Mini Album - Part 3 is a Work in Progress

Welcome back to the mini album based on 12x12 scrapbook pages.  This is part 3 of 4.  The pages are progressing.

Watch at YouTube.


In these two completed pages, one follows the original 12x12 page format and this one about Nai Nai and her doll varies considerably. The original was very girly with lots of pink.  Since that didn't fit in at all with the rest of the mini album, I used a red and white print and a feminine ribbon in green to match the opposite page in the album.

Here's the original 12x12 covered in this post:

In the next page, I kept the same photos, arrangement, journaling, and title, just substituting a smaller stamp.

Here is the original 12x12 covered in this post:

The album has given me the opportunity to repeat some favorite pages in a smaller format and also to use a favorite photo in a completely different design.

Thanks for visiting today!  Tomorrow is the last installment - the completed album.

Mini Album: Laying out Pages Part 2 of 4

Now it is time to lay out the pages.  This is my favorite video of the series.  It is all about getting the project organized.

I arrange all my pages on the bed with a background paper, the photos and journaling if I have it typed up.  I don't worry too much about where things go on the page.  I'm just trying to get an idea of how many pages and have them easy to pull out and work on.

Here are the next 4 pages in the album:

All of these were from our Biltmore day and mainly use the Saturdays collection by Little Yellow Bicycle.  There are a few of the other papers and trims added to connect these pages with the others in the album.

Watch at YouTube


Thanks for visiting!  Tomorrow I'll have part 3 showing some pages in progress.

Mini Album: from 12x12 pages to gift album, part 1

Over the last few months, I've created and shared many pages from our family vacation.  I also wanted to use these photos in a mini album for my stepdaughter.  A couple of weeks ago I pulled together the photos and papers and started filming.  I've worked on the album along with other projects.  It was easy to go back and forth once a kit was created and I had a basic arrangement for the pages.

Here are the first 4 pages in the album.  I'll be sharing these all week along with the videos of how I went from my 12x12 designs to an 8x8 format.

Doing this project was a lot like the way I used to do albums where everything was coordinated.  Since everything was not coordinated in my 12x12 pages, I had some adjustments to make for the smaller album.

These two pages from the 8x8 (on top)  are much like these two from my 12x12 album that are covered in this post.

For the 8x8, the banner goes across just the journaling and the title changed a bit. The journaling was left much the same just removing a few of my personal impressions.

For the following page, I kept it much like the original with the two of the same photos and title and added all the journaling in a pocket on top.  Here is the original. 

So here is how I got started on the mini album...

Watch at YouTube


Thanks for visiting!  Tomorrow I'll go through my process for arranging an album to make it easy to work on along with other projects.

Sneak Peek at the Week

Coming this week is a video series on a new mini album I did for a Christmas present.  The album is using many of the same photos I've already done in 12x12 format but now in smaller pages.  The videos go from selecting products to changing page formats to finding ways to create consistency and interest through several pages.

I hope you will join me starting Monday with the first video!

Inking embossing folders

My friend Karen and I did a lot of crafting with the Big Shot this weekend.  I used a Big Shot die cutter a couple of years ago when I was a member of a stamping club; however, I didn't get to play with it nearly so much as this weekend.

Karen and I had both watched a great video from Jennifer McGuire on using ink with an embossing folder several weeks ago.  Unfortunately we couldn't find this video again but here is how we did this card front.

First I taped the old olive cardstock to the raised side of the embossing folder using removable adhesive.  I ran it through the Big Shot and then opened the folder and covered the other side of the folder with garden green ink.  Closed up the folder and ran it through again to get the green ink pressed onto the negative part of the image.

The ink cleans easily off the embossing folder.

The butterfly was also cut using the Big Shot.

I would have never put garden green and old olive together but it was what I had with me in dye inks and I really love how they came out.  It is such fun to just play and try out different techniques without having to do a particular project.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Inchies, Weaving and Voting

Hi!  My absence from the blog the last few days is because I was just too busy crafting and having fun with my best friend!  I was planning to drive 'down east' to see Karen last weekend but wasn't sure where Storm Sandy would go so we moved it to this past weekend.  We had such a wonderful time and really got a lot of crafting and experimenting done.  More on the experiments in coming posts.

In the meantime, here is one of the cards I did.  She had a set of Christmas stamps that were great inchies but we didn't have a 1 inch punch so I used her Creative Memories 1 1/4" selecting 5 out of the 12 I liked.  To give them a little zing, I did my favorite trick lately - weaving.  This takes quite a bit of designer paper but I love the result.  I spaced the strips out a bit and then sewed around the edges to bring it all together.  This paper was off the clearance rack at Two Peas.  I bought it because it wasn't too holiday specific so I can use the leftovers for other projects.

I also have some small holiday stamps in my collection.  Inchies are a great way to use those small stamps.  You can do all kinds of configurations by putting them in a single row or multiple columns and rows alternated with punched designer paper for a quick card.

On another topic for my American readers, have you voted?  Since I was traveling so close to election day, I did early voting last week.  There were over 6000 people who had already voted when I went.  We have one of the smallest, if not the smallest, county in our state so that is quite a lot.  I believe it is so important to vote. It isn't all about the Presidential election contrary to what the media seems to think.  Our local and state offices often have more of an impact on our day to day lives.  Anyway, I hope you will vote today if you haven't already.

Thanks for visiting today!

Scary and Cute

I made this page on Halloween and it seemed appropriate.  My husband looks downright scary!

When he visits his family, he doesn't shave until it is time to come back home.  He knows I hate it when he is unshaven and he won't get a welcome home kiss if he doesn't do something about that :-) Apparently, hair combing is also an optional activity.

Unfortunately this is the only photo of him holding his new baby grandson last December.  At first I thought it was just because they had been at the hospital all night but then I realized this was a few days after the birth.  Little Emmett looks adorable and he is sleeping so he can't see that Grampa needs a little grooming.  Babies can't focus that well at that stage anyway, can they?

The photo presented a real challenge.  All the colors are dark and just don't work for a newborn baby page.  I tried baby blue and that really didn't work.  So I went with Shimelle's suggestions from last week's Glitter Girl to use a more blocked layout in brighter colors for a masculine feel.  The colors are still suitable for a baby and the photo really doesn't stand out as much in person.  These papers are some old Stampin' Up! for the background and newer My Mind's Eye and Cosmo Cricket from Artfuldelight's October kit.

In other news, friends and family keep calling to see if we are alright and if we are snowbound.  Apparently there are reports around the country that we had a ton of snow.  We didn't have a flake here in the foothills.  We were very fortunate the storm passed around us with just a few gusts of wind and a sprinkle of rain.  I think the higher elevation mountains in NC got some snow. We were very lucky. It is heartbreaking to see the devastation up the east coast.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Using Pinterest for Sketches

Pinterest, for me, is like a new and improved way to bookmark the things I find on-line.  I mostly use it to capture pages and cards.  I've just started using Pinterest to capture sketches, too.

My card is based on a sketch by Pamela at Pamelaworldofscrap.  Join in the challenge!

She also included a version of this for scrapbook pages.  I think it would make a fantastic page, but I don't have time right now to do one.  So I 'pinned' the scrapbook version in a new board I named simply "Sketches."  Before, I had been downloading sketches I liked to my computer but I really don't need to do that.  Pinterest will save them for me.

For the card, I used Stampin' Up!'s Trendy Trees and my much underused Lily Bee's Autumn Spice papers.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you are safe, warm and dry during this awful storm.