Happy Monday everyone! I’m super excited about hosting the blog this week. You see, I’ve had something up my sleeve for a while and now I finally get to share! WOO HOO!

It all started a month ago — the night before I went on a two week vacation. I was in the bookstore looking for a book to read on the plane — in the bicycling section — when I happened upon this book by Esther K. Smith:

I pulled it down off the shelf and started flipping through it and WOW! The creative juices started flowing, ideas started popping left and right and I HAD to have it! It was meant to be! Then when I got home that night I had a brainstorm — I should do bookmaking for my next blog week. Then I had another lightening bolt idea: I wondered if Esther would be a blog guest. I found her website and contacted her and she said YES! She is so FUN — just like her book. To learn more about Esther, click on over HERE to her website, Purgatory Pie Press. Or, read THIS interview to see more of her work.

Before I go any further, here’s this week’s challenge: make a book using at least one Hero Arts stamp and submit it to the Hero Arts Flickr Group by 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 31st. Tag it with the code word “book”. (See the FAQ for more info on Flickr.) You can make any type of book you like. Be sure to visit the blog every day this week, as I’ll be showing you how to make tag books, accordion books and more. They can be mini scrapbooks, card books, quote books, a holiday newsletter — it’s totally up to you. Be creative and have fun!

Here are the prizes:

• 1st place: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• 2nd place: $25 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• 3rd place: $10 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• Best “Instant Book”: An autographed copy of How to Make Books! Thanks so much to Random House for donating the book! (In addition to the “book” tag, please add a second “instant” tag for this category.)

What’s an “Instant Book” you ask? It’s the first kind of book that Esther shows in her book! It’s so easy to make that you just won’t believe it — truly instant gratification. You will only need ONE sheet of paper to create it in less than a minute. Yes, really! Here’s a video to see how it’s done:

Isn’t that the neatest thing ever? I think you should stop reading, grab a scrap of paper and create a book right now. Go for it!Here’s a some photos of my mini scrapbook:

Want to see more? Click any of the links next to the numbers to see them larger — or you can click HERE to see them in my Flickr photostream.

1. A storm, 2. Closeup of torn/distressed pages, 3. Photo on the front cover, 4. Limited edition stamped on the back cover, 5. The photo on the first accordion booklet, 6. Closup of a dresser, 7. Closeup of the stamping on the front, 8. Yep, it’s really just a 12×12 sheet of paper, 9. Penstemon blooms, 10. A queen, 11. Journaling on the first page, 12. Closeup of an accordion booklet

Supplies:

• Clear Design Bracket and Tags
• Write Your Message
• Antique Round Mini Fasteners
• VersaColor Laurel Leaf, Memories ArtPrint Brown, Primary Elements Chalk Queue (for fresh citron)
• Spring Buttons
• Other: patterned paper (for the yellow book part: Making Memories, Fresh Anthology; for the accordion graph paper: Pink Paislee, Office Lingo), pen (Sakura), twine, glue dots, paper distresser (Tonic), ribbon, photos printed with max side 2.75″

Here’s the books that some artist friends of Esther’s did that were shown in the video:

From left to right: Big Owl by Jenn King, The Story of How I Fell In Love by Laura Carmelita Bellmont and Get by Polly Faust. Here’s some more views so you can see all the juicy details

1. Don’t You Forget, 2. London, 3. Owl Book Page, 4. Get, 5. The Short Story of How I Fell in Love, 6. 1st Month, 7. Then…, 8. The “O” Page, 9. The “W” page

Click the links (next to the numbers) to see a larger image. Thanks so much to the three of you! WOW! So many neat things you can do with instant books!

Featured Stamps:

• Quotes Background
• Clear Design Bold Caps Alphabet
• Big Owl
• Design Block Postage Background
• London
• Large Dot Line Border

Here’s a great tip from Esther: Since Instant Books are made from a single sheet of paper, and are one-sided, they can easily be photocopied or scanned. I think this makes them prefect for family newsletters. Just create one, unfold it, and print out as many as you want. Easy! Get started on your holiday newsletters now — they’ll be here before you know it.

Thanks so much Esther — both for writing your book, and for being a guest here on the blog. You have truly inspired me . Can’t wait to try more of your books! (I’m working on finishing up a box of chocolate Malt-O-Meal now… for the “Cake Box Book”.) And — I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with for the challenge!

Now, to reward you for reading this looooong post, I thought we’d have a little giveway! One lucky winner will receive the Clear Design Bracket and Tags set and the Write Your Message stamp that I used on the Indian Lodge mini book.

To enter, just leave a comment with an idea for using all those Instant Books I know you’ll be creating. The winner will be announced on Wednesday.

[Update:  The lucky winner has been announced.  Click HERE to see  to see who won!]

See you tomorrow,

PS. In case you were wondering, I didn’t find the cycling book that I was looking for. Still haven’t found it, either. But I think I found something better!

Filed under: book

This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 4:38 am and is filed under Motivation Mondays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.