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!