Scrapbooks by numbers

I have a hard time finishing scrapbooks because I get lost in the details. I want to add these new flowers I found on sale, and a new paper from a different collection. Then to pull everything together, I have to add some decorative tape and maybe some sparkle... It never ends. I had to set some limits for myself if I want to have a finished project. So this is what I came up with on one crafty day:
 7 days to work on a project
 6 craft envelopes and cards:


5 theme papers

 4 supporting papers

 3 Decorative elements: stamped images, velum, doilies

 2 Cutting tools: Martha Stewart's edge and corner loops
 1 Washi tape 

I did quite well sticking to the recipe. I may have worked on the album for less than 7 days, and I may have used some other decorative elements; but overall, I found that I had all I needed on hand without having to go fish through my supplies. And without further delay here it is:

 That is it for now. Have a great Christmas and a Crafty New Year!

National Craft Month

Last year in March I started celebrating National Craft Month. It was a challenge, it was fun and at the end of it I could not wait to do it all over again. This March was a little bit different. New county, new living arrangements and a new job that keeps me busy. With no time and space at my leisure, I managed to sneak in a few projects. Here it is Exhibit A:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a wide range of artful designs and embellishments to choose from.

Two out of many (2)

I managed to finish another album this month before I leave for warmer weather. It was a last minute kind of deal. I have started a Valentine's day album, just so I can feel up to date with my work, when this tutorial showed up on my Facebook wall. I had about 10 pages of scrapbook paper left from DCWV Butterfly Garden collection and I decided they will be perfect for this experiment. The project took me more time to finish because I got a little carried away with the inking and the fussy cutting and other small details. It was all worth it in the end. I was so happy with the album that I might buy another Butterfly Garden paper pack.
Take a look and let me know what you think.

The covers are held together by a piece of Christmas wrapping paper that I saved from one of my presents from Tracy. She knew I would keep it and re-purpose it so she chose wisely.

One of my favorite pages. I like the high contrast colors and the large design. I do not know how it will look after I add some photos. Maybe black and white photos for this page.

Thank you Ioana for the butterflies. I saved the white ones for a special album, except for this one who got some green ink treatment and a little of the pearl white ink.

Trying to cover up the missing corner of the butterfly paper with fussy cut images from leftover paper. Except for the top green butterfly and the small pink flower on the left all others have missing parts.

Last page trying to use every little bit of paper left. Looks a little missed-matched for my style, but is the last page so it is OK.

Not sure when I will be back with more projects hope is sooner because I received two very special paper collections; one had some printed burlap pages and the other one is the New Lodge Stack from DCWV, both out of my style and comfort zone.

And that is it for a while. Stay scrappy!

Two out of many

At the end of this month I will be traveling south for a while. There will be little time for crafting so I decided to finish some, if not all of my many projects in progress.
I started with an album/cardholder. I keep all of the cards and notes that our family receives so I have a lot of them. I want to look at them from time to time, but digging through a shopping bag does not seem very appealing to me. So I started by sorting them out. I had a pile for the ones I received from my husband, a pile for birthday cards, and a large pile of Christmas cards. I will further make smaller groups, maybe by year, or some other idea that may cross my mind. For example, I have so many cards and thank you notes from one very good friend of ours, that I will make them one album. That should be sweet.

And now some proof of this ongoing project. I started with the cards I got from my husband, because it was around Valentine's day, and because I had the Pinkpaislee' s Pen Pals 12 by 12 paper collection.

 

The covers and the spine are made with chipboard that I first covered with white cardstock. I inked the edges with some pink ink. I like the inked look but it is very time consuming, I was considering using only black cardstock but some projects look better in light colors.

These are some of the pages. I made each page into a large pocket by bending in half a 12in by 7 1/2in paper. I glued the bottom of the pocket and I glued the side to the binding.
Here is a good tutorial of the binding I used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUtkJ9u6M6w.
I added the larger cards inside the pockets, and I glued smaller pockets on each page for the smaller cards. I also added some tags just in case I find some photos from the time I got my card.

This particular card had a nice ribbon to it that would not have fit nicely in the pocket page. So I glued the top and bottom of the page and cut the outer edge to hold the back of the card.

I have another album to show you, so check out my next post.

Catching up

Happy mid January! The best time of the year for me. No pressure from holiday preparations, the weather is cold enough so its nicer to be indoors. And my birthday, too. (I am not much into presents, but I like cake and getting together with my friends).
Keeping with my out of season album work, I just finished a beach album for my dear friend Tracy. I still have mine to finish from the same vacation, plus another winter beach album from December. They are already started so I know is only a matter of time, a long time it seems...

Here are a few photos of the finished album.

The cover made with Graphic 45 By the Sea collection.

The other paper collection I used for the album is a nautical package I got from one of the craft stores some time ago. I don't remember the brand, it may be something new...

Because I use most of the ribbon for stringing beads I used washi tape to finish the tags I added to this page and to the next page too.

Extra photos and journaling cards found their place behind paper bands and fussy cut images. 

I printed my photos to some odd size called true media. They are a little smaller that the 4 by 6 and fit nicely on the page. Some photos, like this one, are cut to what ever size felt right for the page.

Another card for writing the story of the day. It seams like I find a page design and play with it for a while. I just noticed that looking at the photos. First it was the tags on the page, then the cards, let's see what's next.

 

 The thing with albums that challenges me the most is the double spreads. All pages facing should have something in common just so I won't get a headache just by looking at an album. I go with colors, and since this album has smaller pages, two 12 by 12 papers are plenty to complete one spread.



"The million dollars experience".

Then I went into a rather plain page design. I think it worked for this page at least.

What do you think about combining stripes? Diagonal and vertical for this page, and repeating the journaling card idea from the previous pages.

Not quite the tag page but again a repeated style element to keep the continuity of the album.

I liked the colors in this photo so much that I wanted to replicate them in the design of the page. I cannot decide if its a good idea or not. 

Another page where the colors from the photo helped me choose the paper for the layout. Much better design that the previous page, I think.

I found these stickers at the dollar store and got them for the shells I used on one of the layouts. I was not sure what to do with the palm tree and the surf board. I think it worked on this page.

Another cluster of stickers from the dollar store find; and since the photo is so simple and airy I kept the design simple, maybe to simple...

And here are the shells I bough the sticker sheet for.









These are some of my favorite pages from the album. Simple or elaborated the pages are all done and I can't wait to see what my friend thinks about it.

Keep on crafting!