Pink 'McKenna' Star Book

Good morning!

Today's post is a long one with lots of photos - so bear with me! LOL!

Here's the star book that we made at Saturday's Star Book class at GinaK's store in McFarland. I finished decorating it and took it into the store yesterday to have on display. I took some photos of the book before I left.


A few years ago, I took some adorable photos of my daughter Ashley posing in front of our house by all our flowers. She was quite the little model for me that day in a super cute dress that matched all the bright flowers. I've been saving these photos for a mini book and this one was perfect for it.


Because of the size of the book, I decided to focus in on her adorable little baby face - look at those little cheeks! She's grown up so much since these photos... that little pug nose and those chubby little cheeks are gone now... Don't you hate it when they grow up so fast?!?


I absolutely adore this McKenna paper pack from K&Co. - the colors are so soft and comforting. We used Bazzil Textured papers to coordinate. I used one of the Large Standard Scallop Circle Dies to soften the square lines of the book and love how it turned out! I also used a bunch of different sayings from a variety of Gina's stamps to embellish the book. They were all cut out with Nestabilities Labels Dies. I was so excited to see that every saying I wanted to use fit into one of the dies! I trimmed a few of them down on one edge to make them fit - like this one below.
To highlight the scallops, I pierced each one and then rubbed Metallic Embossing Paste over the edges to show off the texture of the papers. I also rubbed the paste over the Nestabilities Labels. For the patterned paper circles, I took the time to emboss the edges and then went over it with a sanding block to show off the white core of the paper. I didn't emboss the scallop circles or the photos.
One of the things I love most about these star books is that bulkiness is not an issue! You can add as much dimension with embellishments as you wish because the book is meant to be displayed open. Because of the construction of the book itself, it will close just fine even with all these flowers and dimensionals added to it.
Since the patterned papers are covered with flowers, I decided to use a couple flower stamps of GinaK's to decorate the book. When I'm making mini books like this one, I like to pick a couple of embellishments and stick to them throughout each page for continuity. So, I chose Prima flowers with Rhinestone brads, Nestabilities Label Dies, Ribbons (all SU), K&Co. Typewriter Key words, and flower stamps.

I chose to color my images in with Copic Markers. A few weeks ago, I decided to start keeping a Copic Coloring Journal to use as a reference book for myself and my students. When I told my husband that I have my own Copic Coloring Book, he had a good laugh. Men - they just don't get it sometimes, do they?
So now I turn to my book whenever I color an image with my Copic Markers. I stamp the same images and write down all the details so that I can use them as a reference tool. When I'm coloring to match pattern papers, I put a swatch of paper down on the page. I'll share more of my book in another post this week. It's my favorite thing right now!
Here's the page I made for the images that I colored for this Star Book -
Project Details: Flowers for Daisy, Friendship Blooms, Baskets of Happiness; K&Co. McKenna 12x12 paper pack, Bazzil Textured Papers, SU Vanilla cardstock; Nestabilities Standard Scallop & Regular Circle Dies; Nestabilities Label Dies; Copic Markers; Momento Black Ink; SU Round Label punch; Primas & Rhinestone brads; Stickles; CraftT Embossing Paste; Paper piercer; SU ribbons
Thanks for hanging in there with me through this long post!! I hope you enjoyed the photos of my Star book and my little flower girl Ashley. I usually like to add photos to my sample books - I think it helps people to visualize what they can look like all finished.
Have a great day!
Jessica