To celebrate the Christmas season, I’ve asked some of my closest(and most creative) friends to share with us their favorite holiday DIY projects.  I’m excited to introduce you to my friends as well as their great ideas!  They will be sharing recipes, decorating ideas, projects you can do with your kids and more. Stay tuned for the next few weeks, and hopefully we will all be inspired to be creative this season. Make sure to leave them a comment letting them know you loved their project!

Today, Davina is sharing with us how to make your very own Christmas Book.  I knew when I asked Davina to do a DIY project, that she would do something amazing and over the top creative like this!  I met Davina almost 5 years ago, when we first started planning to teach our LOVE AFFAIR WORKSHOPS together.  The intention of our workshops were to help other women photographers be the best they could be as well as help them learn to prioritize their lives and not lose sight of what is really important.  Funny how life works, because I was just as inspired to change my life and make time for what was important.  All that to say, Davina has been a constant inspiration to me, and has been an amazing role model as well.  She is not only an fabulous photographer, but she’s a sold out, brilliant mother and wife.  This post is just a tiny snippet of how she lives her life.  I HIGHLY recommend you head on over to her BLOG and check her out.  If you are ever needing life inspiration, all you need to do it visit Davina

Thanks you for sharing Davina!

Christmas Book: Davina Fear

Supplies:
Vintage book
Washi Tape or Fabric tape
Paper for your pages (we used an archival heavy wrapping paper)
Brushable glue (bookbinding glue is great!)
Crayons or Colored pencils
Hand ABC stamp
Ink PadPretty paper for end pages (lightweight scrapbooking paper is perfect)

The paper is out on the table.  It’s all different colors and I’m asking the kids where the crayons are.  “Who had them last?  Has anyone seen them recently?” The only thing that Miriam wants to know is, “Mom, what are we doing?  This looks like it’s going to be fun.  When are you going to tell us?”

I’m frantically gathering all of the supplies because I want to surprise them with my new idea for our annual Christmas book.  Once I have the kraft archive paper, crayons, washi and fabric tape I’m finally ready to tell them.  As a dramatic beginning I bring out the big ol’ stamper.  Now, I definitely have everyone’s attention.

Each year our family makes a Christmas Book.  We’ve made one since Emmett started drawing back in 2001.  He was four and Miriam and Emma were only 9 months old.  Our Christmas books are one of our favorite things about Christmas.  We are not allowed to miss making one.

They are DIY to the extreme and because of that they are the most charming bit of Christmas we own. Our very first book has become a history book of Emmett beginning to draw, his understanding of Christmas, and his favorite ideas surrounding our celebration.  Over the years our little books have become a treasure map of the evolution of our family.

We’ve seen scribble become big eyes and skinny stick people.  Pictures of our family drawn by the kids have shown each of them growing up and their idea of who they are in the family…sometimes the person drawing the picture has made themselves taller than everyone else. I love seeing the way each year is the same…and different.

In the past we have made our books on 11 x 8.5” white paper.  We spell out M-E-R-R-Y C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S.  One letter at the top of each piece of paper. The first page in our book would be “M” and have on it a picture drawn by Miriam of Mary, Jesus’s mom…and so on for each page.  Everyone gets to pick the letter page they want to do until they are done.

In recent years we’ve added to our book.  Together we make a list of all of the events of the year. Everyone draws pictures of those events and writes a few details on the back of their drawing.  These pages have become a favorite part of the book.

Instead of 11 x 8.5” paper…this year we decided to do something a little different for our book.

First, I went to a vintage shop and picked up a few old books with fun titles.  We decided on the book, “The Book of Today”

Next, open up the book to the page you’d like to start your own book on.  About a 1/2” from the binding using an exacto knife and a ruler for a straight edge cut the pages out of the book.

(If you want to cut a specific number of pages insert a piece of cardboard at the back of your pages to prevent too many pages from being sliced through.)

Use the pages that you cut from your book as templates for your own pages.  We used archival kraft colored wrapping paper for our pages.  If you fold the paper four or five times so that it’s big enough to trace your template onto you can cut more pages quickly.

Put one of these letters at the top of each piece of paper:

M-E-R-R-Y C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S

Make a family list of all of the things that happened this year. Last year we included things like: Emma’s Hansel and Gretel Ballet Performance, Getting our cute dog, Cocoa, Going to New York City with Grammy and Grandpa, Grace got Glasses.

Let everyone be creative and color like crazy.  A lot of the time we have cookies or treats over on the counter while we sit around and laugh and talk about what a fun or crazy or hard  or happy year it’s been.  Once we are in drawing mode it’s relaxing to just be together.

Using washi tape or fabric tape (this takes two people) place your own page snuggly up next to the 1/2” bit of paper next to the binding in the book.  Use the fabric tape to put half of the tape on the 1/2” piece of the book and the page that you made.  Turn your page over and put another piece of fabric tape on the back in the same way.

The binding on our book was a little week and there was writing on the front page.  We decided to put in some pretty paper for our end pages.  Trace your book open and face down onto the paper you’ve selected.  Brush bookbinding glue onto the pages and carefully place your new paper onto the pages.  Use a bone folder to get all of the bubbles out.

Using a hand stamp spell the title of your book.  Ours is:  ‘Our Christmas Book: 2011”

Cut a piece of paper to fit inside your front cover and stamp with your title.  (I recommend practicing and making this little piece *before* gluing it into your book in case you mess up….I might be speaking from experience on that…)

Our almost finished book (we are still adding pages).  I love the way it turned out!

PS…there are so many ways to do this idea.  We found a book that we like but not the title.  If that happens for you just cover your book with fabric and stamp the title on fabric tape to add to the binding.  You could also purchase a pretty journal and pass it around for each person to draw in.

Have fun!
Happiness,

Davina