Gifts

One of my favorite parts of scrapbooking is being able to make things for other people. I love giving unique, thoughtful gifts, and if I can make the gift even better! The following I made for a friend who was kind enough to do something for me, and I wanted to say thank you.

I made an album using a BoBunny kit I had purchased awhile back at Archivers. I highly recommend any BoBunny kits you can purchase. They come with everything you need and they are awesome. They are beautiful and different then just a standard mini-album. I wish I was creative enough to create this on my own, but since I am not I love using kits!! Here are a few pictures from the album I made that can be used for pictures or just journaling.

The Cover

A cool page but quite difficult. I used a craft knife to cut the page in half and to take a square out of the page to show the pictures on either side. I don't have a great craft knife, but I did my best.

This might be my favorite page of the whole book. I think it is a beautiful design, and I love the right side and the layers it holds.

This is a fun page as well because it has a pocket with various journal pages. Pockets are a lot of fun and add a lot to a page!

As with most kits, when I finished I had quite a few leftover pieces so I decided to try and create a few cards for my friend. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. My base was a yellow card with a slight white flowery background. Most of the embellishments are stickers with a few other embellishments I had on hand. I created a layered look on many of the cards using paper layers as a starting point sometimes finishing with an embellishment using pop-ups. Also, many of the pieces already had a layered look to them. It was great how much stuff was left from the kit!

Birthday Creations

For Thomas's birthday I tried to get a little crafty. I made this sign to hang on the front door. It's great because it will double as a scrap book page! I also made some favor bags using this same truck cut out--unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of those!

I also made this display of Thomas's birth announcement. I wanted to do something to display all three pieces of the announcement and wasn't sure what to do. For this, I just attached all three pieces to a strand of ribbon.

Thomas's First Christmas Mini Album

After Christmas, I wanted to make something easy and quick to guarantee I got something created to remember Thomas's first Christmas. I didn't want a lot of journaling, I just wanted to display some of the fun pictures, and have something ready to show friends and family at his birthday party. I hadn't really created in a few months. I had tried to make some cards, but just couldn't get into it because my scrap area was a complete disaster.

After Christmas Nathan and I committed to cleaning up our bonus room so that it could really become the multi-purpose room we envision. Though we hope for a lot of improvements still, it finally is a place we can all be. Thomas has a huge area to play in and Nathan and I have usable areas as well. Since then I have been in the room almost every day working on things. One of the first things I created this year was a 6x6 album of Thomas's first Christmas. It's very simple. I precut all the background papers, printed the pictures I wanted in size 3x4 (my at home picture printer does this), grabbed a few embellishments I had, and went to work. Hope you like it!

Social Scrapbooking

My favorite part of scrapbooking is sharing it with others. When I make something, I can't keep it to myself. I have to show Nathan or take a picture and email it to my mom or other friends. Part of this is sharing in an accomplishment, but part of it is wanting someone else to get out of the project what I got such as remembering the story or a memory associated with it. When I can share scrapbooking in person with a good friend; this is even better.

Aimee came to visit a couple weeks ago for a few days. While Thomas slept we were able to spend some time making fall cards. The Halloween card that Aimee made was "scraplifted" from a card in a the Scrapbook Etc. magazine (scraplifting is when you use or find inspiration from another person's work and is totally allowed and encouraged in most scrapbooking circles!) The Fall card was inspired by a card in the magazine Cards. I had precut all the materials for the Halloween card so Aimee was able to complete 20 of them (1o for each of us)! The Fall card I created was a little bit slower as I had to find the inspiration and then design it to work with my materials. Luckily I was able to use up things I already had at home including a lot of Fall ribbon from the One Stop Dollar Stop at Target! I was able to complete 9 cards for Aimee, and now have the design to complete cards for myself.

Other than the great cards we both now have, the best part was being together, talking, and sharing ideas. I don't mind creating on my own, but I definitely enjoy creating with a friend! Here are pictures of the cards!

More Mini Albums

The past week I was busy making a few more mini albums as well as a gift card holder.  All of these were gifts, so I had to wait to publish them till the new owners received them.  I think the gift card holder is my favorite that I have made so far.  I just like how the colors and papers worked out!  I'm quite pleased by the mini albums as well.  I used my book to create them from scratch.  The covers are made with covered chipboard and then the pages (one sheet of cardstock) are attached accordion style.  I also learned a cool trick about hiding the ribbon underneath the pages.  The mini albums are very similar because they were created for my friends Kathy and Rachel to commemorate our weekend get together over labor day.  I used the same format for both albums and was able to create them over a couple days in 15-20 minute increments.  Now I just need to make one for myself!

Gift Card holder for my friend Kathy for her birthday

I fully lined the inside piece (because I didn't like its color) and I love the way it turned out!

Album for Kathy celebrating Labor Day weekend

The inside can be turned like pages or...

completely pulled apart for full viewing.  (Inside of Rachel's album)

Cover of Rachel's album.

Addictions

I might be, could be, probably shouldn't be addicted to: Netflix, Make it or Break It (on ABC family), DVR, fast-forwarding commercials, Twilight series, Hummus, FoxNews, Facebook, scrapbooking, blogs, Ohio State Football, Harry Potter, and my Camera.

A Scrapbook Creation

I have been wanting to create one of these for awhile.  It is a gift card holder.  I've had the pattern since March, and have just gotten around to making it.  It's a really simple pattern.  You have to use thick card stock for the base and strong tape.  Then decorate as desired!  I love it though because I don't have enough room in my purse for giftcards, so this is great!  Mine is a light blue base with purple pockets and brown/blue decorative paper.

My scrap space is about half finished, but I have enough of a work space to start creating and this was my first creation.  I'm currently working on a mini album!

New Book

I just bought a new scrapbooking book that I am very excited about.  It's called Outstanding Mini Albums by Jessica Acs.  I picked it up at AC Moore (you can use their coupons on books which is great!)  It's hard for me to spend money on stuff like this because I wonder if I will get any use out of it.  I usually want some type of review or personal recommendation before buying this stuff.  I was about to put this book back on the shelf when I saw three specific mini albums that confirmed I would buy this book.  The first was the Coffee Cup Album. Here's a picture from the book.  (Sorry about the backwards words, but the pictures were taken using the camera on my computer.)

The next album was a Coffee Cup Sleeve Album:

And finally the Coffee Cup Filter Album:  

I figure anyone who loves coffee that much, must have written a pretty good book!  And the book gives great instructions on how to cut and put together these albums.  Also many of the albums use materials from around the house.  I'm looking forward to making my own albums.  I think I will have to make one about my love of coffee.  I'll be sure to share my creation once it is finished!

Photo Freedom!

I recently finished a book that has really inspired me.  The book, Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian is a book for scrapbookers about organizing pictures to optimize time and creativity.  Her system, Library of Memories, is amazing.  It's simple--one of the simplest scrapbook things I have ever seen, and it definitely sounds like it can work!  It's also a huge stress reliever because it in no way focuses on chronological scrapbooking, but rather on what is inspiring and documentation of true meaningful memories.  I know it may not make sense to say there is more focus on memories when you avoid chronological scrapbooking, but if you have ever scrapped you know what I mean!  It is also a great system for creating mini albums or other items beyond layouts.  I am really looking forward to incorporating this system into my scrapbooking.  I believe it will help me be more creative and more productive.  It also encourages me to work hard on getting my scrapbook area set up!  I can't wait to start scrapping again!