Soulmates Minibook // Laurel Lane Designs

The evolution of an idea: A want or need arises: I want to make something or I have a design team deadline, a gift to give, I want to use these supplies, etc.An idea takes shape: I could do it like this or use these things.There is a tickle: Somehow, in your mind, a puzzle slowly gets solved. Ideas and items begin to form together to create an actual thing for you to make. (this is what happens  98% of the time, instead of the crazy burst of inspiration that people think happens in a creative persons mind)Chaos ensues: the frenzy of translating your thoughts and ideas into a tangible product is a confusing and somewhat overwhelming process. There are normally messes and mess ups.A product is born: It is finished. You have the thing.I had been toying with an idea for a few weeks in my head. I don't make a lot of minibooks about love, they are normally about our travels. But Laura's Soulmate collection was just so beautiful, I really wanted to find a way to use it. Thus a need/want arose. My idea had very little shape, just 'maybe a minibook', probably in my normal style of 2 holes punched and jump rings to close it. But I wasn't totally excited about that so I let the idea marinate. Then, the magic moment happened when all the pieces fell into place. I saw this new book/kit that Kelly Purkey is starting to offer and it clicked. The puzzle was formed enough for me to begin to see the bigger picture. I got on my computer and in photoshop combined Laura's cards to create foldable pages, printed them and then the chaos ensued. I chose a color scheme (black, white, pink + tiniest bit of gold). I chose and printed photos. I gathered washi tapes and stamps in the right color/theme. I began. I pieced everything together like a puzzle until it was complete.I am so in love with this book. It is one of my favorites I have made in a long time. The colors, the photos (from our session in Thailand with Jean Smith), the love patterns. I used embellishments and some cards/papers from the Messy Box to use as accents. I love love love this book. Have I said that yet? I simply poked a hole in the pages and ran embroidery thread through and tied it together. This book took about 2 hours to make, maybe less I was indecisive and a little distracted. I love this simple format and think Kelly's monthly kit of getting pages already made for you is such a cool idea. But I loved that I got to choose my cards. The only issue I had was that I didn't like just the plain white background of the back sides (double-sided printing was impossible due to the made up and random sizes of my pages), so I spent a lot of time making backgrounds using washi tape (that's probably where all my time went). So if you want to do a book like this you can either do pages like mine, print on one side and decorate the other on your own or print double sides or use patterned paper with a white background to print on. Either way, it will turn out gorgeous, fun and easy.  What do you think? Did you get 'the tickle'? Is a puzzle falling into place for you? Are you ready to go into the chaos and create something?! Id love to know.