers, and photographs (reduced in size to act as embellishments). She can add 12 of her favorite pictures into this book.


This book doesn't have much dimension on the cover, but I did add a few layers. Notice the screen over the cable car picture (white scroll box) attached with an eyelet. I'm going to make a tag book to go inside the library pocket on the right (Bazzill).


As usual, I've added tags and tabs and clips along the outer edges of the pages along the top and side. I love the way this adds dimension to the book. I really love the grungy, distressed character of the paper, and have used the Tim Holtz distress inks to add to that feeling. The brown is Brushed Corduroy, and I've used it everywhere. I used a stamp to make the tabs out of the remnants of the scrapbook paper series.


Here's a page based on a travel guide page. I've used the description of Chinatown along with a reduced photograph from Chinatown, and added a small coin envelope (Bazzill) so she can tuck away a small treasure or two. I used Stazon ink to stamp over the glossy travel guide page and photograph.

There are more pictures on Flickr.

Holiday Gift Tags

I'm so excited to share these with you! These are my holiday gift tags this year. I normally make nice tags, but I decided to go all out this year. This is my first holidays with my studio, and it is the best present I have ever given myself! Here's some of the back story on how I made these tags.

[Ooopps. I guess Jamie and Tyson now know they are getting something from me! Maybe I should have posted a spoiler alert.]

First, I pulled out everything I could think of related to a holiday theme from my stamp collection. I ended up going with a star theme because I have a nice star quote stamp. It speaks to the holidays without specifically being about Christmas or any specific holiday.

Then, I spent about an hour designing and mocking up a tag. I focused on placement and layout, and once I had it the way I liked it, I started thinking about the colors. My inspiration for the colors was a ball of recycled silk yarn from Tibet. I love this stuff, and want to use it where it has a big impact. I pulled colors from this to select which of my Tim Holtz Distress inks I would use. Because I love green and all shades of blue-green, that's my main color. The red really contrasts nicely with the coolness of the blues and greens. I wasn't thinking Christmas when I picked this scheme, but it works.


I started by using the applicator to put a background coat of Broken China (blue) on each tag. Next, I used one of the Tim Holtz masks along the left border and applied a coat of Peeled Paint (green) with the applicator. I turned each card over and lightly covered the back. I really hate raw surfaces in my projects.

As you can see, I went through a learning curve with the ink and applicator. After a few tags, I figured out that rubbing the applicator over the ink pad and then rubbing it over the tag gives the best color coat without applicator sized blotches. That's what I love about my art right now, I'm starting to master tools because I'm using them more often.


I added a shooting star stamp across the top of the tag over the hole. I tried using silver because I thought it would go nicely with the aluminum ring around the circle tag, but in the end, I went with copper. The copper blends into the background colors and I liked that look better than the shiny look of the silver.


I started adding content from the bottom, starting with the year. I love the way this Fired Brick red contrasts with the cool blue green background.


While playing around with the prototype, I decided that I wanted some sort of scrolling image in the middle of the tag, but subtle so it doesn't make it hard to read the quote. I tried several scrolls, but ended up with this one because it is light handed. I used the Pine Needles ink for this, which is more of an olive, yellow green. I love using adjacent colors on the color wheel like this because I love the richness it adds to the palette.


I used the Fired Brick again on the quote to make this the most prominent part of the design. It took a bit to figure out the placement for the stamp so I had the words in the best location. It was fun watching them suddenly appear nearly finished on the table.


I finished up the inking by using Pine Needles on the edges and doing a bit of distressing on top and bottom. I love the distressed grunge feel it gives. I wrote the recipient names on the circle tags, and using a paper piercers, I punched a hole and inserted a star brad to attach the circle tag to the gift tag. I noticed that the circle repeats the scrolling design underneath, and love the way it lines up with the scrolls. I wish I could say I planned that, but in truth, it was a happy accident.

I cut the yarn and attached them to the tags. They are so pretty I keep one near me when I'm at the computer just to cheer me up!

More pictures on Flickr.

Project: Photo Accordion Book

Tonight, I gave a gift book to a very dear new friend. I decided over the weekend that I would make a small book for her. So I spent some time going through her Flickr archive looking for a photo I could use for the cover. It turned out, she has quite a collection of photos out there, and so I decided to print several pictures for her book.

Note: I was able to do this because my friend had not copyright protected her images on Flickr. If she had protected them, I would have needed her permission to use them, even in a gift for her. I would have taken that step, even though it would have removed most of the surprise of the gift.

I decided to use an accordion book. I assembled the book so it opens from both the bottom and the top. Before assembling the book, I decided that I would leave the book mostly blank for her to put in her pictures. Because she would be adding photos, I needed an artistic design for the inner pages that I could do, rather than embellishments added on top of photos. I decided to use Glimmer Mist and a Heidi Swap mask. Using three colors (Patina, Robin's Egg Blue, and Key Lime Green), I misted the backgrounds on both sides. I used papertowels to cover up pages that I didn't want to mist in each section. I made some more green and some more blue, mostly by the color I put on the top.

While the inner pages dried, I covered the covers with Bo Bunny striped paper, and then assembled the front decorations. I did a dry layout and used my digital camera to snap the planned layout for later. I went through my stash, and used some elephant stamps, a small compass, the word "journey," and a lot of flowers. I used a Tim Holtz ATC stamp to add some interest to the Bazzill library pocket. I used Peeled Paint distress ink to stamp the library pocket, and a series of green cateye chalks to distress the edges of things on the cover.

Next, I assembled the book, using a UHU glue stick to assemble the pages to the covers. I closed the book, and put it under something heavy in my office for an hour to make sure it was solid before moving forward. I added a few photos to the interior before I assembled the front cover. After the cover was finished, I went through and added tabs to many of the interior pages. As a last step, I used a small photo folder and attached it in the middle from the top, and inserted the remaining photos in it.


When I was finished, about an hour later (not counting drying time), I had a lovely gift I was proud to give. Total cost was under $10. My friend can use a Sharpie or a pigment ink pen to write captions on and around her photos after she assembled the whole album.

More pictures available on Flickr.
Project code: 280011

I am Intransigent

I have two reactions to my new art journal and the art journaling process.

First, at the highest level, I realize that I've taken a step into a larger world and started a huge journey by taking just this one little baby step.

Second, I'm a bit shocked each time I turn the page and stare at all of that whiteness. I've learned to overcome the snow blindness of the page when I write, so I'm confident that I'll also overcome it here. I also realize this is the work, every day, to face the whiteness and take yet another baby step.


I'm totally in an experimenting stage with everything in my studio. I'm learning how the tools work. I'm learning how they interact. I'm learning how to use them and not use them. I'm trying things that I like and I don't like. I feel like a total beginner stepping fully into this realm. In every other enterprise in my life, I've reached some level of mastery from years of work and practice. Everything is fresh with the studio. Yes, I feel the advantage of the years of art in my life. I have ideas and my eye looks for things it likes, things that feel right. I'm just learning how to express these ideas, and learning how to put things together so I like the result. There's something freeing about being a beginner again in my life. It's a bit like walking in the woods after a snowfall and leaving the first footprints. (There is that snow blindness image again.)

Today, I made two entries, two very different experiments. I laid out the start of the background by using one of my new fabric stamps from India that I picked up at the Tesuque Flea Market. I just wanted to see how it would stamp using acrylic paint. The first impression went well, so I decided to lay out a background of them. After it dried, I watered down another color and painted it over the images. While that was drying, I grabbed a dictionary I keep in the studio and randomly opened it to the entry for "intransigent." It means unwilling to compromise. I love that idea, it completely resonates with me and my art journal. I added additional words that express my reaction to this word and my commitment to keeping this journal.

Many years ago, I learned how to make and keep a promise to myself. That may not seem like a life milestone to many people, but it was huge in my life, and changed so much of my inner dialog. I promised myself to start this journal, and I did it.

Something else I've learned in my life: baby steps are important. No matter how small the act, taking action in a direction changes everything. It sets you in motion, it starts building momentum. It signals the universe that you are serious, that you have your eyes open and you choose deliberately to move in a new direction. In my life, it always seems that the angels come rushing in at this point. If feels like every guide and every keeper and every fairy along the road come running out like the Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy steps on the yellow brick road. They laugh with glee and cheer me on because they know that the greatest part of this life is the journey, and that each step taken consciously, with open eyes and heart, and with aligned intentions is a moment of heaven on earth. Who wouldn't cheer for that?!