My Bind-It-All

As I told you recently, I bought myself a sweet little Bind-It-All last Friday! Unfortunately, it sat sadly unopened until yesterday, when I got a bug up my butt to make my MIL a little photo book to have on her bedside at the hospital. My SIL had originally asked me to make a small poster of some kind just to hang on her wall in the hospital, but with the BIA staring me in the face, how could I resist whipping up a little somethin'-somethin' for Muriel??

The mini-book is filled to the brim with pictures of our family for Muriel to look at when we're not there. She has been feeling very sad and lonely in the hospital now that she is more alert. Hopefully looking at this will help her feel better and a little less sad. I wanted the book to be an inspiration for her to be strong and not give up her fight. She'll be able to show her medical team what she looked like before she got sick, and she can brag about her grandchildren too!

Can you believe I made this album completely from scratch and didn't screw anything up at all? I had never laid my hands on a BIA until yesterday, and I was so worried I'd punch something wrong. But I didn't!!! Woo-hoo! I had a large piece of 12x12 chipboard laying around (I think it was in a pack of paper that I purchased at one point in time), so I cut into two 4x6 pieces for the front and back covers of the book. Both the front and back are covered with designer paper from Webster's Pages (LOVE this stuff). It is from the Sweet Charity Collection and is called Primrose Garden!

Then, I cut a bunch of smaller pieces of Kraft cardstock for the pages inside the book. I put those in the BIA to make the holes on the side. Every hole between the front and back covers and the inside pages matched up! Yippee! I was afraid that if I went wrong, that's where I'd do it...punching the holes into all the separate pieces. Once I finished that part of it, I was set to start laying out the pages and adding the photos.

I would highly recommend you do not put your book together until you have compeleted all your pages. Just in case you screw something up. You don't want to be trying to take it apart once it's been put together! Once I got all my pages done, I cut my binding to match how many holes I had in my book. You snip the desired length of binding and then weave it through the holes. Once that's done, you put the book back into the BIA and squeeze the lever until the binding closes up and can't fall apart. It's magic!!! My very first mini-album and I'm thrilled with how simple, easy, and fun the process was!

I must say though, I have a hard decorating my pages. I struggle with how much is too much vs. how much is not enough. I think I leave most of the cards and projects I make "undone", or not done enough. I don't keep a huge stock of embellishments around my studio because I find them very expensive. Or, what usually happens is that I find that I don't have exactly what I'm looking for to complete a card or page. Hate when that happens. So, to be honest, I'm not thrilled with the layout of my album pages on this one. But, it's something I'm always going to be working on and striving to make better, so that's cool. I'll get there. I'll get it figured out!

I hope you like today's project! It was a blast and I'm glad I made it for Muriel. She's had such a long road. She's been in the hospital for 8 weeks. She's had 6 surgeries now....4 involving the heart wound, 1 tracheotomy, and one feeding tube, which was "installed" yesterday. Her poor, poor wounded body. I am hoping the trache will make her more comfortable, as will the new feeding tube, which is implated directly into the stomach. The boys and I will be going to visit her this morning to bring her the book. I hope she is alert enough to see it. I am very worried about seeing Muriel for the first time with a trache. I have always had a difficult time looking at someone with a trache. It sort of gives me the heebee-geebee's. I can't explain why. When I was a teenager, I was leaving a party in the dark and fell on a yard stake right near my esophogus. Needless to say, it was not a pretty sight. I wonder if that's why I have a hard time with traches? Please pray for me to get over this fear...I don't want Muriel to know this is how I feel.

Well, I've got to run and hop in the shower. Have a wonderful day!

Hugs,
Amy