The Last of the Mini Album!

Here it is! The last few pages of the mini album! So after you've read this post, you will all go out and make albums of your own, right? I've inspired you, right? No? ;)

So as you can see in the pages above, I was starting to really like turning the layout a little for the second page. Easy on the brain, nice to look at.

These pages used up, not the border die-cuts, but the bit in between them. Yuh huh! What was in between them! Neat, eh? I liked the look of the orange and blue, so I stuck it on these pages the same way I did the strips of paper with the buttons that I showed you a couple of posts ago. We paper people are pretty good at making sure we don't waste too much, aren't we?

This is the last page in the book! I used up all my scraps of paper to make sure I had the four triangles behind the blue guy. This page kind of ties it all together--colour-wise that is. Nothing fancy on this page, just a larger piece to mat that perfect, end-of-the-book picture!

This last picture shows the front cover and the back cover. I don't think I've shown both together. I love the design SU made for this. It looks-creative, and interesting.

Well, that is it! No more pages from the mini album to show you, so now I can get back to showing you some cards! Stay tuned!

Have a great day!

Mini Album Part 5

Hello!

Welcome back! I think I've finally figured out how to publish posts in advance, so I'll be able to publish without having to log on to do it! Nice!

Ok, so this instalment of mini album pages, has some interesting pages in it. I like this first one because the two pages are very different, not two halves of one design. I think that sometimes even when you're working on 12"x12" pages, sometimes just starting with one and working on it individually, rather than trying to tackle two at once, is a great way to go when you're creativity isn't flowing. In this case, the frame was only going to fit the one page, and I didn't want to try to make a second one for the other page, only to have it look like I tried, but missed.

This one was one of the simpler ones, with just the cute die-cut word tag added for interest. Simple, but it works!

Here is another example of not wanting to do the same thing for both pages. This way, if you use two pictures in two different styles it will still work. And you can use the page that works best with the colours in the photo. Of course, if you use black and white photos, they all work best!

I didn't mention it yet, but I gave this album to my mom for Christmas. I'm happy to report she seemed to really like it!

That's all for now, but I'll be back soon!

Have a great day!

Donna

Mini Album Part 4

Hello!

Since this is my first post of the 2011, I just want to say Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday filled with family, happiness, and love.

I had a nice Christmas and New Year's, but it went by way too fast. Before I knew it, it was time to head back to school.

I did have a chance to do a bit of stamping in the last few weeks, but before I get to those (I still have to take the pictures), I thought I'd continue with what I started, the mini album.

The layout pictured above was fairly simple, I cut out two squares, and then cut a piece of the die-cut adhesive border from the kit to put on the sides of the squares.

This layout was essentially the same, just with an extra layer, and different colours. And the border was placed at the bottom so it was a little different from the layout before.

This layout was just one of those creative sparks. I don't know where I got this idea from, if it was something I'd seen or if it was just really late, and I was feeling a little creative, but I cut the circle/star die-cut in half for this one. It doesn't loan itself well for a larger, rectangular picture. Maybe something smaller with a bit of journaling either above or below it.

So that's all for today, but I will be typing up the future entries for the rest of the album, so that you will have something to see when you come back later this week. And I will have to work on the more recent cards I put together for when this album is done.

Have a great week!

Donna

Happy Friday!

Hello!

As promised, here is a picture of a Christmas card. This one was created for my piano teacher. She loves the colour red, so I used that as the main colour of the card. The ribbon ties on the right side of the card to keep it closed, and it is a gate opening card. You can't really tell from this picture but I sprayed the red cardstock with Pearl Ex powder (remember that stuff?) in some cheap hairspray. It gave the paper a nice golden sparkle. You know me-I'm all about the sparkle! LOL

Anyway, I should go-gotta go to school!

Have a great weekend!

Donna

More Mini Album

Hello!

Well, I am happy to say that I survived exam week! Woo hoo! I think I actually did alright on my exams, but I won't know for sure for three weeks! I don't know how I am going to be able to wait that long...

This past weekend, since I didn't have any homework, I thought I would get a whole lot accomplished for Christmas. Yeah, not so much! I spent Friday lugging a very heavy tree up the stairs (in two parts and it still felt like I was lugging an elephant up the stairs!). Once I got it upstairs, I looked for the stand...and looked, and looked. I finally gave up and started pulling out other Christmas decorations to set up...and I eventually found it in the storage room behind some Christmas totes. So then I set up the stand, and now the two elephants I lugged up the stairs, and I now have to stand them upright and connect them...more struggling! I finally got it put together, and thought I'd plug it in and use the remote to turn on the lights...then I couldn't find the remote! Longer story short-the only thing I accomplished this weekend was the tree! Geesh.

Today I am posting two more pages of the mini album. I have some Christmas card pictures to post, and I should be able to put them up this week, so stay tuned!

These two pages mark the start of my own creativity-I no longer had instructions to work from, so I had to think these up all by myself. Hope you like them!

Have a great day!

Donna

Mini Album Part Two

Hello!

As promised, here are some more pictures of the mini album that I worked on this summer. This album was a part of a kit I bought from SU a couple of years ago. They were selling these kits to raise money for Big Brothers and Big Sisters. They had instructions on how to put together the cover and these pages, but the rest I had to design myself. The kit itself came with a number of die-cut adhesives as well as designer paper and matching textured paper. My goal was to complete the album, and use up as much of everything as I could, to see if there was enough fixin's for an entire album.

Guess what? It worked! I finished the entire album with what they had in the kit. I don't think there was too much left over. So I am posting these four pages today. The next post starts the pages I designed myself. Some are simple, some are a little more involved.

Hope you like it! See you soon!

Donna

Christmas Shopping

Hello!

This past weekend my hubby, girls, and in-laws travelled to Birch Run-Frankenmuth for our annual shopping trip. Usually I manage to get a fair bit of Christmas shopping done on this trip. Last year, as we were driving home, I realized, in a panic, that I hadn't bought a single gift for Christmas, and I would have to do all of my shopping at home! This year, however, I was a woman on a mission-I had to cross more names off the Christmas shopping list than last year! LOL Anyway, I accomplished my mission at the Cracker Barrel where we had lunch on our way to Frankenmuth.

Then we went on to Bronner's Christmas World that night-have you ever been there? It is awesome! If you like Christmas, you'll love Bronner's! It has everything. It's a great way to kick off the Christmas shopping-just walking around the store puts you in the mood for Christmas.

On Saturday we went to the outlet mall at Birch Run, only to realize it was Deer Widow's Weekend. We made the mistake of going to Birch Run on Deer Widow's Weekend about 5 years ago. Oh my gosh...there are women everywhere! You see, the weekend is the same weekend as the start of deer hunting weekend, so all kinds of women are shopping in droves, and it is busy! It usually takes about 7-10 minutes to get to a parking space from our hotel, and this year it took at least a 1/2 hour!

However, being on a mission, I managed to cross off even more names from my list. This weekend was a success! I'm not done, but I have a good start. I'm good with that!

Ok, so speaking of Christmas gifts...

I made this mini album, thinking at some point it might come in handy to give someone as a gift. I didn't finish it for a couple of years, but pulled it out this summer when I was visiting my friend Kim. I am posting it in the hopes it can work as a jump-off point for anyone out there who is considering a mini-album, and who may be like me, and has a hard time trying to figure out page layouts.

Hope you like it!

Donna

Thank You!

Hello and Happy Friday!

Before this September, because I stayed at home, Fridays didn't mean too much out of the ordinary, usually. I just tried to tidy the house so we could have a clean house for the weekend. Now that I'm back in school, Fridays have taken on a whole new meaning, and I am extremely grateful when they come around! It means a little break from school, I get to sleep in, and hopefully I have more time to work on my homework. Hopefully. ;)

So today's card is appropriate not just because I'm thankful for Fridays, but also because I'm thankful to those of you who are hanging in there and still reading my blog, even if I forget to post at the beginning of the week. It means a lot to me that there are those of you who still check in to see what's new with me or my stamping. So with all my heart I say Thank you!

On to the card for today...

To make this card, I dug into (aka dusted off! LOL) some old designer paper, and a technique I hadn't tried in a while! The card (dsp part) started off as a circle, and then I scalloped it by removing the paper guide from the corner rounder (remember that technique?). I carefully tried to line up the scallops, or rounded corners to create a (somewhat) even scallop all around. It's pretty easy, and I like that it's different from my usual quarter-fold card. I made sure to cut the circle to a size that would fit into the usual envelope, just so I wouldn't go crazy trying to find the right-sized envelope in my mountain of unused envelopes. It's best to stay away from there....you know, in case of "avalanche"! LOL

Well that's it for today-have a great weekend! We are going as a family to see Megamind-I'm not sure who's more excited about it, the adults or the girls!

I will be back next week with a mini-scrapbook series!

Bye for now!

Donna

All You Need is....Amour!

Hello!

Just a quick post today before I head upstairs to get ready for school (there's a phrase I never thought I'd be using again!). This week was supposed to be pretty stressful, originally I had 4 things due (2 presentations and 2 tests, all worth huge marks!) but the one presentation was moved to next Tuesday, the other to Monday, which leaves me with two tests. One is on Friday, and the other was yesterday morning-what a great way to start the week! My entire weekend was spent fighting a cold, taking care of my girls (DH was away until Sunday, so I was flying solo for most of it) and trying to study for a test that covered so much material there was no way I could cram it all into my noggin' in a weekend. So yesterday morning I was a little nervous about how I was going to do. I think, in the end, that I did ok. We'll have to wait and see for the mark, but I felt ok coming out of it. Let's hope I do as well (or better!) with Friday's test!

But about the card for today...

This card was a straight case. Of course, I made it so long ago, I can't tell you whose it was. ( If you know, or if it's yours, drop a comment) I liked that this was a different way to use this stamp-most of the time you see it horizontally. I always like to see how people use stamps in a way that most of us don't think to use it (ok, that I don't think to use it! LOL) and this was one of those times. It used some of the new dsp (blueberry crisp? or am I just hungry?) which I was itching to use, and of course, you throw in a little bling, and I'm all over it! LOL

Ok, now I really have to go, have a great day!

Donna

Because I Care...

Hello!

Here is another one of those cards that I liked so much in one colour that I made it in another colour. Mostly because I started using the new In Colour called Pear Pizzazz, and because I bought the In Colour kit, I only had a few sheets of it in the sampler paper pack. So I made a few of these, then switched over to Pacific Point for a more monochromatic look. The dsp on the Pacific Point card is new as well (and of course I can't remember what it's called!). Oh look! I happen to have a catalogue here-let me see...oh there it is, and it's called Blueberry Crisp-so not what I thought it was called, good thing I didn't guess! LOL

Don't these two colours look great together? I think this new Pear Pizzazz goes with everything!

As you know, I've been in school for about a month now. It hasn't been too bad so far, but the homework/test stress vs housework stress can drive a woman to drink! LOL I've been doing ok, but this is only the first term-I've heard that the second term is "tough". And I'm pretty sure it keeps getting harder until the day I finish. August 21st. Yikes. I guess I should just soak up all this "easy" that's happening right now, and enjoy it while it lasts!

Fortunately for me, and a select few, it's that time of year! That's right! Jactopia is right around the corner! Oooh I can hardly wait! In just 13 more sleeps, I'll be headed to Jacqui's house and stampin' to my heart's content, and I am one excited girl! The week leading up to Jactopia is going to be stressful, so it's nice that I have the weekend to look forward to, and to keep me going. I can hardly wait, I seriously miss stamping. I have to get crackin' on my Christmas things, or I won't have any time to get it done. Jactopia is timed perfectly for getting started!

Well, I'm off. I think I hear my girls squabbling downstairs, and I have to get ready for this weekend. It's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, so to all my Canadian friends, Happy Turkey Day!

Donna