I love doing custom orders because folks have such great ideas!  Today’s win is a great mash up of two of my classic items; wooden notebook and address book.  A member of my book group has always said if I ever made a wooden covered address book she would certainly buy it.  I had been putting it off because I have not been happy with the quality of lined paper I could get my hands on.  What I could find has been thin, flimsy and prone to pen bleed through, not address book worthy.  But, my epiphany the other week with the graph paper from my printer got me thinking . . . can the magic printer also make lined paper?  Yup, it can, and it is glorious!  Now, I have lined paper that is nice and heavy duty with no bleed through.  So, it was time to meld the lovely oak cover with the equally lovely home-printed lined paper, a few vintage alphabet stamps and some card stock, and voila; Barbara’s long awaited address book — hope she likes it!

Now, the fail. More a creative hurdle than a fail.  This is also a custom order where I have been given some broad ideas and told to work my magic.  (Sorry, it’s a gift, so no snaps, yet!)  Well, this afternoon, my magic went the way of vanishing lady.  I made some progress, and then, poof — gonzo.  I spent a lot of time double guessing my papers and design elements and not enough time playing and having fun.  That is a problem.  Tomorrow, I’ll be back at it, decked out in my cape and top hat ready to wave my wand over this project!