Having too much fun over here – we had a tornado come through town, devastating many homes and businesses – not mine, but the power was out at my office, so I got a free week off from work! Guess what I did, while forced to stay home? Yup!
I didn’t realize how much I was going to love the Album in a Box, but this turned out so darn cute! And I stepped away from my usual, didn’t do ANY dimensional flowers – so the album can fit on my bookshelf without my worrying that I’ll smush something!
Pretty much all the album requires is cutting and pasting – kind of like kindergarten, with a twist! Enjoy!
Using Graphic45’s Grow With Love paper collection, I had so much fun putting this together!!
Thought about doing a little video, but you can find it on the G45 website – mine is a little bit different, but close enough! Absolutely love love love this paper! I’m going to have to order another pack!
Optional photo spot, or leave it as it is!!Photo spotUnder the tag on the left, another photo spot, and the pink square on the right, you can pull up the yellow and place a photo there, as wellThe green tag on he left could be a photo spot or journaling Photo spotUnder the “thrive flourish grow” is a little journaling or photo spot as well
I was on a roll with Mini-Albums, so decided to copy my format with Scrapandme’s beautiful “Bright and Soft” papers. These have become my favorite papers, but they are difficult to obtain here in America. I got lucky on Etsy, and found some from someone in England & ordered two packs of four or five different collections, so I’ve got things to play with for a few weeks! (Actually, who are we kidding here? When I die, there will still be scrapbook paper in my crafty space!!)
This is the first collection that I dove in to! So beautiful! I will share some still pictures, but here is a little video!
A friend of mine from the pool was delighted to welcome her very first grandbaby on July 2, apparently they had thought this was never to be, so an especially welcome surprise for the entire family!
I copied the idea for this sweet album from Nikki Craft, and of course modified it as I went along. This uses the Heartfelt Creations Tender Moments collection – the baby animals are so darn cute!! I have page by page the entire album, but if you’re in a hurry, skip to the bottom for a little video walk through.
I was super excited to see that I won one of the monthly contests by Heartfelt Creations! Funny enough, on my FB post, I said that I already felt like a winner, because working on the flowers and playing with the beautiful paper helped me get out of a crafting slump!
It’s been quite a while since I made a Mini-Album, not sure if this was due to some depression from the Pandemic, because I have several Mini-Album already (gathering dust, instead of photographs, lol!) or if it was simply because I hadn’t come across any new paper that just “spoke” to me. This is an album I plan on keeping, and plan on filling with photos of my family demonstrating their “daring do”.
I have a need inside myself, to not be remembered as some old lady who sat in a chair crocheting baby blankets, but rather as a person who took life by the horns, and lived! So this album will be full of those kind of photos, and not just of me, but of my husband and kids, and some of our adventures.
I hope you enjoy this mini-album, and are inspired to make not only your own album, but to have adventures, and experience the joys of this life!
If you click on the link, you’ll be taken to a little walkthrough video: youtu.be/FRKXUa-TEdM
I truly intended to make a tutorial for this album, but alas! a videographer I am NOT, and frankly, I think people must make an album first, and then make a second one to film, as all the planning and preparation that goes into each page, would make for a very (very!) long tutorial!
So I decided to play a little with some older paper pads I had lying around. These are beautiful papers From K&Company, but unlike Heartfelt Creations, Graphic 45 , Stamperia and the like, although they have a design on both sides of each paper, there are no pages set up as ephemera, or just right to make a card. These are beautiful though, as you will see.
First I built up the album using black chipboard, which I covered with black cardstock. And since this was just an experiment, I actually used black duck tape to tape them together. Four panels of 9″x7″, one 9″x3″, and two 9″x1″. In retrospect, the thinner panels should’ve been 1.5″ wide, because as things were added it was getting kinda fat!
So that’s the front. I borrowed from several scrapbooks and portfolios to pull this off. I also use a lot of punches from Martha Stewart, and die cuts that I get from everywhere, DiesrUs, G45, and Spellbinders too.
Page one and two:
Pages 3 & 4 – obviously you’ll have to watch the video to see everything!!
And finally the last two “pages”! I had a lot of fun designing this project. I have no idea, but imagine you could easily put 100 photos in here.
I’m sharing another mini album with you today. I made this one several months ago for my mother, and gifted it to her for Christmas. (I’m not sure she knows exactly what to do with it, as she generally keeps her photos on her phone.). Once again this is from the Heartfelt Creations paper collection, this one is called Italiana Riviera, and it has a very purple theme, my moms favorite color (I think). We had some difficulties making this album, especially the gate that you will see around page 10 or 12.
I’m really enjoying the crafting of these mini albums, they are a great creative outlet for me, especially as I’m not an artist at all ( I can’t draw much more than stick figures!) but if I cut and paste carefully (hello, kindergarten!) I can create a thing of beauty.
Some of the tools that I have acquired, and spend money on are Scor-tape, and those amazingly strong neodymium magnets. Follow the links and you’ll see where I get them.
It’s been a few months since my last post, and if anyone out there is actually following me, I’m really sorry, but I’ve been busy, busy, busy!
For some looney reason, I decided to make scrapbook albums for all the sisters in my family for Christmas gifts this last year. So in September, I got started. Each book took me about three weeks, as I could only work on them in the evenings after work, if I had any energy left after my day (which generally begins at 4:30am), and on the weekends. (If you count the cost of all the paper, embellishments and supplies, you would probably spend about $75, so if you see any of these on Etsy going for $100-$150, now you know why!!). I’ve fallen in love with Spellbinders die cutting, and Heartfelt Creations scrapbook paper & their die cuts as well.
This is a nice creative outlet for me, and I feel like it is really pretty hard to mess up. I’ve found some tutorials on You Tube via Pinterest which got me launched actually several months ago, and I’ve really grown, and have now started (eight or nine mini-albums later) to come up with creative ideas of my own, so I’m not simply copying others work. Although I must remind my mentors, that copying someone is the highest form of praise.
As I said, it’s kind of hard to mess up with scrapbooking. Unlike cake decorating, you can almost always correct a mistake, and there is a good chance no one but you will ever know. When I make cakes, it is easy for me to see my mistakes, and I will have to turn the cake “just so” or strategically place a flower or ribbon to disguise my error. Gumpaste and fondant are actually not very forgiving.
So here is the scrapbook I made for one of my nieces. I don’t really have any stills, other than of the cover, so please just follow the link over to You Tube to see the entire book. Any feedback would be appreciated.
My Celestial Creations 