Everyday Memories Mini Album

I have to tell you how excited I was to come across this little book! I have been following Ginger from My Sisters Scrapper for quite a long time and love her mini albums. She has a mini album that is very similar to this one but no pages and a bit smaller. 

I've been searching for something very close to that one. I wanted something that had a few pages. I wasn't too concerned about the size. A few weeks back I found exactly what I was looking for on a Blogger friends blog. My friend Susie from Creative Cafe made the book I was searching for. Check out her blog, she makes beautiful books!

This book measures approximately 5.25 inches in width, 8 inches in height and 1.25 inches in depth. I love this book! 

I used a paper pad I've had in my stash for ages. It's by K&Company and is called Que Sera Sera. The  patterns are beautiful. I usually buy "collections" so I have embellishments, stickers and chipboard pieces to choose from when I decorate my books. I fill in with stuff from my stash. I had no embellishments for this paper. I racked my brain for ideas of how to decorate the cover. I went to a few Michael's, Joann's and even Hobby Lobby looking to see if I could find something and came up empty handed. I just didn't see anything I liked. That led me to shop in my own craft room! 

For the cover I used three different die sets for the flowers and leaves. I used Spellbinders Shapeabilities Foliage, Heartfelt Creations Ariana Blooms and Sizzix - Donna Salazar Rose Creations. I die cut the flowers/leaves from patterned paper from the collection. I added pearl bling to the flower centers. I cut the doily from a Prima die called Doilies One and then dyed it with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The metal corners are from Momenta. The word sentiments are from Tim Holtz Idea-ology stickers called ChitChat. I inked all the pages with vintage photo distress ink - my favorite! I used an old Creative Memories corner punch for the photo mats and flaps. On the pockets I used my We R Memory Keepers envelope punch board. 

The rest of this post are just photos of the inside pages, spine and back cover. I didn't do any embellishing on the inside. The book isn't that large and I wanted to leave plenty of room to add photos. Embellishments can always be added after the photos have been adhered to the pages. There are 6 photo mats inside pockets and two small booklets inside two pockets. In addition to the mats and booklets there is room for over 40 photos in the book. Of course some of the areas can be used for journaling too. 

I love waterfall photo pages!

This is the page with the two pockets that hold two small booklets that will hold four photos each.

I live the flaps on the page!

That's it! I've already started the pages for more books. I've gone through all my patterned paper and have decided to cut into the collections that I've been hoarding because they are too gorgeous to use.

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Come and Get It Sketch Challenge

Here's my entry for the Come and Get It Sketch Challenges this week. See below for the sketch. The patterned paper is the Domestic Goddess collection from Graphic 45. I haven't put the scraps away yet from some other cards I made so that's what I used. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of those scraps!

I punched two different sizes of hexagons using a Creative Memories punch. I cut the strip using the Chevron Die-namics die from My Favorite Things. For the flower I used the Donna Salazar Rose Creations Die from Spellbinders. The cardstock base is vintage cream from PTI. I inked all the edges with Tim Holtz Distress in vintage photo. The sentiment is from Hero Arts - Find Joy - CL497.

I added some dimension by popping up the smaller hexagons.

 
Come and Get It Challenges

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Come and Get It Challenges

Cardabilities Sketch #72 Challenge

I thought I'd try to participate in more challenges. That's always something that I've enjoyed and I've gotten away from it the past few years. I've been into making mini albums and not making as many cards except for  Christmas. However, I just LOVE creating mini albums so I will have to work all this in somehow! Working with sketches really jump starts you creatively. I also have so much going on in my life right now that I need this as an escape. So any extra time I have I'm just going to throw myself into crafting. 

I have my favorite sketch blogs whose challenges I like to participate in and Cardabilities is one of them! This is my take on the sketch below. I didn't add a lot of dimension to this card except for the pearls from Queen & Co. I think I created a very clean and simple card from this sketch. 

I used scraps from Graphic 45's Domestic Goddess Collection for the patterned paper. The hexagon shapes are a Creative Memories punch that I've had for years! The banner shapes were cut from Spellbinders Shapeabilities Nested Pennants Die. I inked all the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo...my favorite! For the sentiment I used Hero Arts Clear Stamps - Friends - CL351.

 

Cardabilities

This post is linked to this party:
Whimsical Wednesday

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April Birthday Cards......And I'm Even Early!

 

This will probably never happen again! I have my April birthday cards for the swap I'm in done early. One birthday is the 4th and one is the 9th and I mailed them today! I'm not sure if they read my blog or not, so I won't say who is getting which card. 

For the one above I used PTI for my base and the argyle embossing folder from Cuttlebug. The flower is from Prima (love their flowers!) and the gemstones are by Hero Arts. I used washi tape for the pattern on the strip and on the scalloped circle. Sorry, but I tossed all the packaging and I don't know who makes this tape. I used Nestabilities for the circles. The sentiment is from Hero Arts called Birthday Messages - CL139. I just ran my Black Soot Distress Ink around the edge to make the white "pop" a little.

 

For this card I used one of my Creative Memories hexagon punches. The patterned paper is from Graphic 45's Domestic Goddess Collection. I After inking all the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink I placed them in a pattern and then trimmed the edges. I used the open scallop edge punch from EK Success on the blue cardstock. The blue gemstones are from Hero Arts as is the sentiment. The sentiment is from the stamp set Find Joy - CL497. The base is cardstock from PTI.

My plan is to try and stay one step ahead and get the May cards done ahead of time too. I'm not sure how that will work for me, but at least I have good intentions :)

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Craft-O-Manic Monday

A Round Tuit
Made by you Monday
Crafty Showcase

{Another} Graphic 45 Nutcracker Sweet Mini Album!

Today I'm sharing the photos of the third Nutcracker Sweet Mini Album I created. I think I've used up most of the collection on three 6 x 6 books. Now I'm going to try and use what's left on some smaller books. 

I'm not going to go into detail below each photo because I used all the products for this book that I used on this one. The only differences that you'll see are the chipboard pieces and that I've changed some of the patterns on the pages and some of the photo mats. Otherwise all dimensions are the same. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and take a look! This book will be for sale here if you're interested!

Graphic 45 Nutcracker Sweet Mini Album

I just finished two more mini albums using Graphic 45's Nutcracker Sweet collection. I bought everything that they had this collection except for the stamps. So far I've been able to create three 6 x 6 - inch books. Now I'm going to work on some smaller albums. You can see my first album here. 

I decided to use rings for my binding this time. On the cover I used one of the chipboard pieces and some display trim corners from 7Gypsies. I tied some ribbon and seam binding onto the rings. I also made a charm using my Epiphany Shape Studio. I chose one the of the gingerbread images from one of the papers. 

This book has 12 pages which include the inside front and back cover. I've added trim with ribbon from Webster's Pages and Making Memories throughout the book. May Arts Ribbon was also used.

Bling from Webster's Pages, Hero Arts, Recollections and Queen & Co were used on photo mats here and there.

I added two Kraft envelopes with an A2 card inside (4-1/4 x 5-1/2 - inches) for additional room for photos, journaling or memorabilia. The next three photos show the pattern paper on the card.

I added a pocket with an images I cut from one of the card stock sheets. Inside of the pocket I added two tags. One made from a Tim Holtz die and the other one from a Sizzix die. 

I left some pages blank for larger photos to be added.

Another kraft envelope and card on the left page. On the right I've added three photo mats measuring 4-1/2 x 5-1/2 - inches for added photo space. A larger photo can be adhered behind the mats. The next four photos show the second card and the photo mats.

This is the back cover. I just embellished it with a sticker from the collection. This is a very fun collection with very unconventional Christmas colors!

I love making books! I do make so many that I can't keep them all. I have a wall of shelves in my craft room with all the books I can't part with. This book will be for sale here.

I'm planning to post my third 6 x 6 -inch book using this collection tomorrow, so check back if you're interested in seeing it. That one will also be for sale. If everything goes well today I plan to make a video of both books. You can keep checking my YouTube channel here to see when they are posted. 

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