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Sara Naumann

By Angie Felix

Paper-crafting has been a part of Sara Naumann's life ever since she can remember. "My parents always encouraged me to draw, write, paint—anything creative or artistic," she says. With her mother and sister that share this love for paper-crafting, Sara has two playmates. "Or partners in crime, depending on how you look at it!" she adds.

Five to six years ago this Marketing Director developed a passion for rubber stamping, which led to her love of scrapbooking, then journal-decorating and now bookmaking. Like many other crafters, a lot of Sara's techniques and ideas have been learned from trial and error. "It's amazing what you can find out when you experiment," she says. She also pays close attention to demos at conventions and stores, and takes classes whenever she can—at her local stamp store, bead store and at conferences like Art & Soul.

After several years of paper-crafting, Sara is continually motivated, explaining that for her, formulating new ideas is play, not work. "Holing up for an evening to make cards, scrapbook pages, sarabooks™, decorated journals, whatever, is my fun." Sara also works continually on two to three projects at a time, allowing her the opportunity to move to something else when she gets stuck. She can then return to work on her first idea with fresh eyes.

Today Sara puts her love of creating into making handmade books called sarabooks™. sarabooks™ are gift books that are personalized for a special someone, or even for yourself. Sara has incorporated everything she's ever hand-stamped, hand-lettered or searched all over town for into these journalesque gift books.

Sara typically creates sarabooks™as gifts, and begins by selecting the person's favorite color, then a theme that suits them.

"I love the whole process of creating something that is completely and totally personalized for someone. That's really the beauty of all handmade gifts, don't you think?" she asks. "I just love the idea of giving a person a gift that totally celebrates who they are and what is wonderful and unique about them. It also helps that I love giving gifts, especially for no reason."

Sara uses her creation time as an opportunity to celebrate the person she's making the sarabook™ for. "I usually work on a book in a really concentrated period of time—I'll set aside a weekend where that's all I'll do. During that time, I'm thinking about the person I'm giving it to, as I'm choosing the perfect quotes and just the right papers. At the end I generally feel much closer and more connected to the person I'm giving the book to. And because crafting is my playtime, I also come away from the experience energized and relaxed."

Here Sara shares one of her most recent sarabooks™ creations with us.

About this sarabook™:

"Since I've always made books for other people, I decided to make one for myself this time. I love the wonderful rainy days we have here in Oregon and having grown up here, the rain and the wind and the mountains is comfortable and soothing to me. I wanted to make a Nature-themed book that reflected the wonderful uniqueness of the Pacific Northwest."

Materials: