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!

Scrap-Friendzy Birthday Blog Hop!!!

As you may remember, I joined the team at Scrap-Friendzy on September 1st. Well, October marks their 2 year birthday and we are ready to celebrate in a BIG way! Please make your plans now to join us for a 10-day Blog Hop Extravaganza. That's right....10 days of blog hopping and 10 awesome challenges from our design team that are sure to inspire your creativity! And wait...there's more! Everytime you visit and leave comment on the DT's blog, your name gets entered for a prize.

We would love to have you join us and become one of our Friendz at SF. Why not head over there now and sign up! You will meet some fab ladies, be inspired by a gallery full of amazing yumminess, and have a blast. I have a special RAK that I want to offer. If you go sign up for SF (or if you are already a member but make yourself active), I will enter your name into a drawing and pull out a winner on October 1st. The winner will receive the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper pack!
Hope to see you at SF very soon!

Fun Times

We had a blast yesterday at Scrap Pink in Cullman! Thanks to Kathy for all your hard work putting this together. Here are some pictures from the day.I managed to get 2 layouts completed over the 6.5 hours we were there! LOLI also finished up the example paper bag album for the class I will be teaching at Scrapin Kats on October 10th. If you are interested, contact Kathy to reserve your spot. Here is a sneak peek:

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

It's that time again! We will be featuring a "Guest Designer" each month from the Scrap Whispers participants. If you did not start from the Scrap Whispers blog, you will want to go back there to begin. This month we are featuring the work of "RedSquirrel". She has been participating in the team challenges as well as the weekly challenges for as long as I have been on the DT. Her work is always wonderful to see and so inspiring! I chose to use this layout she did for one of our weekly challenges.I really liked the black border and all the layering. Here is what I created:And here is a picture with the hidden journaling revealed:
For more scraplifts of Rosey, head on over to Karry's blog! Thanks for stopping by!

Twisted Sketches GDT Appearance

I'm super excited to let you know that today's challenge on Twisted Sketches has my layout featured as the guest designer! Twisted Sketches is an awesome site that gives you weekly sketches for inspiration, but there's a "twist" to each. The twist is something to add to your layout and is different from week to week. This week the twist is to add something metal. Here is the layout that I did:
There is a metal charm hanging between the bottom two circles, staples on the ribbon, and also a black metal index tab on the right. I used October Afternoon's Road Map pattern papers and other embellishments that all came in the August My Scrapbook Nook kit. Thanks for Looking!