Jason's Birthday Gift

Hello blog friends!

Have you ever wanted to make a gift for someone,

especially a guy, and just didn't know what to do?

That was my struggle for my daughter's boyfriend.

I know he likes hand made gifts, but couldn't come up with

an idea.  Then one day I was talking to Kelsie, my daughter,

and she said he does take a lot of pictures, but they aren't printed

and put in a book or anything.

I decided to make him a bag book and she thought it was a

great idea for him.

I recently went on a 4 day scrabooking retreat, his gift was

the major thing I wanted to get done.

I chose a lot of papers that I thought would be good ones

and took way too much with me, as we all do for these kind of

weekends.  I started right in on the book and when I got it all 

put together, it just wasn't him.  It was a nice book, but just not

him at all.  You'll see that one in a future post.

I rethought the whole thing and picked out different papers

all together.  This time I liked it a lot more and felt like it was

really Jason.

Here is what the book ended up looking like.

This is the front cover.

I wanted that wooden J on it and that's where I started,

then cut out the words and phrases to fit around it.

I had this paper in my stash for quite a while and knew

it would come in handy one day.

I love how the tag with the key turned out.

Each page has a small tag, that you really can't see well in this

picture, and a larger tag that goes into the end of the page.

All the tags are double sided.

I tried to make all the tags look different.

Every page also has places that can hold pictures as

well as the tags.

He has 2 dogs, so I had to make a page for them.

I fussy cut all those little pieces going down the strip at

the right side of the page, I think they turned out very cute.

This is one of my favorite papers.

I've had this for a very long time and never could bring myself

to use it.  I think everyone has some papers like that.

But Jason is worth it!

I love how this page turned out.

And last but not least, this is the final page in 

the book.

I often add embellishments to the pages, but with

this book, I didn't think it was necessary.

Kelsie will be helping him to fill it with pictures,

so she can always add more embellishments if she wants

to.  She knows my craft room and supplies are open to her

whenever she needs things.

Here is the front and the back together.

I did put a little strip along the bottom of the back

that says "Made with love by Kristie"

I loved making this book for Jason, I know he appreciates

the time and effort I put into it and I hope he likes it as much as

I do. 

It can hold 32 photos, now for him to just pick out the pictures

for Kelsie to put into it.

I've already been thinking of Christmas gifts to make for him

and some of the other people in my life.

How about you?  Have you thought about making Christmas

gifts yet?  I know it's early, but getting things done early

helps make the season more enjoyable.

I may be making a couple bag books for Christmas gifts this year.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.

I appreciate your visits, come again soon.

Until next time,

start thinking about creating some gifts.