My Blog has an Identity Crisis!!!

I love to look at other creative blogs and most of them have one main type of craft as the focal point. Not here - I'm all over the place! You never know - are you gonna get a card, a crochet project or a scrapbook project?  Oh and lets not forget one of my newer passions - gift packaging and candy goodness!!

Well today we have some cards and a pretty box to present them. My dear friend, Audrey, needed some thank you notes. So I used a template for a card box from Lauren Meader's MyTime Made Easy - and the title is sooo true - super easy to put together!

The carstock is all SU! - the green is their retiring Mellow Moss :( This has been one of my go to colors since I got into paper crafting. The pink is Regal Rose. I used a spellbinders tag, some ivory ribbon, a Just rite horizontal stamp for the name and the SU! embossing folder for the dots.

You can't see it in the picture but there is a pink divider in the box so the envelopes have their own "place" as do the cards. Wanna see some of the cards?

I love the SU! set Friends 24-7 and seem to use the brocade flourishy image all the time - here it is clear embossed. Here is the inside of the card

Here are a few more I made for her. Not sure why I end up "reinventing' each card and can't make a few that are similar - but it was fun!!

Thanks for looking - who knows what I'll post next LOL - I'm making my DD some bday gifts for her 15TH so after I give them to her (Sunday)I may post them

Mom Mini Album for Sounds Easy Voice Recorder

Here is the  Mom album I made for the Sounds Easy Voice Recorder booth at CKC Manchester. See my post below - or the link in the left hand column if you want to see the picture tutorial.

I used the basic  "tube album" directions with a few tweaks along the way that I will describe in this post.

Here is the cover. I used patterned paper from Prima - Iron Orchid designs - the Steel Toe Maray Jane collection. The pretty flower on the cover is also from Prima. The green lace was included in the paper kit as well.  I stamped the title and used my Nestabilities to cut the label. I made the flower leaves by using a paper punch and embossing "veins" with an embossing tool and sponging the edges with SU! Regal Rose ink.

Here is where this album differs a bit from the basic tutorial. I decided to make a "flap" over the open edges. Judy was going to use this album to hold some memorbelia and I wanted to make it was super secure.

You can see in the picture below that I attached a piece of coordinating cardstock into the opening of the  back cover. (TIP: I made the flap big enough so that it would wrap all the way to the front of the album when it was bigger than now - you know - when you've added tags and pictures the album gets a bit fatter). I used velcro dots to keep the album closed.

This is the inside of the front cover and the first page. I decided to cover the opening/pocket of the front cover. Simple to do - I took a 3 x 6 piece of paper and scored it at 1.5. I attached it to both sides.

You will notice on both pages of this layout there is a small flower in the lower right hand corner.This will hold the number that will correspond with the audio journaling made with the Sounds Easy Voice Recorder. All you have to do is make sure the correct sound memory card is in the recorder (that also plays back the sounds) and press the corresponding number. So for example if Judy used the number 1 for the page - you would press 1 on the recorder and it would play the journaling sounds that would correspond to that picture/page.

You can also see on the left hand page my new passion of combining my two favorite crafts in one - scrapbooking/paper crafting and crochet!!

In this 2 page spread I also deviated from the standard album by making an extra pocket on the left hand page. It was really easy to make buy just cutting a piece of coordinating paper to the size you want, punching out a 1/2 circle and adhering on only 3 sides to enable the tag to pull in and out.

Here is another "extra" tag made but in a vertical position. I really like making some tags where the pretty ribbon sticks out the top of the album and adds some color and dimension when the album is closed.

Messy desk and all here is another layout in the album.

One last look at a layout in the album. I tried my hand at crocheting embellishments in this book. You can see the circle motif in the right corner with some cute pearl bling.

Here is how I stored/displayed it in this album. I used some 1 1/2 inch wide lace and score tape to make a pocket for the memory card. See how small they are? They are about the size of a camera memory card - very easy to store in the album without bulk.

Thanks for stopping by! Please let me know what you think or if you have any questions about how to make these albums!!

Andrea