Little Darlings Mini Album

  When I found out my cousin was having twins, I was just over the moon! All babies are special, but since my experience as a mom has been completely in pairs, I have a special affinity for multiple little bundles of joy and the special moms who *wink* survive them.

  When I had my twins, there were a lot of experiences I had that were so unique. Capturing these in a traditional baby book wasn't quite enough. I did one book for each girl, but there are things about being a mom of twins that can't be captured in a traditional book designed for singletons. Too much of the experience is shared between the babies for a single book to ever capture that relationship.

  When I learned of the impending boy-girl set of twins and saw Graphic 45's Little Darlings collection, I hatched a plan. (This plan has been many months in the executing and now the little darlings are more than a month old!) 

  I decided to make a gate-fold mini album with one "side" for each baby (the side with the pink binding for baby girl and the blue side for baby boy), along with journaling cards and spaces that could be shared between them and relate to the special circumstances that only multiple families experience. Here are some photos of the end result:

I fussy cut and popped out some of the elements on the cover and highlighted them with glossy accents. The baby on the cover overlaps the center break in the album.

The inside cover has space for each baby's name and essentials. I wanted to use standard photos sizes, so the 4x6 photo mats overlap with one for each baby.

Each side has pockets and flaps to tuck wallet photos and journaling spots for each baby. The inside back is green with space for shared photos and experiences.

The pocket pages hold double sided journaling tags. Some have a section for each baby, and some relate to both. 

This project really was a labor of love, and I hope my sweet cousin and her new family enjoy it for many years to come. Thanks for stopping by today, my friends!

Hello, My Name is Awesome

  Hi, friends! I've been messing around in my craft room some lately, even when I should be practicing for three performances I have coming up. Work is always there, but 30 minutes in the craft room? I've got to make the time for my own mental health.

  Last week I shared a summer mini I made with Simple Stories Simply Fresh collection, and I had a few scraps left over to play with in the days following. Here's what I came up with:

  I have to admit I'm a big fan of the collage trend that's going on right now. (The thrill of my whole week was finding out that Stampin' Up is coming out with it's own take on the Smash Book craze using its own colors, washi tapes, etc.!) For this card I used a variety of fussy cut shapes from the collection, a Little Yellow Bicycle button, some baker's twine, rub-ons, and my Beautiful Wings embosslits die. I cut some banners from scrap paper and layered my patterned paper over my soon-to-be-discontinued favorite shade of green, Lucky Limeade. This honeycomb embossing folder is just my new favorite. Holy smokes.

 In the spirit of not avoiding other work I should be doing, off I go! Have a lovely weekend, my friends!

Summer Fun 2012

  Hi, everyone! I'm thrilled to share my latest mini album with you today. Do you ever just finish a project and squeal with delight because it turned out exactly the way you hoped it would? (Okay, I'm a big enough perfectionist that this doesn't happen that often.) It sure did this time around!

  I have to say that I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Simple Stories. I don't use divided page protectors in my scrapping, but the bits and bobs in their collections make awesome mini albums! I use the cut apart pages for tags, mini pages, and journaling spots, and the variety provided in each paper collection makes coordination really ... well, simple.

  For this summer-themed album I used the Summer Fresh collection from Simple Stories, lots of Prima Essentials flowers, buttons from Little Yellow Bicycle, and a few handmade denim goodies. As I always do with my mini albums, I'm about to hit you with way too many pictures. I just can't help myself!

The best part of any mini is the cover, right? This is an envelope mini with five interior pull-out pages. I coil bound it with my Bind-it-All and tied lots of ribbon to the binding for my cat to eat. (Yes, I did say for my cat to eat, which is why all my minis go in a cabinet he hasn't learned to open yet.)

This little faucet handle from Tim Holtz was just TOO PERFECT!!

Here are some of the interior pages:

This page has a flip book with a few photos inside.

I use the cut apart elements that come with the collection as mini pages with room for journaling on the back. (This is Gia's fair face. I'm sure she'll be happy I shared it with you. Love you, sissy! That's why you're in all my minis!)

This page has a vertical strap where all these tags and goodies tuck in. Lots of room for journaling here ... I even had the girls do some of it in their own handwriting. PRECIOUS!

I had to have a good boohoo on this one ... This is the last photo I have of my Grandad. :(

This photo wallet clips onto the page with room for six more photos and journaling.

I love these little mini pages!!

  Thanks so much for stopping by to share in my papercrafting joy today! Now I get to unveil the mini for the family, which is always the best part. :) Have a lovely week, my friends!

Welcome Home

     Wow, the weeks are flying by! Life is so busy for us in the spring with all of the girls' activities, piano recital, festivals, and group lessons, but we're enjoying every moment. The highlight of our week (maybe the whole year) was a surprise gift to see the touring Broadway show, "Beauty and the Beast." What an absolutely spectacular, whimsical, and just plain fun evening!

   I haven't had much time to craft lately, but I did whip up a housewarming card for a friend who just purchased her first home. I had some Dear Lizzy scraps left over from March's My Creative Scrapbook kit, and so I got out the Create a Critter Cartridge again.

   This happy little mailbox was just too cute, so I combined him with some of the sticker elements and a mix of papers from the collection. This collection has been another favorite, probably because the combo of pinks and robin's egg blues just call to me!

   It is an absolutely GORGEOUS day here in Montana after a few weeks of snowy, blowy weather, and my yard needs some prep work today. I hope things are sunny wherever you are!

Create a Critter

  I got the adorable Create a Critter cartridge for my birthday last year and haven't done more than a few projects with it. I LOVE it, but sometimes going to that "cutesy" place is hard for me. I decided to YouTube some inspiration and found some really nice projects. I was particularly inspired by Jana Eubanks' 25 Ways to Embellish Cricut Cuts:

  I created two cards this week using Create Critter and tried to use a few of Jana's ideas. On the first I used chalk and patterned paper:

I love using my scrap box to create Cricut projects! The inside of this one reads, "I Hope Your Day is Just Ducky!"

The second uses stamping, doodling, chalk, and copics:

The inside of this one reads, "Oh, Snap! I Missed Your Birthday!"

I do love the puns!

Hope you are having a lovely weekend, and I hope Jana inspires you to move a little outside your box too! 

The Joys of Casing

  Sometimes I just want to sit down and craft, you know? No experimenting, no designing ... just gluing and inking with zero thinking. :) That's the kind of day it was in my craft room, and lucky me, the design team at My Creative Scrapbook is AMAZING, and there's sure to be more than one layout every single month that I can just case and use with almost no alterations at all. 

The first is a lovely layout by Shell using the March kit:

Here's my case:

The second is by Helen Tilbury also using the March kit:

And here's my case:

Thank you for all of your inspiration! I really enjoyed my afternoon of gluing and cutting thanks to your hard work!

Everything Eleanor and a Little Prima

  Hi, friends! I haven't made a single card for my stash in so long, and I'm really running low, so this morning I pulled out a card base I made ages ago that's been sitting on my craft table for seriously 3 weeks. I used some scraps from my Prima Zephyr collection to make the card base and then got totally stumped.

  After a little experimentation with various stamps, I decided on some Copic action with my Everything Eleanor stamp set. Here's how it came out:

I can't claim it's my favorite ever, but at least it's done and off the table and ready to thank someone. :)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Cute Little Bird

  What a unique problem I had this morning ... I couldn't photograph my latest layout outside because it was too SUNNY! Hooray! People always joke that there are only two seasons here in Montana, and one of them lasts nine months, so when that spring sunshine peeks through the clouds we all throw on our shorts and  sunglasses and head outside!

  The March kit from My Creative Scrapbook was so cute that it isn't spending any time in my stash before being cut apart and loved on. I had to use it NOW! The springy colors in the Dear Lizzy collection are so perfect for some baby pictures I found that I've never scrapped, and I'm sure you'll soon be seeing lots and lots of layouts with this kit.

Here the March sketch from My Creative Sketches:

Here's my take on the sketch:

Doesn't the sweetness of this collection just make you a little giddy? 

I punched my floral paper with a Martha Steward punch around the page and then cut out the center with my AWESOME new Stampin' Up cutter to make a frame. I had tons of fun experimenting with the different layers of patterned paper behind my photo! I embossed the little squares for added texture and spritzed the background with Blushing Bride and the Prima mask included in the kit.

These little Prima wood pieces just make my heart skip a beat. :) My new pinwheel die from Stampin' Up had to make an appearance on this springy page too!

The little clipboards from the paper collection make perfect journaling tags! This one slips behind my main photo.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, my friends, and I hope spring has sprung wherever you are! (Even if it's only temporary!) :)

Once Upon a Sketch March Challenge

  Hi, everyone! I spent a lovely Saturday morning playing with Once Upon a Sketch's March challenge with the theme of "The Weekend." I had enough paper and goodies left from my Prima Zephyr collection to do one more layout, and I found this bright and colorful photo of my daughter with nice coordinating colors. Sometimes things just come together!

Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:

This photo was taken during the weekend of our local summer arts festival. We were sitting and watching my other daughter and my sister walk with the Corgi Club. Watching the Sweet Pea parade is one of our big summer highlights every year.

I turned the sketch sideways for my interpretation because my photo was vertical and quite large. I layered on a Prima chipboard piece, flowers, and wood pieces from the collection along with some doilies from my stash. I stapled on some cute little banners and Stickled some of the flourishes around the page. My journaling is on the back side of the page to give me plenty of space.

This collection puts me in such a summery mood. I have to admit that when it first came in my My Creative Scrapbook kit of the month, I felt a little out of my element. I tend to have a hard time scrapping with blue, and this collection had tons of it. In the end I found that I created some pages with it that I like very much ... probably because I felt no need to covet it and just felt free to experiment. 

Here are my other Prima Zephyr creations:

Just goes to show that it's good to challenge ourselves, even in our scrapbooking. Have a lovely rest of the weekend, my friends!

XOXOXO

  Hi, friends! Yesterday I spent a fun crafty afternoon with my sister and the girls, and we each accomplished a page for a challenge we were working on! Amazing! We hardly ever travel during school breaks, so for us these little respites are so renewing and rejuvenating. The snow is almost melted in the yard, the weather is warm, and it almost feels like spring here in Montana!

  I decided to work on a layout for a new challenge blog I've started visiting called "Scrap Your Story." The challenge this week was animals, so I pulled out this cute picture of Sophia with our cat, an adorable, extremely naughty Devon Rex named Neo. (As in Neopolitan ice cream, although he's usually referred to as "crazy kitty" or just "NO!") Despite his hard-headedness, he's been a fun addition to our family.

 I used the Crate Paper "Paper Hearts" collection for this layout, along with some vintage sheet music, the punch outs and sticker sheet from the collection, Prima flowers, Tim Holtz playing cards, Liquid Pearls, and Recollections gem flourishes. The journaling is hidden on the tag above the photo. I used my tiny attacher to staple some little banners in the upper right corner, and curled up a few edges of my background paper with spray ink. 

 I hope the animals (human and non) in your life bring you joy today! Thanks for stopping by, my friends!