A New Mini

I love creating mini albums--and I'm always on the lookout for different ways to create them. While surfing my favorite blogs last week, I saw a super cute mini on Terry Ann Diak's blog. I set out right away to create it, but changed it up a little--because I couldn't quite figure out what she did! LOL, I do like my end result though. It is super fast and easy to put together.

{GASP} That first album isn't made with Close To My Heart paper! Yep--sometime I do venture outside of the CTMH world! I know there are a few CTMH consultants that follow here; who knows the name of the paper in the mini shown below? I'm such a hoarder, I loved that paper so much, it was hard to use!

 I'm going to call this mini the "Gatefold Mini," because it is kind of like a Gatefold card. The album is held shut by a "latch" holding down the title piece (the gate). The "latch" was simply made by covering a chipboard tag with paper and a brad holds it in place yet lets it move.

 Above is a picture of the first left flap opened.

Next a picture of the first right flap open.

Then it just keeps unfolding until you have four flat pages and three pockets, that stick out like pages in a book, with cards in them for journaling and pictures. In all, there are 18 spots for pictures and/or journaling.

Here is a real quick tutorial on the cuts and scores for the mini.


1. You need 3 pieces cut 6 x 12 and one piece cut 9-7/8 x12.
2.  Score that shorter piece at 4".
3.  Score 2 of the 6 x 12 pieces at 2" and 8".
4.  Score the last 6 x 12 piece at 2", 8-1/8, and 8-3/8.


The shortest piece is at the far right of your album and we are going to build on that piece. The piece on the far left is the piece that has three score lines on it, so make sure you glue that one on last.





5. Glue along short edges and bottom fold of the 2"section and adhere to 4" side of that shortest piece.

 This forms a pocket for a card (mine are 5-1/4"  x 5") to put a picture on one side and journal on the other.

Oh---I know --horrible pictures--I hope you get the idea.

6. Continue with step 5. Decorate with all your pretty paper.

Super quick tute--let me know if you have any questions, I'd be happy to explain more if needed!

Thanks for stopping by today!
OH--the name of the paper pack is "Let's Get Together" and I don't even know how many years ago it came out!

Envelope Mini Albums

These were so much fun to make. With just 5, #10 envelopes, I was able to make a mini album that has 25 spots for pictures or journaling.

 Many months ago, Close to My Heart had a close out sale on their Level 1 Paper Packets so I bought a bunch with mini albums in mind! These two minis were made with the Adore and Notebook Level 1 Paper Packs.

 There are all sorts of pockets for tags that hold pictures and/or journaling.

 

On the last page, I added a flap that opens up, so it adds two more spaces for pictures!

These are now in the Cherry Lime Boutique

where I have a few shelves to sell some of my paper crafts.

I'm a vendor at an all day crop on Saturday, 

I now need to get  make and takes ready and create some displays.

I also need to make Thank You cards for my sons basketball coaches. He is in a Rec League, and had the best coaches this year. We feel so blessed to have been placed on their team! 

Also on my to-do list is to make my layout for Scrap-It Girls March Challenge. 

You still have time to get something entered for the February challenge.

Visit Scrap-It-Girl to find out more about the February's

Show Some Love Challenge and what the winner will receive.

Have a Wonderfully Fantastic Day!!

XO

December Madness!

December madness--but I love every day of it!!

Hasn't the month just flown by?

It has been way too long since I have been able to sit here and compose for my blog. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I made a bunch of things to put in a craft boutique. (Cherry-Lime Boutique, they keep their facebook page updated just about daily--lots more pictures of the shop there! It is such a cute store.)
Here are pictures of a few of the items:
Some decorated notepads.















The Tic-Tac Snowmen were a big seller!

I made a few mini-albums, that I forgot to take pictures of, but they were the mini made with the 5x7 craft envelope. You can see a picture of one I made here.

I also made a few of what I call, "The Coffee Table Photo Display", that is made with a Laughing Cow cheese box. See a picture here of one.




This little mini-album was a new one for me. I found a very talented blogger at Just a Few Designs. Elsa has YouTube videos and is so much fun to watch. Anyway, bulk of this mini is made with just two sheets of 12x12 paper! Visit her Youtube video, here, to learn how to do it.
I used paper from the retired Mistletoe Level 1 paper pack, which is not double sided, so I had to cover some white pages with B&T paper. I can't wait to make one with Close To My Heart's double sided cardstock!









This album has lots of pockets, tags and surprises with every turn of the page. It was lots of fun to make!



Believe it or not, it has 28 spaces for pictures and journaling!

Click on each picture to try to see some more detail.
Like I said, it was tons of fun to make, and really easy!

So--I got all of that to the Boutique on December 5th. Then I had to get the house and me ready for a visit from my sister.

She came in from Minnesota on the 8th. We spent that night in Boulder, and had a wonderful time eating, drinking and pampering ourselves. (so sad that I don't have any pictures of us there)

On Friday the 9th, we went to see a play that my son was in. He was the narrator of the play and did an awesome job!

THEN--on Saturday, December 10th, we had a big birthday to celebrate-- my 50th! We had a party here at the house with about 20 people! This was the reason my sister came to town--I had also invited my brother, who lives in Michigan, hoping he could come help celebrate too, but he said he had too much going on that weekend. Guess what--He and my sister-in-law surprised me
and showed up. It was such a good night!

From left to right in this picture: my husband, me, my (little) sister, my brother, and then my sister-in-law.

OK--after that huge weekend--I had to get busy and make my Christmas cards! Well--I did already have some done, because on December 4th, a friend came over and we had some fun creating-I got 20 done that night. I needed about 40 more though! I was going to post pictures of some of my favorites, but I must have put those in the wrong file on my computer, because I can't find them. lol!!

Last night we visited this awesome Christmas display. It is one of those displays that is set to music. It was incredible.
Click on the picture to see a Youtube video. We didn't take the video, I just searched for a video to show you.
They also have a website, The Greeley Grizwalds!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my blogging friends! Wishing you love, happiness and abundant joy in the new year!

Merry, Merry,
Lisa

Coffee Table Photo Display

Hello everyone! How is it in your part of the world today? We are expecting a record high today of 79 degrees—but the cold is on its way. Tomorrow’s high is suppose to be 54 then Wednesday SNOW! I have to get myself mentally prepared for the cold!

This little project was fast and easy. I’ve always wanted to do something with the cute, round boxes that Laughing Cow cheese comes in. I don’t know if you can call this a mini album-but I picture it sitting on my mom’s coffee table with lots of pictures of her kids and grandkids in it.

Here is how I made it. I painted the top rim and sides with brown acrylic paint. Using papers from the retired Grace paper pack, I cut 4 inch circles; tore a bit from one of the circles, then distressed all with Cocoa ink. Then I covered the top of the box with Mod Podge and also put a thin layer of Mod Podge on the back of full circle, and laid it on the box. I smoothed it out then put Mod Podge on the back of the torn circle and placed it down. The bottom of the box also has these two papers covering it. The “thinking of you” piece is made from the dimensional elements that come with the Art Philosophy cartridge. The paper covering it is also patterned paper from Grace. Love, love, love that you can just cut from Art Philosophy and it perfectly covers the dimensional element! I popped this up with foam tape, added flowers cut from Art Philosophy, used a small safety pin for beads and ribbon and the box is done.

I then cut a 29 – four inch circles in three different colors. One of the circles I punched a whole in the center, strung ribbon through it and secured that ribbon on the back. This first circle will be adhered to the inside bottom of the box, but leave that for the last step. I started adding the circles about 1 1/2” to 2” apart down the ribbon. (two circles adhered together with ribbon running through it). At the very end of the ribbon I strung a small charm. (click on pictures to see them larger) These circles now fold up accordion style inside the box. NOW comes the hard part, finding 28 pictures to go inside! Mom’s birthday isn’t until the end of November, I’ve actually given myself some time on this one!

If you make one of these, I’d love to see it, so let me know!

On a side note—now my back up camera looks like it has a problem. My pictures are looking washed out. OH bother—what is a scrapbooker to do? I have found a place to get my better camera fixed, it is about 40 miles away. I’ve GOT to find the time to get there.

6 x 9 Kraft Mini Tutorial

I've been asked to go into some detail on my Follow your Dreams mini album which is made from 6 x 9 kraft envelopes. You can see it here.
This is a quick tutorial, please ask any questions if it is not clear here!

First, you start with a 6 x 9 Kraft envelope.

Fold the bottom up to the fold of the envelope flap.

To create the large flap for your mini album you will need two different pieces of B&T paper. One is cut to 8" x 6" with a score at 3 1/2". (Twighlight piece in picture.) The second piece of B&T is 5 1/2" x 6" and scored at 2". (Smoothie piece in picture. The score goes across the 6" side)

The 2" section of the Smoothie piece gets tucked into the kraft envelope and the score and fold of envelope flap should match up.

Use your adhesive on the kraft envelope flap to adhere to this smaller piece of B&T. Note: that green you see is the back of the 5 1/2" x 6" Smoothie piece. IMPORTANT: Do not put adhesive on the smaller flap that is tucked inside the envelope, this needs to be able to move.

Now take the larger piece of B&T, the score lines up with the fold. This whole piece is adhered to the envelope and the B&T from opposite side. You have now covered the fourth page and created the flap. This envelope creates the first four pages (plus flap) of your mini album.

Flap open.

Flap closed.
And the 4th page.Measure and cover the three other pages--that would be pages 1, 2 and 3 of your album.
Your next envelope will be pages 4-8 of the album.

For the cover I used cardboard from a cereal box and cut two pieces that were 6" x 5". I covered the inside front cover with cardstock before adhering it to the first envelope; the back cover is adhered to the last pocket page.

In this picture; the back cover has smoothie cardstock on it (far right). The striped paper from the You and Me paper pack is on the envelope. You can see where I used an oval punch so you can pull out the tag from the pocket. (tag in this pocket is Chocolate matted with Creme Brulee)

Last, I punched holes through all and used book binding rings to hold it together.
I hope this helped. Please let me know if you need more information.

Garden Journal

This is something I wanted to make last summer but never got around to. I have found that my problem with getting things DONE, is simply getting it STARTED! Once I got started on this garden journal, it hardly took me any time at all to finish. So many ideas, so little time.

The front and back covers are 5 x 7 pieces of cardboard. For the front, I tore off the top layer of paper, to show the corrugated inside of the cardboard. I then distressed with a cream color acrylic paint, let that dry then swiped it with my Chocolate ink pad.

The piece that is stamped on is a piece of Colonial White cardstock. Direct to paper, I took the Honey ink pad and swiped it back and forth. I then sprayed Peach Delight Glimmer Mist over it and rubbed it in with a paper towel. Let that dry and stamped images from Treasure Life (still love that stamp set) in Chocolate ink. I distressed the edges with the handy dandy Close to My Heart Edge Distresser and then lightly sponged those edges with Chocolate ink. This piece is matted on Chocolate cardstock that also has it's edges distressed.

The flower is made from old Just Blooms paper flowers. I learned this technique from Connie McFarlane, check out her video tutorial here.

The word "garden" is stamped with the Hodge Podge Alphabet stamp. The butterfly is from the Celebrate Life stamp set.


For the inside pages, I just used an old (kid's) sketch book that my son only used a few pages out of. After all--that is what this journal if for; to sketch my garden layout, and record ideas or changes for the following year. I'm also planning on adding pictures of the garden and favorite flowers!

I also used a 6x9 kraft envelope for pockets to hold seed packets that were used. I trimmed the kraft envelope 4" from the bottom for one pocket, then closed and sealed the flap of the envelope and trimmed to 4" for another pocket. To keep with the rustic look, I used twine for the binding.
I have room for five years of garden notes in this journal!

Close to My Heart products:
My Acrylix Stamp Sets: Treasure Life, Hodge Podge Alphabet, Celebrate Life (retired)
Exclusive Inks: Chocolate, Black, Honey
Cardstock: Colonial White, Chocolate
Edge Distresser

Hoping you find some joy today!
Cheers,
Lisa

Follow Your Dreams

This envelope mini album is for a niece of mine who is a dancer. I'm hoping she fills the book with pictures and notes from all her performances.
It is made with 6x9 kraft envelopes that were folded in half. The covers are cardboard from a cereal box, covered with paper.

I made the flap at the opening of the envelope bigger, so it can be used for more pictures and journaling.


On a two page spread like this, two 4 x 5 1/2 pictures and one cropped photo, 3 x 5 1/2, will fit. The hearts are only glue on the far right so picture can slip under them.

The pocket holds a card that is 4" x 5 3/4" and can have a picture on the front with journaling on the back.


On a 2 page spread like this, two (3 1/2 x 5 1/2) will fit.

Close to My Heart paper packs that were used were You and Me and Mulberry. They were both out and I realized that they could work together!

Here are the backs of some of the cards in the pockets.

I had so much fun making this, I love making mini albums out of envelopes!
Now, I just need to get it in the mail since it is a late birthday gift!
Have a great day and weekend everybody! I'm leaving in a few hours to visit family and friends in Kansas City!