Mini Album Made With Heartfelt Creations "Once Upon A Time"

I've got another Mini Album to show you but I also have to tell you that this post is packed with a lot of photographs! I have to tell you that I am so very proud of how this came out. I have been checking countless YouTube videos and tutorials to be able to put together a Mini Album that actually comes out nicely. I generally use the paper that I've already got on hand, but not my good stuff. I hoard that. Until now that is. I have unlocked the 'vault' and have begun using all of those paper pads that previously just sat there. I've been watching all of Shellie Geigle's videos lately and tried what I thought would be the easiest; Learn to Make a Mini Album. She talks you through every detail of the book. She talks slowly enough that you don't need to pause the video hundreds of times but not slow enough that it puts you to sleep. LOL What I did was watch the video first, took some notes, made sure I had any necessary measurements written down and just got a feel for what I was going to be doing. There were 3 videos to making this Mini. Here are the links to Shellie's Videos.

Part 1 - Learn to Make a Mini Album - Designs by Shellie
Part 2 - Learn to Make a Mini Album - Designs by Shellie
Part 3 - Learn to Make a Mini Album - Designs by Shellie

I don't know whether she will see this or not but I wanted to say thank you to Shellie. Finally I have made a Mini Album that looks like it was put together by an adult. LOL Also I just happened to have the exact same paper pad that Shellie was using. I just used mine in a different order. The paper will make all the difference folks. I believe it now. Speaking of paper, Shellie has designed her own paper pad that was introduced just recently. It's on my wish list but I seriously need to get rid of some of the paper I have now before I buy any more. Take a look, I've included the link on where you can buy it. It's called Tranquil Gardens and it's just beautiful!

Designs by Shellie Paper

Judge for yourself. Here are the pics of the finished Mini Album.

June Stackaholic Layout and Card Challenge Results Are In!

As you may remember I entered a card in June (no layout)in the DCWV Stackaholic Challenge. My card made it into the Top 10! I always get so excited when a layout or card that I've made is chosen. Here's the card;

Here's the link so that you can see all of the wonderful entries, both cards and layouts. http://www.diecutswithaview.com/blog/giveaway/stack-a-holic-results-for-june-have-finally-arrived/

Mini Album for a friend

I wanted to post some pictures of the latest mini album that I had completed and I thought I would glance through at the older ones that I had made. I couldn't find them on my blog anywhere. Could it be possible that I never posted them? I had meant to and somehow forgotten? That is entirely possible! Too much on the brain. LOL I thought I would just try and catch up and post the old ones first. This is one that I had made for a dear friend of mine, Karen. When Karen and I first met, she had surprised me with this huge box of crafting goodies (I was stunned, didn't expect anything) as well as this absolutely stunning mini album that she made for me. I was speechless as I turned it over and over in my hands, looking at all of the details she worked so hard on. It was just beautiful. So I had promised Karen that I would make her one as well. Well it took me months and months before I had one ready for Karen. I started several times and ended up starting over because I wasn't happy with the results. Finally after several months I had it finished and I was actually quite pleased with the way it looked. Here are the photos of the mini that I made for Karen;

Wedding Layout for Anniversary Month

There's just never enough hours in the day are there? LOL I seem to have the best of intentions to get certain things done but stuff happens to get in the way that I never even imagined. July is our anniversary month and I always like to try and do a few layouts for my scrapbook using our wedding photos from way back way. Hard to believe that we got married back in July of 1983, some 32 years ago. Even harder to believe that we've been together for 37 years. I will try to make a few more layouts this month if possible but in the meantime I hope you enjoy this one.

June Scrapaholic Card Entry

June has just whizzed by and I haven't accomplished half of what I wanted to. I had several challenges that I wanted to enter. I managed to get a card done for DCWV's Scrapaholic Card Challenge for June but sadly not the layout challenge. I used "The Pet Stack" for this card which came together rather quickly. Base card of 5 1/2 x 4 1/4. I cut a piece of the "checked/striped" pattern measuring 5 1/2 x 2. The paper with the dogs measures 5 1/2 x 2 1/2. I cut a small strip of black cardstock for the seam measuring 5 1/2 x 1/2. I cut a piece of blue cardstock measuring approximately 3 x 2 1/2 and just started taking off small amounts until it fit the picture the way that I wanted. I printed 'Ruff Day?' on the bottom and adhered it to the top right corner with the speech bubble directed at one of the dogs. I used black and white baker's twine and strung it across the top of the card. I used rolled up glue dots to attach it. I fussy cut tiny dog bones from one of the papers in the collection and also used glue dots to attach them to the baker's twine. Done. I hope you enjoyed my card.

You're Invited to a Bridal Shower Tea Party!

I was honoured to be asked to make the bridal shower invitations for my daughter's best friend who is getting married in August.  I was given free reign and knew that I wanted them to be just perfect. The only thing that I had to include was that it was a tea party themed event.  I started looking through my piles and piles of stamps, acrylics, wood mounted, red rubber, my CTMH ones.  Holy smokes! I seriously didn't realize just how many stamps I own until I started looking for the perfect one. I managed to get them done in plenty of time. Here's a shot showing them all waiting to be delivered.

Here's a shot of the front. The cards were made from an ivory/buff coloured cardstock. (Not sure of the brand, it was just something that was in my stash.) The ivory cardstock pieces measured 5" by 11 3/4" and were scored at 3 7/8", 8 1/8". I had used Sizzix Stamp &Die-cut set to stamp the teapot and coordinating flowers. I then used the dies from the set to cut out the teapots and flowers.

Pink vellum paper was dry embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder by Cuttlebug. I made a little cardstock banner that was embossed with a Tim Holtz Distress embossing powder (tattered rose) and heated with a heat gun. The pink vellum was attached to the ivory coloured cardstock cards. Here's a shot of the inside showing the pockets to house the little cards that had all of her information on them. One card listed the shower information; date, time, where etc. The other little card had her registry information on it. I thought it would work well if the guests were able to just slip the little card into their wallet so that when they went shopping they could just get out the card and all of the gifts registered could be pulled up with just one number.

This the shower card that I made for her. Keeping with the tea party theme, this also has a tea cup on it. I stamped, die cut and then embossed with gold before pop dotting the tea cup onto the card. The little "tea bag" slipped into the tea cup says "For Your Bridal Shower." The inside of the card and last a matching gift tag that I made.

Just a few shots of me making the invitations. I hope you enjoyed seeing these bridal shower invitations. They were truly fun to design and make.

Today's Forecast; Scraproom Overcast with Hoarding Tendencies

If any of you are wondering if I've finished doing the switch with the craft room...I am still working on it. Who knew it was going to take this long? I thought it was going to be relatively easy, bring the stuff upstairs, put away what I want and give away/sell/throw away the rest. It didn't work out to be quite that easy. It hasn't been terribly easy to part with anything. I want to keep it all and yet I don't. I want to start fresh. I just want the supplies that I'm going to use and not the ones that I will stare at for months or in some cases years thinking "one day I will make such and such with that." I think, and it really scares me to say this but I think I might just be showing hoarding tendencies. Not in the rest of my house. Pffftt...if it hasn't been used in a couple of months....it's gone...outta here! But my crafting supplies....oh but they're different. Some have been with me for years. Some are older than my firstborn. I kid you not. In my mind I justify it by saying "oh but one day you're going to make such and such out of that." I have been hoarding, there I said it, yes hoarding scraps of paper. When we moved here to this house I actually had the movers carry about 4 large cardboard boxes and 2 Rubbermaid tubs of scrap paper because I couldn't bare to part with them. I've decided that the scraps must go if I'm going to get on with things. I've advertised here in my area that if anyone is just starting out scrapbooking, if anyone is on a tight budget or if anyone will have children to entertain over the summer holidays, I will have boxes of scraps for them. Some of these scraps are not really scraps at all. Some are 8 1/2 x 11 with a single heart punched out and that's it. I've set up several boxes and I've been getting rid of the scraps as fast as I can. I hope this will speed things along and that I'll be done enough with the room that I can take pictures and post them. I've been somewhat comforted all these years being surrounded by these little treasures. I hope that I'm nipping the hoarder thing in the bud by saying goodbye and getting it out of the house. I honestly think I have enough scraps that it will keep several craft rooms busy for months when they get them. I will update again soon. Ok on to a happier post. I submitted another layout for the DCWV Scrapaholic Layout Challenge for May. They've posted that they are a little behind right now in the judging and the posting of the new challenge for June. I can wait. This is a layout that I put together showing my Godparents. My Godfather passed away well over 10 years ago now. I've lost touch with my Godmother but I think I should do whatever I can to find her and get back in touch with her. They were 2 of the sweetest people that I can remember growing up. They will both always have a special place in my heart. Here is the sketch that I used and then the layout that I designed using the sketch.

Messy workspace translates to my best work....at least I think so. LOL

I was reading this very interesting article called "The Psychology Behind Messy Rooms: Why The Most Creative People Flourish In Clutter" Here is a link to the article in case you'd like to read it. I felt like they were talking to/about me. I do like things to be organized and put away in their proper place but......when it comes to my scrapbooking, card making and all other crafts it's a different story. As I work I begin to grab supplies that may or may not end up in the finished project. Oh wait I have a piece of ribbon that will go perfectly with this so I go and get it. Then I think of something else that I might have in my stash that will work so I go and get that as well. Out of this mess will develop what I think is a really pretty card or a cool layout. Most people would tend to clean up the work space once the project is finished but it works differently for me. When I have all these wonderful crafting supplies strewn all about in front of me, I tend to have a million different ideas running through my head for my next projects. I believe, that is when I make my best cards. That's when I use scraps from this and combine them with scraps from something else. Whenever you see me display a large group of cards at once that is generally what has happened. These are just a few of those occasions. I have had to learn to just 'go with the flow' as they say when my workspace starts looking like a bomb went off. I try to use it to my advantage, using up those yummy bits and pieces of paper and ribbon that are small but just too pretty to throw away. Just to show you what I mean, here are some pics of my last craft room at our old house. I had taken over the formal dining room as my craft room and you can see that it got quite ugly at times. When we moved and I was able to take over the entire basement as my craft room I thought things would change. I thought that with this much space it would be all neat and tidy like we see in those craft magazines or all of the shots on Pinterest. LOL As if! Now will come the biggest challenge of all. I have decided to move my craft room upstairs into a tiny bedroom that is approximately 9 x 9. It's just too cold for me to work in the basement so this makes the most sense. However, I need to decide from my approximately 700 square foot basement craft room what I can comfortably fit into the new small space. I will need to purge like I've never purged before. Sell some stuff, donate some stuff and some will just need to be stored in the basement. I will take pics of the before and after space. Watch for that project to begin in weeks to come. I need to take down wallpaper and paint the guest room before I begin moving into it. Sorry about the long post. I sort of combined 2 posts into one. Have a wonderful day! It sure is beautiful here in Southern Ontario today. The sun is out, the birds are chirping and it finally feels like a beautiful spring day!