Since May was scrapbooking month and it's nearly over, I'd love to share this project with you... A couple of us attended a lecture at the Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum given by Jessica Helfand, author of the book "Scrapbooks: An American History". She mentioned participating in the project "A Week in your Life– 13 Book d'Autore" presented by Moleskin and ID Magazine. 13 artists and designers were sent notebooks and asked to document a week in their lives. After watching this video of Jessica's book, Karen (a fellow MSC designer) and I were inspired to document a week in our lives into mini accordion scrapbooks...

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mini envelopes made from the liners of my junk mail on Wednesday and a prescription sticker (I had a follow-up with my oral surgeon this day)

Scroll down to see a peek into my book or click on the gallery to view its entirety...

On Tuesday, I tried my hand at calligraphy for the first time. I definitely need to keep practicing.

I made mini envelopes out of the liners of my junk mail on Wednesday. On the right is a prescription given to me by my oral surgeon during a follow-up to my wisdom teeth surgery.

Scraps and a photo from the Party Hat Showdown on Thursday where I won second place!

I documented my outfits for the week and made this mini, mix and match book...

I spent the weekend at my boyfriend's parents' house in the Poconos and Sunday was Mother's Day. I picked my favorite purple myrtle flowers that used to grow in my childhood yard. They remind me of my mother and grandmother.

I'm going to turn the second part of this post over to Karen Mainenti, a holiday designer in the crafts department...

KAREN:

I was really excited by the project, but had so many ideas that I didn’t know exactly how to begin. One of the things I thought about were the places I visit regularly in New York City, and I realized that there is such deep history with so many of these locations. This became the inspiration for my scrapbook.

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Each day I plotted my route on a map of Manhattan by stitching with a different colored baker's twine for the various modes of transportation that I use: bus, subway, car, or walking.

I numbered the locations so that they would correspond to tiny pocket books I crafted and tucked inside sheet protectors.

These little books include a paragraph summarizing the history of the location, as well as historical photographs I found online or those I took myself during the week.

For example, the history of the Starrett-Lehigh Building—right where our Martha Stewart offices are located—is rich and fascinating. The building was constructed in 1932 as a warehouse, and is today considered a landmark of modern industrial architecture. Freight cars would come right off boats on the Hudson River and then put onto tracks that led directly into the building! 30-foot elevators would then move these freight cars to upper floors for deliveries or pick-ups. Now, all of us here at Martha Stewart get to enjoy the wide-open space and beautiful views afforded by the horizontal bands of windows that sweep around the perimeter of the building.

Thanks for reading– we hope you enjoyed the project as much as we did!

Tags: scrapbook, scrapbooking
Posted by Valerie Courtney on May 29, 2009 in Make It