Mini Albums and Comments

This a 6" x 6" mini album that I made for Stitches using some papers from Origins, Basic Grey.

As Omar looooooves green so as soon as I had the idea of making a Origins mini album I decided making one with my favorite photos of him.

I only wrote a few lines because it was my intention to write quite a lot of stuff that I did not want to display for anyone to see.

This is the back of the book much less decorated, but still has got plenty of decorative elements. The journaling spots are from the Origins Writers Block set, as well as Pieces and Take Note, the very large one featured bellow.

I know this blog has got readers, quite a few actually according to the only measuring method I trust Google Analytics. Yet, I get very few comments. Maybe is my fault because I am not inviting enough, but please, leave comments!!!

Design Comfort

So if yesterday I talked about the comfort zone designing cards todays post is related to scrapbooking. I am the same designer wether I am cardmaking or scrapbooking, the same techniques, the same designs I like for one I like for the other. So it when it comes to design a page when I have absolutely no creativity, which incidentally happens pretty often, I opt for the horizontal line.

That is not to say that I just repeat ad infinitum the sketch. Every time I try to incorporate something different, but the lesson for me is that I rather have three pages that have a similar design foundation, than just one. Time and creative efficiency.

Sugar Rush

As much as i love everything that Basic Grey comes up, I have to say that at first Sugar Rush did not inspire me. However, it is a double sided collection, which means that you get two patterns in each sheet of paper and usually there is alway a side that I like. And I am a polka dots lover, so this combination of pink dots on red paper and red on pink dotty paper really appeals to me.

Here, in the close up, you can see the rosettes or flowers that I made using my trusted Cuttlebug and Nellie Snellen nesting dies. They are as good quality as the Nestabilities but with a much lower price tag, granted that you get less number of dies in each set.

The centre of the flowers are made with paper and a plain epoxy sticker or a thickj layer of glossy accents over it. The main flowers are made out of CoreDinations cardstock.

All the materials are available from The Craft Barn.

Stitches: More Boxes

I decorated this boxes, actually cubes using Basic Grey's Capella Collection.

Tomorrow, Craft Day at QVC! So excited! I will be on air at 12:30 or so, and then again at 13:00 and at 19:00.

Stitches: Box

This little box features Basic Grey's Green at Heart collection.

My love for Mini albums - Part 3 of 3

Some of the pages have more elements than others. Like the one above has a bit of everything that has been incorporated on the mini album.

By the way, I love this photos that I took of the daughter of a friends of ours.

The last page on the other side has one more up photo. I just love IT!

As you can see the back of the gap page is completely covered with matching flowers. There is two reasons for that. Number one, it is much stronger with two layers of thick paper, Number two, it is as pretty on the front as is on the back.

The detail of the foiling, done with Sakura Quickie Glue Pen.

The ribbon is completely loose on the back, it is only attached on the front underneath the flower.

And that is the end of this little mini album. All the materials were available from Dawn Bibby's Design Studio.

My love for Mini albums - Part 2 of 3

The bit gilded in on the heart on the left hand side of the photo. Also I wanted to show how to use full 4 x 6" photos on little albums. this way needs a landscape photo, but there are other ways for portraits.

I used, of course, some edge punches to add decorative elements. The photo on the right is a pop up one.

You can see here how I did it. Since discovering this method, I have not look back. Could not do it the proper way!

This is the back of the album.

Tomorrow, part 3.

My love for Mini albums - Part 1 of 3

It is no secret that i love both Mini Albums and Basic Grey, actually, if I had to choose between all the paper companies out there, Basic Grey would be my top option. Likewise, if I had to choose between Cards, Big Layouts or Mini Albums I would most certainly choose the latter one. So, when I get to combine both loves, I am a happy designer.

This one of my favorite albums to date. I used the gorgeous Indian Summer collection -BG, of course. I designed this one for a workshop at Dawn Bibby's shop last November. Because I have a serious policy of never repeating my classes unless requested by the attendees, I always look for new elements that I can teach in my classes. So for this one, I incorporated the gap card technique on the first page, elements of gilding and pop up photos.

Because is a 4 x 4" album you need strips of 4 x 12" card, scored at every 4". When assembled together you get pages double layer of card so I decided to use the most of them by converting them into little pockets

This is how it looks closed.

Tomorrow Part 2.

Scrapbook page

Last week this layout was posted over at the Craftwork Cards blog. I just thought I shared as well in this blog, so I can also show the little details.

I used a wrap under the photo to create an oversized card hinge, so under the photo I have journaling space.

This is the detail of the back of the photo.

And here you can see how all the snowflakes are linked together and the crystals underneath the dots.

H

Another layout, funny, I don't post layouts for months and then a whole lot all the same week. Well, I suppose that is the crafting mood!

Lemonade papers, White Wash card from Topaz Crafts.

Details, details

When I design a project for a workshop, I always have in mind that not only has to look good but that is has to have some technique that the attendants can learn or master in the class. I have already commented in other post the difficulty on guessing what techniques or styles is going to be well received, so I tend to try and pack as much as it is possible. For this layout I choose by nestabilities flowers and creating a background paper lace by using all white card.

Bellow, you have a photo of the lace paper created by using five different edge punches -all by Martha Stewart, with the exception of the first one in pink which is by Fiskars-. By layering them it creates a soft effect, lace like, hence the name. I can not take credit for this technique, obviously, but I also ca not remember the first person I saw it used by, so apologies for that.



And here you have a detail photo of the flowers.

Love, love, love

this two love birds are going to get married soon. Hassan is Omar's only brother and he is getting married to the gorgeous Debra early next year. When they came for a few days in May Omar and i took them to Hever Castle and did a mini engagement shoot. I really liked the photos so I used them for the layout that I did for the multi photo layouts workshop at Topaz Crafts a few weeks ago. Incidentally, it was the same workshop where Joan brought the Rafa photos!

Layout

I have been wanting to post some pages in the blog for quite a while now, but with the uploading problem it hasn't been possible.



So, now with the Picassa web album I can upload but the quality of the photos is not very good. Anyway, at least I can share this layout I did for one of my classes at Topaz Crafts, Lancashire.
I used Lemonde papers (Basic Grey), Whitewash card, Martha Stewart punches (border and butterflies) and Cuttlebug folder.

Fortunate-not-lucky

I do consider myself fortunate, not necessarily lucky. As I understand it -totally my interpretation-, lucky people get what they want quite easily, whether fortunate people get what they need. For instance, a lucky person will pass the driving test at first try, a fortunate may have to retake once it but those extra hours will mean that they will drive better and therefore will less likely have accidents on their driving first months. Provably statistics will show that my theory is completely false, but who cares? It makes me happier with my fortunate-not-lucky status.

My sister, in the other hand, is one of the luckiest persons I have ever met. Yes, she does work incredibly hard, but luck is on her side. Her birthday is next month, and although she did forbid me to share photos of her in the internet, I am sharing this layout I did a couple of months ago.

By the way, Tomorrow and Sunday I will be demonstrating at Crafts u love for their big demo weekend. Loads of other demonstrators will be there as well. Come along to be inspired!

Mini Album

I did this as a part of a mini album class a few years back. To date, it is one of my favourites to do and teach.

All the snowflakes were done with the Cricut and the Basics cartridge that comes with the Expressions. The important thing is that they are all glued well together and any one of them is attached at least a two different points to the rest.

Inside, I just added some old Making Memories romantic tags and KI Memories sayings and just added photos. I used to love, as in major love, KI memories stuff. Then they went all Elsie and lost what attracted me to their product, I am not complaining as there are plenty of other option in the market and I do understand that as much as i do not like Elsie's stuff other people will love it.

Card Keeper

Out of all my articles I think this one is one of my top favourites, mainly because even though I made it to fit a brief sent by the editor of the magazine, it is very useful and not only decorative as most of the other articles stuff.

It was published a couple of years ago in Scrapbook Inspirations.

I used the Cricut Expressions to create the envelopes out of large sized card in increments of half an inch.

The pages inside were left quite plain as i like simplicity.