Mini Album #5 : Beach Album

Good Morning Paper Crafters.  Today I am sharing a summer album I created a few years back and never shared on this blog.  It was designed using a mini album by The Angel Company.

It's called Pemberly Bay.  It's a matchbook album and REALLY easy to put together. 

This photo is of my daughter.

and a few friends.

The stamp sets I used for the seahorse / seashells / phrases is an old TAC set, but a couple of other stamp sets that work well instead would be GinaK's "Gifts From the Sea" and Layers of Color's "Under The Sea".

And in this photo from left to right : a friend, my daughter and my son.

More friends on these 2 pages.

If you like mini-albums then please join me on Friday for a summer mini album blog hop sponsored by Creative Cuts and More.  I'm sure you will find lots of inspiration for your summer albums!

And if you need a consultant from The Angel Company so you can order your own Pemberly Bay mini album kit ($6.95), then please email me at luv_2_stamp@yahoo.com.  I just happen to know a few of them that you could order online from.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melisa

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You can view more of my Mini-Albums HERE.

You can view more of my Beach / Summer projects HERE.

Mini Album #4 : Friends Altered Gift Tin

Hello Papercrafters! I'm sharing another Mini Album today.  I made this one a while back and just never shared, so the supplies are older.  But you can still be inspired by the idea!

This is altered Gift card tin I got at Michaels.  It's 3 x 5 " and perfect for storing a mini-album. 

I used the "Blush" 6x6 paper pad from a few years back.  Sorry, it's been discontinued.  I combined "friendship themed" embellishments I had been saving up, including chipboard and rub-ons.

And the patterned paper shapes and some punches added even more embellishing.  So when you are shopping for dp, consider the patterns and if they can be cut out, creating your own embellishments.

I had fun creating this little garden and thought it went perfectly wiht the "Plant a seed" quote on the pocket. 

There are 2 layers here that flip up.  Perfect for hiding journaling or photos.

I would love to recreate this one with current products and teach as a class someday, because it was so much fun!

I have several other mini albums I will be sharing in the future.  I would like to share 1 monthly, but not sure if I can keep up that pace.  We'll see.  If you miss them.  Just check the "Project - Mini Albums" label in my side bar to view them all!

You can view all of my Altered Projects HERE
You can view all my Mini-Albums HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

and have a blessed week

Melisa

Mini Album #3 : Rockin' Roxie

Happy New Year Papercrafters!  I'm sooooo excited about the new year and what it will bring!  First of all a house!  Oh how I can't wait.  Our lease is up in April, so we are starting to work with our realtor.  Oh how I want a bigger studio to work in! 

Today I am sharing a mini-album I created a while back.  I just found out that these little kits are just $3.48 now!  They come in several styles and would be perfect for quickly putting together a few gift albums for relatives!  You can check them all out HERE. 

 This particular one is called "Rockin' Roxie".

And I used TAC stamps through out to embellish it.  The word stamps are no longer available.  But you could easily create your own on your computer!  The stars are pretty generic as well, so I'm sure you could substitute these as well.  The large star is hand drawn and then I added white fun flock with my Zig 2-way Glue Pen.  Stars in the background were stamped with Brilliant Moonlight White by Tsukineko.  And those gorgeous red stars were created using Brilliance Red Rocket.

 I embellished the album with basic stamps, circle and stars.

The background on this page was stamped with various circle stamps in Brilliant Moonlight White by Tsukineko. 

On this page I incorporated the star theme by punching the 3 stars in the left upper corner of the photo.  And finally put some of those colored staples to use!

I used "Linear Sentiments on this page.  And you can find that set HERE.

On this page I incorporated the star theme by punching the 3 stars in the left corner of the photo.

This photo reminds me of how my heart would skip a beat when he headed down into one of the "bowls" at the local skateboard park.  We had to make him wear a helmit at home.  Luckily the skate park required it.  He is a brave boy!

This is my boy and this album captures him so well.  He is 23 now.  Wow how time flies.  He was always on the go, into something, a bundle of energy.  We made lots of trips to the ER.  He is more settled now.  And his hobbies are a little less dangerous - Video games, playing his guitar and writing music.  I LOVE this boy!

 More stamped stars in the background.

$3.48 per kit!!!!! 

If you do not have a TAC Consultant, then please check out my friend Barb's Online Store.

HERE

You can check out more of my mini albums HERE.

I have a couple more I will be posting in the future.  I think I will post them once monthly til I get all uploaded.  Thanks so much for stopping by and allowing me to share what I love with you!

Have a blessed day!

Melisa

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Making the world more colorful with Layers of Color!

Yesterday was Faith Art Friday at Layers of Color.  Check out the blog HERE!

Layers of Color is proud to be a Spellbinders Preferred Stamp Company and that we all love and use the Grand Calibur??

You can now upload your Layers of Color projects to our Flicker Group HERE, and find tons more LOC inspiration!

Please join us on facebook HERE.

Layers of Color NEW RELEASE blog hop is coming Janurary 17th.  Please join us and check out how you can win FREE Layers of Color stamp set from each designer!

Mini Album #2 : Baby Albums

Good Morning stampers!  This morning I am thrilled to be a part of the Creative Cuts and More Baby and Bridal Blog Hop! 

This is a circular blog hop, so if you arrived from Kayla's blog, then you are right on track.  If you didn't, then please hop over to the Die Cut Diva Blog HERE.  There you will find information of how you can win a prize!!  The prize this month is a 2-Tier Cake of your choice of a smooth or textured cardstock!!  So hop over to the Die Cut Diva Blog right away!  If one of the links in the hop is broken, no worries, head back to the Die Cut Diva Blog for a complete list of participates.

Our assignment was to create a Baby or Wedding ensemble.  What a great idea.  It seems like someone in my family or at work is either having a baby or getting married.  How about you?  So hop through and see all the great ways that Creative Cuts and More can help make your gift giving a little more creative.

I decided to go with a mini-album and card.  I just love mini-albums.  And so do new mothers and grandmothers!  Nothing better than having a little brag book tucked away in your purse to whip out at anytime to show off that new baby.  It couldn't be easier to put one of these together as a gift using CCM products. 

There are several options.  You can build your own album!  For mine I purchased 2 chipboard covers and baby blue pages for the inside.  You decide what colors you want when you order.  I actually ordered enough cardstock pages to glue 2 pages together at a time to make mine even sturder on the inside.  The holes are already punched and pages already scored.  Check out all of the 4 x 4" album options HERE.  However if you like a larger album, you can check out all the album options HERE.

Here is a Baby Girl version:

My second project was created using the A7 Scallop Star Window Card.  I just love all the window card options.  I started out with a peice of DP the size of the front of my card.  I placed it inside the card and traced the star shape on it.  I used the pencil lines as my guidelines and trimmed the star shape out a little larger.  I trimed it down to a 2.5" strip to create the border on the front of my card.  Next ink up all the edges with brown ink.  I tied the ribbon around as shown, punched out my brown scalloped border and adhered all of this to the front of the card using my t-square to keep it all lined up.   I stamped the inside of the card with my sentiment and the smaller stars as shown below.

And to finish it off, I secured a little charm (Making Memories) with a tiny saftey pin and stamped the sentiment to the front.

The next stop in this hop is

Pamela Smerker

Thanks for stopping by!

Mini Album #1 : Lucky Me! Altered Coater Album

Let me begin by defining "luck".  I believe there is no randomness in this world.  I believe that all things come from God.  I believe that He has a divine purpose for myself and my family.  So when I use a word like "luck" in my creative process it means blessed. 

I am blessed from God above!  

I am so thankful for my DH (met him when I was 15, and he is "still the one", on most days, teehee), my children (these photos are a little old, Travis is 22 now and Nicole is 20 and I could not be prouder of these 2 young adults who choose to follow God and trust Him to lead their paths.

I am so thankful for this little pup!  Well she is not a puppy any more, but she is only 7lb, so to me she will always by my little pup.  She has brought me so much joy!

And I can not leave off the BFF's.  I love these girls.  It took me to age 40 to find best friends who love the same things I do,  and I cherish them.  It will break my heart to leave them behind when I move to Texas.

The ProjectThis is a 4x4 coaster book.  I used my Crop-a-dile to punch holes for binding.  I painted the coasters with a dark brown.  Then I started going through my stamp catalogs for images that I though would be cohesive.  You can't go wrong with flowers, butterflies, and hearts!  I then pulled out some "friendship" and "family" stamps for their respective pages.  And last but not least some "decorative" stamps.  You gotta throw some swirls in there, right??

I created all of my own embellishments by stamping on beige cardstock with either green or yellow ink, since I decided these were going to be my colors.  I used cuticle scissors to cut them out.  I also embellished this little album using some of my punches, flowers, border, scalloped corners, one of the butterflies and scalloped ovals.  And I had to throw my deckled scissors in there somewhere (my favorite pair).

The DP : brown stripes - Basic Grey, green polka dots and flourishes - My Mind's Eye.

I used a piece of acetate as a page just before the photo of my pup.  I used Staz-on and stamped it with swirls and colored it in with a yellow gel pen. 

I'm thinking about making a few extra and to sale on Etsy.  I have lots of cards I need to sale and some gently used stamp sets as well.  Since we are getting our house ready to sale, I'm in the mood to let a lot of stuff go.  I actually don't know anything about Etsy though.  Can I sale gently used stamp sets on there??  Or is it for ONLY handmade items??  I'm going to have to research that!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me ramble!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Woven Spine Fat Book Class !!

I learned how to bind a book today!! This is just one of many techniques that you can use to bind a book. It was a technique class so we made a mini one. But the technique could be adapted to a larger one. The pages are actually sewn down the spine using a waxy thread and then we weaved ribbon in and out horizontally along the spine, and finally added beads (and I through in a few sequins as well). The acutal sample at the store is made with 3x5 index cards(72 of them) folded in half. You do the math, that's alot of little pages. I wanted to use some of my patterned paper stash so I substituted the cards with coordinating duble-sided Chatterbox paper. I changed up the ribbons and beads to match. This class was sooooo much fun and I love my little book. Donna teaches this on periodically, so if your interested, give her a call at A Small Cleverness.

If you are interested in upcoming book binding class they have 2 more styles coming up. I'm taking them both :

The Cross Structure Book Thursday July 24 5:30-8:00pm

Coptic Binding August 21 5:30-8:00pm

I would love to have some familiar faces join me!

Mini Album : Music and Memories

I hope this inspires you to record your memories or thoughts about the one you love. I'm not very eloquent with words. As you see more of my work, what you will notice is that I don't journal as much as I should. Words don't always come easy for me. Oops, I need to take that back, because I usually am emitting lots of hot air as I ramble on about things that don't really matter. What I should say is meaningful words don't come easy for me. But I need to try harder, we all do, to express why and how much we love our spouses, family, and friends. I envy those talented lyricist. I often hear a song that perfectly expresses how I feel and think to myself, "why can't I come up with words that say how I feel that easily"? So I thought why don't I just create an album that says that .... Thus, "Music & Memories".

Cover

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Journaling from page 2:

"I love music. I especially love great lyrics. I'm not great at expressing myself with words. So I love songs that do that for me. There are a lot of lyrics I have realted to my life over the years. But one that stands out more than others is Something That We Do" by Clint Black. It says everything that I would want to say about my realtionship with my husband, Fred and I. We started dating when I ws in the 9th grade. We grew up together. Dated for 5 years before we married and this past December celerated out 20th wedding anniversary. I have never once doubted that we would be together this long. He is my best friend. The one person in this life that I trush with anything. He has loved me at my very worst, when to myself I would have seemed unloveable. He I someone I can count on to be there no matter what. We have been together for so long and shared so much, that I can’t even imagine my life without him. Now don’t get me wrong, he’s not perfect. And I could certainly list things that I would change if I could, just as he could with me. But anyone who thinks they will marry a perfect person is very naïve. Marriage is about compromise and respect, give and take, love and trust. Marriage is sometimes easy and sometimes hard. You don’t always feel like your “in love”. And there will be times when your angry, selfish, prideful and hurt. Hey, were humans. But you must work through these harder times. And your reward will come. I have prayed for our marriage over the years and I know God has blessed me because of it. We have trusted that His way is the only way for us and I give Him all the honor and glory for what is very unusual in this day and time, 20 years of marriage to only one man."

Journaling from page 4 :

Lyrics : Something That We Do(Clint Black/Skip Ewing)

I remember well the day we wed. I can see that picture in my head. I still believe the words we said. Forever will ring true. Love is certain, love is kind, love is yours and love is mine, but it isn't something that we find, it's something that we do. It's holding tight, lettin' go. It's flying high and laying low. Let your strongest feelings show, and your weakness too. It's a little and a lot to ask. An endless and a welcome task. Love isn't something that we have, it's something that we do. We help to make each other all that we can be. Though we can find our strength and inspiration independently. The way we work together is what sets our love apart. So closely that you can't tell where I end and where you start. It gives me heart remembering how, we started with a simple vow. There's so much to look back on now. Still it feels brand-new. We're on a road that has no end. And each day we begin again. Love's not just something that we're in, it's something that we do. We help to make each other all that we can be, though we can find our strength and inspiration independently. The way we work together is what sets our love apart, so closely that you can't tell where I end and where you start. Love is wide, love is long, love is deep and love is strong. Love is why I love this song. And I hope you love it too. I remember well the day we wed. I can see that picture in my head. Love isn't just those words we said, it's something that we do. There's no request too big or small. We give ourselves, we give our all. Love isn't someplace that we fall, it's something that we do.

So do you have a favorite song that says exactly how you feel about something or someone. My challenge to you is that you create a mini album that records it!

Make sure you let me know if this you do!