9 Months

Hi friends! Hope your week is going well...all I can say is thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! I am so very ready for the weekend! Haley took her placement test today at Bishop Carroll and she did very well. Then we went to a meeting for enrollment this afternoon. I can't believe my little girl is going to high school this fall! Seems like just yesterday I walked her to the Kindergarten door! Man where does the time go? Speaking of time...my stepdaughter is very preggers now and due in about 3 weeks. Her shower is this weekend and I thought I would make her a fun little memory of her pregnancy. I got this idea from a special issue of the Papercrafts magazine. This one was called 225 Cards & Gifts and it was in the June/July issue. I pretty much lifted the whole layout from the article but switched it up to be for pregnancy trimesters. Whitney came by for her "photo op" every 3 months. I cracked up laughing after the 2nd trimester photo because I noticed that she was wearing the same T-Shirt both times...totally unplanned! I told her no matter how small it is we have to get you in the same shirt in the last photo! She was a pretty good sport about it.

Here is the skinny on what I used to put this book together: Maya Road Scallop Accordion Book (this come with the rings attached), Maya Road Number Chipboards Philadelphia, Maya Road Fresh Chipboard Noah Alphabet, Heidi Swapp XL Ghost Shapes Butterflies, Clear Gemstones by Paper Studios, the stamp was from an SU set called Priceless and I stamped it in basic black. Now, you see the little journaling? Those are definitions that I typed up on vellum paper and ran through the Xyron to adhere to the book. Fun huh? All of the ingredients for this book was purchased online at Frantic Stamper with the exception of the Gemstones and Stamp. They have a wonderful website with TONS of fun new items all the time. They are very friendly and their service is quick. I was impressed with the personal touch. They called me to confirm the order and were wonderful to work with. When you have some time check them out here!

Thanks for peekin' in on me. I haven't been on the computer as much lately, my hubby and I have been doing projects outdoors and have been soakin' in some of this beautiful weather...but keep checkin' in on me I will post some new stuff this weekend! Hope you have a great weekend!

Aunt T

OK so I wanted to show you this latest project I have been working on. I started it a long time ago and just now finished it up. My sister is an amazing photographer. I asked her one day this summer if she would take some photos of the girls out and about downtown. We ended up at Bum Park. For those of you that don't know it is a sweet little park in the middle of the downtown area and the bums like to hang out down there...hence the name. Anyway there are a lot of people that think this place is picturesque too because the same day we were down there a professional photographer was shooting a wedding in the park also. Pretty cool. Anyway my sis took her time and got a ton of great photos and I really appreciate her doing that. So I decided to make her a little memento of the photo shoot. I took my camera too and tried to get some pictures of her taking pictures. That was so much fun. Man she is not afraid to do anything and it was so cool to see the creativity oozing out when she was telling the girls how to stand and such. Anyway the only way my blog template would allow me to show you all of the photos for this book was to put them in a slide show. If there is a photo that you want to examine closer then just hoover over the photo with your mouse and the rotation of photos will stop.

Now to explain the book to you a bit. This is a small rectangle board book, very similar to a picture book you might purchase for a child. The book is actually made by Creative Cafe. I used background stamps to give the pages some pizazz and I inked the edges with Catseye chalk ink (by Colorbox), purchased at Hobby Lobby. (If you haven't tried these little Catseye chalk inks you definitely need too!) The patterned paper that I used is by Cosmo Cricut (also purchased it Hobby Lobby at a 50% off sale) and I picked several SU colored ink pads to coordinate. Most of the embellishments are stamps. (You would be amazed at what you can save by making your own embellishments with stamps) That about sums this little project up in a nut shell!

Thanks for peaking in! Hope you have a great weekend!

School Photo Album

Hi friends! Hope all is well with you.
Here are a few school albums that a customer ordered. These are so fun I just love the concept. Every year we order school photos and there are always a ton of wallets left over. I was trying to come up with a way that you could put each school year photo in a small album. And that it be easy enough for someone who wasn't a scrapbooker. So I found these cute little spiral albums at Hobby Lobby for a song. I tore the pages out that I didn't need so I would have Kindergarten through 12th Grade. Each little insert card with the ribbon attached is a library card so you can put the school picture on the front and journal a little bit about the child that school year on the back.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day. Sidney is in band this year and the band is preforming in an evening Christmas parade tomorrow. But before the parade the school kids (and parents) are running in a 2 mile charity run. For some of you this may be a piece of cake. Me, well I am not the most athletic so I am doing this totally for the kids. Plus it is probably going to be pretty cold tomorrow. But we shall see. I will try to get some good pictures to post for you to see.
Thanks for stoppin' in today! Take care!

L-O-V-E

This is a book that I did as a donation for a silent auction for the Heart Association's annual Heart Gala Fundraiser. Their colors this year are pink and brown and I thought this little book was perfect! This is another Bo Bunny chipboard word book and all the paper is Bo Bunny also. I just loved the way this turned out and I almost didn't want to give it away!

Family Book

Here are a few pictures of a book I made my brother and sister in-law for Christmas. Bobunny came out with these great word chipboard books. I chose family but they have them in Baby, Friend, Party, Love and Believe. This paper I used is new from K & Company. I thought it looked fun and adventurous, which is great because the bro and sis I made it for have 12 kiddos! Their life is definitely an adventure! I tried to get some good shots of the book but it was a bit difficult. I don't think these pics do the book justice but you get the idea. I was very sneaky about getting current photos of everyone. At Thanksgiving I made them all pose for me so I was able to get everyone. then I filled in on other pages with some pics I already had. They really liked this gift. It was a lot of fun to make and I am glad they like it!

Perpetual Date Book

I made a perpetual date book for my mother in-law for Christmas. I totally cased this idea from my friend Nikki she made one for an aunt of hers. The book is a 6x6 3-ring Bobunny chipboard album. I just love those little things! Bobunny puts out such a great line. Any whoo...the paper is from K & Company. I liked the colors and patterns, they reminded me of my mother in-law. I made pockets for each month and a card that slips into each one states the month and "dates to remember"at the top. I had a few extra pages so I included photos of our family. I think she liked it...well, gotta go do some after Christmas organizing. Have a good night!

Library Card Album

Here is another spin off of the little lunch pail idea. I found these small spiral bound notebooks on sale at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 and covered them with fun paper. Then I covered all the library cards and pockets and stapled ribbons on the ends. Then I wrote with white gel pen each grade (you can't see it in these pics because I was trying to rush to get this done before my customer came to pick it up) but you get the general idea.

So can you believe that we are on the final count down to Christmas? I am just about done with my shopping. I have several projects to finish this weekend so check back in with me. I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. May God Bless You!

Dance Bag Book

This was another special order for Christmas. A friend of mine has a daughter that dances and she wanted a little book she could put snapshots and journal memories into. These bag books have been a real hit this year with my customers. This concept has been around for a while but they are so inexpensive to make I can sell them pretty reasonable (especially when you hit the Hobby Lobby 50% off sale **wink wink**). It is made from 3 brown lunch sacks so there are actually 10 small pages. I only took a few pics so you could get an idea of what the inside looks like. I made large tags with ribbon stapled to the ends to fit into the each pockets inside the book for extra photo or journaling space. Pretty fun! Thanks for stoppin' in. I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. Take time to enjoy the true meaning of the season. It is so easy to get so caught up in the hustle bustle of life! Have a great week!

Envelope Mini Album

This was such a fun project. One of the girls I work with at Scrapbook Garden was trying to help me come up with some fun little items that I could sell at the craft fair I am going to be in at the end of October. The trick to craft fairs is to find something that is cute, and doesn't cost a bunch to make. Sometimes that can be hard with all of the things there are out there in the scrapbook world. You really have to think about your project and decide what you can realistically sell your item for. Embellishments can put you way over the top of your budget but if you make most of them you can save a ton. The Cricut machine helps me to do this! What at great little investment! Any hoo back to this envelope album...you take 4 envelopes (you can use any size you want, I thought square ones would be fun) and flip the flap where where the adhesive is open and attach that with glue to the next envelope. Continue in this manner until you get to the last envelope and tuck the flap inside the envelope. If you lay it out flat all of your openings will be facing the same direction. These are "secret" pockets that you can stick a tag or square piece of card stock into for additional photo space or journaling. Before adding the decorative paper to the outside I used glue dots to adhere the ribbon I used to tie the album shut. Pretty simple and who would have thought you could do this with envelopes? They go together pretty quick, I think I made this one in about an hour. Well thanks for stopping in, hope you are having a great week. - Toni