Gatefold Baby Mini Album

This is an album I did for a friend, Brenda. She didn't know the gender of the baby so I went for the neutral baby colors of yellow and green. The Moments and Milestones Simply Scrapping Kit from Stampin' Up! fit the bill perfectly. I just love the Tempting Turquoise in this, really gives it a pop. I wasn't sure what to use for the closure, couldn't find a button with a shank that I liked for this album. So I modeled the closure something like those envelopes where you weave the string in and around two buttons that are set apart a little. I took two chipboard circles (retired), one about 1/2" and another about an inch I think, glued them together with smallest on the bottom and covered the larger one with paper, inked the edges and glued them to the album cover. Inventive, right?! I used some 1/2" Certainly Celery and 1/4" Tempting Turquoise grosgrain ribbon along the seams on the outside cover, cute way to cover it up. One thing I really have to remember though is to apply the ribbon BEFORE sticking the inside pages down with their binding. Had a hard time trying to get that ribbon over the seam! I used a couple of the SU! Tempting Turquoise buttons on the inside covers. Love how SU! coordinates everything. The pocket pages and all of the tags inside the pockets were all made with Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, and Basic Gray cardstock. I added a punched border to the pockets on the binding with the Basic Gray and the new Scallop Border punch.I didn't do too much embellishing, I wanted to leave that for Brenda as she added the photos and journaling so she could make it girly or boyish. I gave her the remaining stickers that came with the Simply Scrapping. She had a beautiful baby girl a couple days later. If I had been my normal procrastinating self I could have made her a girly album!

Shame on me! I almost forgot to tell you where I got this design from. Of course it came from the wonderful Laura Denison at www.FollowingthePaperTrail.blogspot.com. She has some awesome techniques and ideas, but don't take my word for it, go check her out. Enjoy!

Mother's Day Present - mini album

I'm on a mini-album kick. I've found that I just love making them. I always have tons of pictures so the picture part goes together pretty easy. This one I made for my Mom for Mother's Day. Funny thing is she has been watching the progress of it all the way through and doesn't even know it is for her! The style for the pockets inside this mini came from the wonderfully talented Laura at followingthepapertrail.blogspot.com. She has a blog, YouTube videos and UStream classes. She is SO AWESOME!

The entire album is made with Bella Bleu DSP. I love this DSP, it is so pretty! The cover is chipboard covered with some of the DSP and sponged on the edges with Close to Cocoa ink. The flower is from the Pretties Kit colored with a Not Quite
Navy marker with a punch flower in the middle. There are also different size of the
scallop circles from the Big Shot dies under the flower. The F is from some retired SU! chipboard and the rest of 'family' is cut out on Night of Navy cardstock on the Cricut. All of the pages and the cover have holes punched and then an Antique Brass Jumbo Brad was used to reinforce the hole for the binding.

April Club Layout

Cased this one straight from Lyssa over at Song of My Heart Stampers changed it up a little bit but the idea is the same. She has some beautiful work over there on her blog, you should check it out. The background is Pretty in Pink, the flower stems were stamped in Chocolate Chip, the flowers were stamped in Pretty in Pink ink and punched out with the Extra Large Fancy Flower, a circle punch, and the Scallop Circle punch. The photo mats are Chocolate Chip. The little clipboard has the paper punched with the Spiral punch to make it look like notebook paper, cute idea. This is a quick and easy layout that you can whip up in no time.