Introducing the New Baby!

I admit it. I am neglectful. It has been over two weeks since my last post. I'm sorry my dear little blog. I've been so busy trying to take care of your new sibling that I haven't spent the time with you that you truly deserve. 

Don't worry folks! I'm almost 48 years old with two boys, 23 and 20, and there are no living breathing siblings on the horizon. However, I DO have a "new baby" here in www land. I opened an Etsy shop! 

I know.... One would think that working with the marching band, serving on the school board, keeping up with the booth at Uncle Doc's, and tending to this blog, along with all the extra odds and ends I find myself doing would be enough. *big eye roll* I have known for a while that an Ebay or Etsy store would be the best way for me to sell some of the things I love to make, but I just never took the leap. 

A couple of weeks ago I sent a Manilla Envelope Mini Album and a Wedding Mini Album to my sister in law, Amy, who lives in Los Angeles. She called to tell me that several people saw the albums and wanted to know how they could order from me! Eeek! So I hurriedly studied the pros and cons of Ebay and Etsy and decided that Etsy sounded like a better fit for me. Now, not only can I take orders, I can take payment with a credit card! (Insert "oohs" and "aahs" here!) 

There's a lot to absorb and it's a bit overwhelming, but I am officially an online seller! As of this moment, I only have two items in my store, but I have pictures ready to post for several others. I will have mini albums, wedding invitations, hand-crafted cards and stationery, and maybe eventually some pre-made scrapbook pages. If you would like to pop over and check it out, my address is etsy.com/shop/personallycreated. I still need to set up some areas of my shop, like the "policies" and "about" pages, but I figure that can wait until marching season ends next Saturday.

I tried something else new last night. I joined a Linky Party! Sounds fun, right? I've seen them before and never played along, but this one was on a blog that I really like called Heartwarming Vintage. I posted a picture of a card I made using some of their stamps. Now when someone looks at my card they will be directed to my blog. I'm linked to that blog. Clever, huh?

Ok. Time for me to get back to other things. I'm going to put some more items in my shop and make something cool to share with you. Hopefully I'll be back VERY soon! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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!