Friday, October 16, 2009

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome! If you are just joining me, you may want to head back over to the Scrap Whispers Blog so you can start this hop off from the very beginning. Today, the designers at Scrap Whispers are shining the spotlight on one of our very talented members. This person is Mary Eason! Her gallery is full of such wonderful inspiration, it was so hard for me to choose only one layout in which to lift. I finally decided on this one:I loved not only the design and the colors, but the way in which she titled it down the side. Here is my scraplift:I used the Bo Bunny Gypsy line from the fabulous October kit by Simply Obsessed. The colors were perfect for my pictures of Andrew playing ball in that orange dirt!

Head on over to Karry's blog, so you can see more scraplifts of Mary Eason! And don't forget to give Mary some love too!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Scrap-Friendzy Birthday Blog Hop-Stop #6

Happy Birthday, Scrap-Friendzy!!! I'm so glad that you have come by to visit me here on my little 'ole blog!

If you've just popped in and you've missed the other stops on the hop, go HERE to start from the beginning!!

October 10th will be the last day of the hop so keep visiting Scrap-Friendzy each evening to find out which design team blog to visit next.

Also, make sure you leave me a comment and again at each stop to get your name in the drawing for an awesome prize. If you visit and comment on all 10 blogs for the 10 days of the birthday blog hop, your name will be entered 10 times.

At Scrap-Friendzy we have a point system called friendz points. For each challenge that you complete, you will earn FPZ which could earn you another great prize at the end of the month!

You have until the end of October to complete all of the BLOG HOP Challenges for Friendz Pointz, but only until October 15th to leave a comment on all of the BLOG HOP STOPS to get your name in the bucket for the BLOG HOP Prize Drawing!!!

Now on to the fun part! I love birthdays! I also love giving homemade gifts and most everyone enjoys getting them too. I have come to discover that mini albums make great gifts for just about anyone. There are all sorts of mini albums: chipboard, acrylic, and accordian-fold just to name a few. You can buy these albums and decorate them as you wish. I like to make them as well. Here are some examples.

Paper Bag Albums:There are several ways to make these cute and inexpensive mini's. I have put together a tutorial for you in another blog post that you can see here. These are so much fun and VERY easy to make. My daughter likes to make them too.

Altered Picture Albums:Here, I took one of the $1 picture albums that you slide your photos in and added my own paper. I punched holes into the spine and added some coordinating ribbon.

Altered Chipboard:This album was made from pages of an old board book and coasters. Simply sand them down, cover them with your paper and pictures and you have a mini album!

Cardstock and Transparencies:This may be one of the easiest mini albums to make because you probably already have these supplies on hand. Just use some scrap pieces of cardstock, transparecies or other items and voila...you've got a great mini album to give.



Now for the challenge! I want you to create your own mini album. Use one of my examples, or create something completely different! Upload it to the October Challenges Gallery and then link it to this thread and you will receive 30 FPZ!!!!

Paper Bag Albums

Here lately, I've been making Paper Bag Albums. I am in the midst of preparing to teach a class on these this weekend and so I thought I'd share with you how easy they are to make!

Supplies:
4-paper lunch bags (brown or white are fine)
6-pieces of pattern paper (double sided is best) 7 1/2" x 5 1/4"
4-pieces of pattern paper (double sided is best) 3 1/2" x 5 1/4"
Stickers, Diecuts, other embellishments
Coordinating Ribbon
3- Binder Rings (found at Walmart or local office supply store)
Alphabet stickers of your choice

Tools:
Paper Trimmer
Scissors
Adhesive
Ink Pad for inking edges (optional)
Corner Rounder (optional)
Crop-A-Dile or other hole puncher

Instructions:
1. Fold all four paper bags at the bottom where the flap is.2. Take two of the bags and glue the small flaps together. Repeat for the other two.
3. Punch holes in one set of bags. Line up and punch holes into second set.4. Adhere to the two sets of bags together by placing glue/tape to the backs of the two large sides.5. Choose 3 sheets of 12x12 double-sided paper and cut them in half (6x12). Then use each half to cut one of each of the specified sizes. This will give you the six large pieces, 4 smaller pieces, and two leftover. Lay them out and decide which paper you will use for each page. Because they are double-sided, you will have plenty of patterns to choose from. * From here until the end of the tutorial, I am using different sheets of paper from the above finished albums, but you can still get the idea.6. Attach papers to each page with glue or other adhesive. Trim any edges necessary. Do not worry about it being perfect. Use an inkpad to ink the edges of your pages. Go ahead and cover all your pages first. Make sure you punch the holes in your paper after attaching to each flap.
7. Use one of the leftover pieces (or a piece of cardstock from your scraps) to use on the cover. Cut this piece 3 1/2" x 4 1/2". You many round the corners and ink the edges. Use this piece on your cover and then add title on top of it.8. Decorate your cover with sticker or die cut in the corner and anywhere else you choose.9. Now you may go ahead and add embellishments to the corners of your pages OR you may wait and add your pictures to the pages first and then embellish at the end. You may add your rings and put some fun ribbon on them to finish up your album!10. There will be openings where you can stick extra pictures or memorabilia into and attach ribbon to pull them out with.That's it! I hope that I have been able to show you just how easy these albums are and that will give them a try!