Stand-Up Mini Album

Ok. I said I'd be back with a project, didn't I? It took longer than I expected to get fully inspired, but this is a sneak peek at the finished album. It's 5x7, so it will fit in an envelope for mailing (with a couple extra stamps. Mine turned out quite thick.) If you want to see the whole thing, you'll just have to stick around and read the rest of my post. ;)

I started with a plan and even took a picture of my supplies to share with you here. Then I shifted gears just a bit, so instead of the pic, I'll just give you the list of what I actually used:

• Two sheets 12x12 heavy pink cardstock for the body of the album
• Three sheets 12x12 heavy white cardstock for the frames
• Glitter cardstock (a girl has to have her glitter, right?)
• Punches for embellishments--I used flowers, a flourish, and a paisley
• Ribbon and jewels or brads
• An assortment of dies for cutting frames--I started with circles and squares but decided rectangles and ovals were a better fit. 

From one piece of pink I cut a 7x10 strip and scored it down the middle, so I basically had a 5x7 card. From the other piece of pink I cut a 7x12 strip and scored it at 5 inches and 10 inches, so I had a 5x7 card with a little 2 inch flap. That flap will connect the two pieces later. 

But first....

I folded both pieces and ran them through the Cuttlebug in a paisley pattern embossing folder. I used paper with a white core, so I sanded the embossing a little to make it pop. 

Next I adhered the two pieces together using that two inch flap, so I had a four page accordion album. 

Don't worry about the flap--we will cover it up later. 

Now for the frames. Using a variety of rectangular and oval Nesties, I cut frames for each of the four inside pages and the cover, as well as a solid piece of white (not in the picture) to serve as the back of each frame. I used a Dotted Swiss embossing folder on one of the two matching frames and the thinner oval, and I layered the two ovals together to make one frame. 

I adhered a strip of ribbon across the front--long enough to wrap around and tie a pretty bow. Then I placed all the frames. 

Remember that extra two inch flap on the back? I cut two 5x7 pieces from my strips of leftover cs and

adhered them to the back. Then I added a piece of lined paper, die cut to match the frames, for journaling. 

Now for the embellishments! I cut a 'J' for the front because this is going to a new baby whose name starts with 'J.' Then I punched several flowers, flourishes, and paisleys from the glitter paper and some of the scrap pieces of white. I scattered those among the frames, and this is what I ended up with:

I know it's basically just an accordion album, but with the extra layer on the back, it's stable enough to stand up and use as a table top frame. Now I think I'll try one in landscape orientation. Hmmmmm....

    No, I didn't make a horizontal version already. I was so focused on making this stand up that I didn't even consider hanging it on the wall! How cute is that?!

Ok. That's it for now. Time for me to go work outside. 

Thanks for stopping by! See you in a few days with the August calendar!

Tiny Houses

My friend Jackie at Smooth Pebble Studio was feeling a bit hemmed in by winter recently and decided to host a party. And by party I mean a swap. Since the only swaps I've ever participated in are those that we have for Christmas cards and Valentines at our monthly Stampin' Up! gatherings, I decided it was about time I give it a go. So along with several other crafters, I accepted Jackie's challenge and started thinking about Tiny Houses. Jackie gathered everyone's contact information and assigned partners. I don't know who is sending Tiny Houses to me, but I sent mine to Emily at Mousy Brown's House. And what, pray tell, did I send? I am so glad you asked! 

This mini album is six inches wide and about eight inches tall. I chose this paper for the front and back cover because it gives a bit of an English cottage feel. Emily lives "across the pond" and has taken some beautiful photos of flowers, so that just felt right. Inside the covers are four pages, each a house with a different roofline. Here are a couple:

These tags and journaling cards slip into the side of each of the houses. 

And here is the back cover....

 

I hope Emily will be able to find a good use for it. I have enough of these papers to make a similar mini album to put in my Etsy shop (when I finally get it back up and running!) so I've added it to my to do list.

It's time for another Linky Party at Heartwarming Vintage and I'm heading there right now to add a couple of my pieces.

Thanks for stopping by today! See you next time!

Welcome to the New and Improved Ava Belle's!

The flea market in downtown Aurora where Mom and I have a booth is moving        a-l-l      the       w-a-y    a-c-r-o-s-s      the      s-t-r-e-e-t!  Ok, actually it's across two streets and three doors down, but I like to play with words, so just go along with it, alright? 

It's been so much fun loading the new booth with tons of merchandise and making sure everything is arranged just right! This booth is smaller than the spot we had at the old building, but we managed to fit MORE stuff in it! 

We have lots of scrapbooking supplies,

several pretty lamps (including one made from an old hanging wire planter), 

a wall full of Christmas decorations (and then some!)

and lots of other pretties!

We even have stuff hanging overhead and on the backside of the hand-painted armoire (which is for sale) and our rescued display shelves!

We open to customers Monday. Peggy (Ava and Isabella's Gigi) has done an amazing job getting the building ready for us. Everything looks wonderful! If you're ever in Aurora Missouri stop by and leave us a message on that big chalkboard! 

New Supplies Challenge, Part One

*March 10, 2013*   I posted this a couple of weeks ago, but I just joined the Crafty Secrets Linky Party at the Heartwarming Vintage blog, and I wanted to add a link so you can pop over there and see some of their beautiful vintage products and ideas. I absolutely love the postcard kits! That's where I got the image I used on this tin.

If you are visiting from the linky party, welcome to my humble little blog. Hope to see you again!

How many of you sometimes feel more like a collector of scrapbooking supplies than an actual scrapbooker? I can so relate! I made this adorable little photo tin for a new baby girl after I issued a challenge to the scrapper in me. I think it will be barrels of fun! Maybe you'd like to join me....

These are the newest items in my "collection." Some are from a trip to Archivers in KC, some are from Stampin' Up!, and some come from Crafty Secrets. Their blog is a great place to find inspiration, and I just love the vintage look of their products. OK--back to the challenge. I decided that I (I mean she--the scrapper in me!) that SHE needs to dig into these supplies and play! So that's what we did!

We started with this dvd tin. We've decorated these before, but a lot of the metal still showed. We really wanted to cover that up somehow, so we brushed ModPodge all over it and smoothed on a piece of crinkled purple tissue paper. We let that dry then brushed on another coat of ModPoge to protect the paper. Here's how that turned out:

The tissue paper is sheer enough to allow the sheen from the metal to come through a little. I thought it looked pretty cool just like that. But SHE said it needed more, so....

We dug into those supplies and found...hmmm.... We only used ONE THING from that table full of new supplies?! Oh, well, at least we did use something! The picture of the baby in the buggy is from a Vintage Postcard Kit from Crafty Secrets. We cut it out with a Nesties Grand Labels Four (only the largest die of that set will not fit through your BigShot), and used the next bigger die to cut a shiny purple mat to layer behind it. We also cut a strip of patterned paper, rounded the corners on one side, and scalloped the other side. Then we tied some sparkly purple ribbon and fuzzy pink fibers around it.We layered those pieces on the top of the tin using lots of glue dots to make sure everything is nice and secure. 

Then we cut a frame for the inside, using the same paper we used for the scalloped border. Just pick two sizes of die and run them through at the same time like this:

Those thin metal dies can get pretty jumpy when you're trying to be very precise, so the blue painters' tape holds everything in place without tearing your paper. One roll of tape will last for-ev-er. You can even reuse the same piece several times!

The inside of the lid is covered with cardstock and the frame is adhered with pop dots--oops! I mean "dimensional adhesive." Before putting the frame in place I inked the edges. Yes, I said "I!" The inner scrapper didn't want to get her index finger all inky, but that was the best tool for getting around all those little curves, so I inked the edges! Then we punched several flowers from pink and purple tissue paper, layered five or six together, and held them in place on the frame with gemstone brads.

The bottom of the tin is covered with matching cardstock. We used card sleeves for our photo pages, but anything that will hold a photo would work. We repeated the big scallop from the outside and used more gemstone brads to hold everything together. If you can't find pockets, make regular pages using plain or patterned paper cut to size and held together with brads, staples, grommets, or stitching. 

OK. There's one project completed for the "New Supplies Challenge." I need to get it sent to that adorable baby girl! And I need to get back to work on a couple of weddings! And make another one of these for a baby boy.

And ....

And....

And....

And....

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Manilla Envelope Mini Album

Today I have another mini album to share with you.... 

I made it to hold before and after photos of a renovation and I used some materials and techniques that I haven't used before. I started with six 6x9 inch manilla envelopes. 

One envelope is full size. It will be the back cover and the flap will wrap around and fold over the front. (pictured on the right) I cut off the flap and removed the clasp from three envelopes. (bottom left) Those will be pages that have a pocket at the center of the book. The last two envelopes are cut down to 6.5 inches long. (top left) Use any combination you like. I would have made all my pages have the little pockets, but I had already cut two envelopes down to 6.5 inches and didn't want them to go to waste! The open end of the envelope serves as a pocket already, so the little pocket is just a bonus. 

The base for my tags or inserts is a Diet Coke carton. I cut pieces to the size I wanted and ran them through the Cuttlebug in embossing folders. Two have woodgrain, one is a checkerboard, and one looks like cracked glass. Then I dry brushed some black acrylic paint on the solid brown side to help bring out the embossing (ink would work, too) and I painted around the edges of the backside to cover the logos.

 I cut a few mats from kraft paper and a few more from some yellow paper that is almost the same color as the envelopes. I also added some dictionary pages just for fun. Here's what I did to them....

I tore a page out of an old dictionary that I bought just for this kind of thing. Then I picked out a couple of colors of acrylic paint that I thought would look nice in this book--a dark blue and sandstone. I think the tool that I show in the pictures is a thing that's used to spread frosting. Henceforth it shall be called the "scraper." I saw this done with a credit card, but this scraper was handy, so.... I ran a line of the sandstone paint along the edge of the scraper and added a couple dots of the blue. Then I pressed the edge of the scraper to the edge of a page and pulled it across, leaving streaks of paint behind. 

Each page came out different. This is a whole lot more enjoyable than the other kind of scraping paint! It was so much fun that I even tore out another page for the back cover and the flap. This is how the mats turned out:

And this is how they look when adhered to the tags:

Here you can see the back cover and the front flap. Next time I scrape paint this way I want to stamp an image on top of the paint and see where that goes!

I cut and embossed the frame and attached a piece of twine
under it. The twine wraps around a ginormous eyelet on
the flap to hold it closed.

I left a half inch for the binding when I cut the envelopes to 6.5 inches. So I covered all the envelopes with 6x6 inch squares of patterned paper, leaving that extra half inch uncovered. Then I used my Cinch to punch holes for the binding wires in the bottom edge of the envelopes.  

 I'll probably include some kraft paper

mats when I send this off. Some of  the background paper is pretty busy.

Pretty long post, right? I glad you stayed with me! If I have another post like this one I'll try to split it up into a couple of installments. I feel a little loopy tonight, so I hope it wasn't too hard to follow. The band had its first competition Saturday and I'm still trying to catch up. Those things are EXHAUSTING!

Go dig out something you haven't used for a long time and see what you can do with it. My "something" was acrylic paint. I use it quite often, but never for cards or scrapbooks. I think it worked perfectly for this book!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Bridging the Gap in My Own Little Way

This is a six inch mini album I made for my sister-in-law, Amy, to give to a friend who was recently married. I was telling another friend about it and she would like one, too, to send to a pair of newlyweds she knows. It seems like I'm doing a lot of black and white or black and cream for weddings. "Back in The Day" we would never have used black in our wedding colors! Of course we would never have worn a black formal to prom, either. Or anything the least bit low-cut. Or short. Or sequinned. If it wasn't pastel with ruffles, lace, and poufy sleeves it just wasn't prom or wedding-worthy. 

I think the papers and embellishments I used for this album do a fine job of bridging the generation gap. We have pearls, prisms, and filigree on the dangle, with roses and a delicate pearlized doily on the cover. I used some very dilute walnut ink to tone down the "whiteness" of the doily a bit, then I sprayed it with some Smooch Spritz to give it a little sheen.  I wish you could see how pretty it is, but it just doesn't show up well in a picture. The black frame is cut with Nesties Labels 1 and embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. Until the bride and groom insert their own photo, the frame holds an image stamped with SU! Elements of Style and highlighted with a Gelly Roll Stardust pen. 

Can you make out the scallop stitching around the edges of the pages? Those aren't just for looks. I layer the papers I want for each page and stitch around the edge to hold them together. I leave the top open on some of the pages to create a pocket for tags that hold more photos or journaling. 

The ribbons at the top are tied to the tags. Each tag has a variety of embossing, stamped images, and inked edges. Even without any photos, they are quite interesting!

I think you can see on the picture below where there is a slim little place punched out at the top of each pocket. An oval or circle punch works great for this. (For baby girl books I like to use a scallop circle.)

The last two pages I have to show are a little different. The diagonal pocket worked perfectly with the checked paper...

This pocket was made with a Grand Nestabilities oval, but you could trace and cut around a plate to get the same effect. 

There are a few more pages--twelve in all, but I won't bog down your computer with loading more images.

Remember the Paisley Tables? Doc sold them! For TWICE AS MUCH as he was asking before I painted them!
More updates--my color guard girls are doing great! The first competition is next Saturday. I also need to brag on the football team. The Houn Dawgs are state ranked! WooHoo!One poll has them at #7 and another at #5. Go Dawgs!

I'm putting together the projects for stamp club tomorrow and I'm still not exactly sure what we're doing, so I better get back to it!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!