Baby Book . Done!

I'm so excited to have finished that baby book mini. On one hand, rewarding crafty experience. On the other hand, making a book for another mama is extremely stressful. What to include, what not to include? Personal style? But it's D-O-N-E.

So here are the last pages and extra touches that I've made to it.

For the cover I bought one of the SmashBook rubber bands. This baby is already thick and by the time the mama starts filling it up with photos and notes the band should come in handy. Until then, it's just a cool touch. ;)

LOVE the tone on tone background of this one. Both layers are the same paper, I cut a guitar background out on my Silhouette Cameo (and ruined a mat in the process, don't ask I'm still annoyed at myself). Then I used Scotch QuickDry to seal it down and layered everything on top. Shhhhh, I somehow lost one of the calendar pieces, she won't be able to record January quite the same as anything else. ;)

Close up of my way cool background and the Girl's Paperie Toil and Trouble medallion thing.

The final two months in the book. I confess that I was a little bored and out of ideas by this point because March doesn't have much going on. I did make a sort of in-the-mini-mini on April though, each of those little scallops is a flap so lots of documenting can happen for baby's 1 year/12 month stuff.

The endsheets (otherwise known as the last page and the inside of the back cover). Fairly simple from a decorative standpoint, but from a "I'm pretty cool in my own mind" standpoint this page ROCKS. I made a little folder so that the mama can tuck in random bits that won't fit on the monthly pages - ziplocs with locks of hair, footprint from hospital, etc.

It opens fairly large, hence wanting the rubber band!

Altered frames

If you're here for Paper Girls Challenge Blog Hop, head here but make sure to come back and stay awhile.

This weekend we had to run into Target for 1 (ONE) thing, and naturally came out with way more! Love that place, but that's really not important, what is cool are these little frames that I picked up in the dollar section of the store. 

All fine and dandy, but maybe a bit to bright AND I don't have any photos I really wanted to put into them. What I did need was something a bit more special to send to some friends - something more than a card. So I took some sentiment/title type cards from a couple of MME lines - Indie Chic and Miss Caroline and set to work altering the frames and decorating. 

Each frame was sanded and reinked, though the pink isn't quite as dramatic. I know I'd love to get one of these little babies in the mail, I sure hope they do too!

I'm linking this up to the Scrapbooksteals.com MCM - Alter it!  

Want to know what else I did this weekend? Finished up that baby book I've been working on, come back tomorrow for photos!!! So exciting!

Paper Girls Challenge Blog - Blog Hop

I do love me a good blog hop and was so excited when the Girls at The Paper Girls Challenge Blog asked me to participate in their blog hop! 

If you haven't come from The Paper Girls Challenge Blog definitely head back and start from the beginning because you are in for loads of inspiration! 

The theme this time around is Paper Flowers. Yep, boy mom, paper flowers. I was as apprehensive as I was excited - an excuse to play with flowers and yet so much pressure since I rarely have the opportunity!

I decided to make a little floral garland for our bedroom mirror. I'm gonna give you a little walk-through of how I put them together - totally easy.

I made all those little flowers using my Silhouette Cameo. The flowers themselves were in a garland file that I purchased, but you could easily punch through the center of any flower (die cut or punch) to make your own. P.S. I thought the hold punched in the center was to small so I used the smaller setting on my Crop-o-dile and enlarged all the holes.

Apparently it's time to switch blades on my machine! Good thing I always keep a spare. ;)

I ended up cutting 5 sheets to use on the garland, in the end I only used 4 sheets though. All cut and ready to string along. 

I brought mine to the kitchen to thread while waiting for dinner to cook. I quickly realized that they were just to flat and needed a little petal curling. Note that the only color organization I had was to put one blue for about every three pinks.

I taught my big helper to help me curl. He got bored fast, but at least I got the picture I needed. No chop stick necessary, it worked just as well with hand rolling the petals.

To secure it to the dresser I just used strips of washi - one of my lesser favorite colors - because it is strong enough to hold it up and should be easily removable later on when I'm not feeling so springy.

Here's the line up:

The Paper Girls Challenge Blog

Charity Hotrum

Erica Bass

Deborah Johnson

Heather Gray

Jessica Arrant < --- you are here

Kristina McKeen < --- go check out the amazing project that Kristina has for you

What do you have to do to participate? 

 Would you like a chance to win? Get one entry for commenting on each of the blog posts, "Like" the Paper Girls Challenge on Facebook, and being a follower on our blog (all are required for an entry). You get to see some fabulous projects and you know you want to!

You have until Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 11:59pm MST to comment.  We will announce the winner on Monday, May 13, 2013 at 9:00 am MST!  International readers are welcome to play along but currently we are only shipping prize packs to the US and Canada due to shipping costs.

And here's what you'll win:

Thanks for hopping by, now go finish the hop!

Scrap Your Story - Journaling

From day one of scrapping I've tried to at least include a caption with my pages - largely because I remember going through my parents' old photos and there's little to no context included with the stories pictures.

When Christy said that this week's challenge at Scrap Your Story was to include at least two sentences of journaling I sort of jumped up and down. So easy peasy. I was able to find quite a bit of additional inspiration for my page from the challenges I'm linking to below.

Don't forget that our challenges run for a week, following this order:

Week 1: Use it (you will be given an item you must incporporate).

Week 2: Theme (your layout and/or photos needs to show this theme).

Week 3: Sketch (flip it, rotate it, tweak it...as long as we can see the basics there).

Week 4: Technique (we will describe/show a technique you must include somewhere).

This week I pulled out some total eyerollers. There's the parent joke that kids only want to play with the box? Well, this Christmas my kids opened all the presents and ignored them in favor of the Buzz Lightyear's that we acquired this summer. Really?! Thanks kids.

Or maybe it's because mom was lame about put finger paint in their stockings... anyway.

To get my misting to show up nicely I had to darken the page a bit, making the images dark but you certainly get the idea. ;)

Scrap Our Stash
Use 1 polka dot and 1 stripe paper. Use 1 bird/bee/butterfly (I stamped it on the blue banner, but there's lots of rockets and those fly!)

Scrappy Friends
Kerys - use hand stitching, a punch, mixed alphas
Kristi B. - use something that flies
Rochelle - color scheme
Brenda - sketch

Products used:

Bazzill textured cardstock, yellow

AC Kraft and Classics collection (aqua)

Fancy Pants Rough and Tough (black dots and stripes)

Echo Park For the Record (red dots)

Amy Tangerine Sketchbook (blue banner)

MME All is Bright (tags)

Martha Stewart Rocket punch

Color Box pigment black ink

WRMK random stitch sew head

Ranger Enamel Accents, white and black

Ranger Glossy Accents

Jenni Bowlin mini alphas

October Afternoon mini market alphas

AC Thickers

Paper Studios circle paper clips

Unity Stamp Co. butterfly stamp

Studio Calico graph mask

October Afternoon Sprinklers Wheatfield

brown embroidery floss

Amber 10 - Go Girl

Another 10 week series is over at Scrapbooksteals. That means a last sketch/interpretation and some repeated photos so I have one link to turn in for the drawing. ;)

Melodee did an awesome job with the Amber 10 sketch this week. There's something that I just love about grid style sketches. And then I totally obliterated her grid, I mean it's there still, kind of.

 

This one features a custom background - I used October Afternoon Sprinklers and Mister Hueys over the flower petals. The other papers are an assortment of scraps from MME, American Crafts, Fancy Pants, and Authentique. The flower with the pearl and the Thickers are from American Crafts. The yellow button is from Crate Paper. Twine is WRMK. There's also machine stitching and a Kiwi Lane Tag template involved here. The flower petals that I misted over are from a Silhouette Studio file. Everything's inked in Colorbox Rouge or Dark Peony Chalk ink.

Now aren't those petals sweet? You'll be seeing more of them soon. These were extras from a project that'll be posting next week. Don't you love a good sneaky peak?!

All my other Amber postings:

Amber 9

Amber 8

Amber 7

Amber 6

Amber 5

Amber 4

Amber 3

Amber 2

Amber 1

Two more done for my Rockin' baby book

Back with another baby book page - I was really jonesing for a double page sketch and my favorite source for those was featuring a single so I went in search of something to speak to me. Actually, I was going to take a break from working on the book and comment on posts for Scrap Your Story and scrolled past this page for this week's challenge (stitching, if you're curious) by fellow DT member, Brandi. 

It spoke to me. So I went back to my paper and will have to go back to commenting later. I kept the idea of those photos hanging on a clothesline (though mine aren't on a line per se), stretched the concept to a double 8x8 (so 16 inches) and went with it. 

There's two tags in the November pocket and then partially stamped lines throughout the grey background that way the mama can write lots of things about both months if she wants. Baby's first Christmas is a big deal after all!

Modeling paste and recipe challenge

Every so often I'm tempted to quit Facebook, so much of a time waster in my life, and normally around the time I'm starting to get serious about "those" thoughts something really fun/awesome happens and sucks me right back into it!

This week my scrappy idol, Kristy Lee, was posting on her wall about her own scrappy day and suddenly she was offering up challenges for individuals to play along with. Well, I've been so obsessed with the Rock Mini Book that I took it as a well-timed break and subjected myself to her challenge. 

Here's what I had to include: a two-pager with at least 7 photos, and include a circle, 7 different patterned papers, mists, buttons, and journaling on a tag of some kind. 

Uh, yes, my first reaction to that last point was to slap the largest tag I've ever cut onto this page. I'm sort of impressed with myself for keeping it! AND for journaling on the entirety of it no less. 

I'm also linking this one up to the S.W.A.T. Basic Training - use modeling paste. If you look closely you'll notice that the corners have been misted with October Afternoon Set Sail. After the blue dried I pulled out the same Studio Calico bubble mask and added touches of modeling paste to some of the circles. After those dried I applied Distress Ink Rusty Hinge over the masked areas.

I will now apologize that the day I finished this layout it was raining, but because I wanted to get it posted ASAP you have to deal with less than ideal colors. The background paper is white and the other papers are all from BasicGrey PB&J which are fairly close to being primaries. EDIT: Thanks to clear skies I've updated the photo with a much better version than my original.

Other tools and techniques include machine sewing, Silhouette Cameo (to cut the circle and tag), OA Mini Market alphas, WRMK Sew Easy twine, and stash buttons. Doodling was done with American Crafts Galaxy Marker, black medium point.

Half way done - with my baby mini that is

Thanks to a couple of sketches and an unusually long naptime yesterday I got three more pages done in my Rock-A-Bye Baby mini. Woohoo! Half way done!

The first sketch I used was the second ever at the Paper Bakery. Some of my crafty friends have been talking about them lately so I thought I'd give their sketches a try. Though I have to admit I took a little creative license with it, but the idea was there. I liked that the gears could stand in for the doilies and I still have two squares - a journaling section and my photo flip spot.

And a shot of that page with it's facing page.

The second sketch I used was from Kiwi Lane's DT Doodle line-up. Normally I can pack some templates onto a page but the smaller medium somehow translated into me only using 1 (one)  template, Abbie Road mini 1B.

Teresa Collins On the Edge, Authentique Loyal, Inkadinkadoo bottle cap stamp, Studio G Glitter glue, WRMK eyelet, Stickabilities guitar, Colorbox black pigment ink, clear embossing powder

Paper Bakery Sketch

Kiwi Lane Sketch

Other posts about this mini in case you're looking for inspiration for your own baby mini album :)
 here and here and here.

Double Page Sketch + Baby Mini = two more pages done!

When you start a project do you work start to finish? No other projects? I have problems breaking away from crafty things midstream. Bonus is that it means I finish a lot of things, downside is that there's still a long way to go on this mini. If you've missed my previous two posts about the Rock-A-Bye Baby Mini I'm working on check out the two posts here and here.

I used the sketch from S.W.A.T  #6 Drill (by Jenessa) to rock this page. ;) Such awesome timing to have some two pagers offered up - I definitely want this book to have a lot of continuity and double page sketches are a great way to achieve that!

Still using that Teresa Collins On The Edge with some Authentique Loyal thrown in. This page also has some Studio G Glitter Glue, Ranger Enamel Accents, lots of black inking, and Paper Studio brads, the green pocket was cut on my Cameo.

A close up of the fussy cut embelly I made. LOVE that guitar and given the Grandma's reaction to the guitar paper I'm betting the mom will too. 

The S.W.A.T sketch

Birth Stats Mini Book Page

I don't know if it's because it's a break from my normal 12x12 routine or what but I am loving working on this baby book for my friend! So stinkin' fun! If you want to see other pages I've made for the book, then head here and/or stay tuned because there's a lot of pages still in the works. I love that I've still been playing along with my favorite challenges while putting it together, and there's so many pages left! Hopefully, I get it done in time. Eeek!

Anyway, this page brought me much excitement. I used the sketch at Scrap our Stash to finish it up, they also had the challenge to dig a little deeper and use 6 buttons.

 I said in my previous post that the base of this project is Teresa Collins On the Edge (which I was about to destash before I adopted this project) with splashes of Authentique Loyal, you'll see both here. There's also some American Crafts Thickers, buttons, EK Success Sticko (hands and feet!), and my newest toy the Tim Holtz Texture Trades embossing folder (admit one ticket), WRMK eyelet, and Studio G glitter glue.

Here's a little close up for you. You'll notice that I inked up both the Thickers and buttons, deliberately not coating evenly. Yummy. And check out the baby hands!

The Scrap Our Stash sketch:

Scrap Your Story - Stitching

It's another Friday! You know what that means right?! Other than being hubby's birthday weekend, it means that it's a Scrap Your Story reveal day! YAY for a technique challenge that is sure to please. We're talking stitching this week - faux, hand, machine doesn't matter as long as it's got the "look."

Don't forget that our challenge schedule is:

 Week 1: Use it (you will be given an item you must incporporate).

Week 2: Theme (your layout and/or photos needs to show this theme).

Week 3: Sketch (flip it, rotate it, tweak it...as long as we can see the basics there).

Week 4: Technique (we will describe/show a technique you must include somewhere)

I do a lot of machine stitching so I switched up my routine by switching my thread colors. Why do I get in such a rut and always leave neutrals at the ready? The red is just so much fun!

This page had been started as a Let's Get Sketchy March entry and wasn't finished in time, but since I'd already planned to do machine stitching I switched it over for our reveal today. So here's the sketch that inspired the look:

Papers are MME Kraft Funday.
Other materials that I used include Ranger Enamel and Glossy Accents, Distress Stickles and Ink in Peeled Paint;  AC Knock Outs Christmas Punch, Jenni Bowlin mini alphas, AC Thickers, Kiwi Lane Templates Adventure 1 and 5, Washi by Love My Tapes, MME, and WRMK; and machine stitching.

And now to go celebrate with the hubby while you all cook up some fabulous pages!

My Rock-a-bye Mini

A little over two weeks ago a coworker's daughter had a surprise baby, at 31 weeks no less! Needless to say the Grandma is in one of those gushy love the baby but still in shock sort of moments in life. The day I found out I started plotting what kind of card I'd make for the baby gift - the baby's mama is totally a rocker/hippie sort of gal so it wasn't going to be something I could pull from previously made and stashed cards. 

For some reason I kept thinking about making a mini for her and just couldn't bring myself to start either project. The next time I saw the new grandma I asked her about making a baby book - and she was sooooo excited at the idea. You see Rocker Mama wasn't digging the pastel duck/bunny/bear books you can find at the baby/toy stores in our area. (Not that I can blame her, I didn't buy them either. Pastels make me want to...bleh.)

I just so happened to have some Teresa Collins On the Edge in my pile of scrappy stuff I was getting ready to sell at my LSS stash sale so I pulled it out, bought some "edgy" embellies (glitter skull and cross bones?!) and set to work planning out my first requested piece. I also decided to incorporate Authentique Loyal into the book to give me another color to work with - bonus being that the baby's room is in the process of being decorated with green, blue, brown and black. Can you say perfect?!!

This first page (the second page in the book since the cover was drying while I was working on this one) was based on the Scrapbooksteals.com MWM Amber 9 sketch. 

I know that they're already taking a lot of cell phone photos of baby so I wanted to keep them square and have a few hidden pics to get as many as possible into the baby book. The blue panel lifts for room for two more pics. 

The next page, for month 1, was inspired by the Paper Secrets April 15 sketch with a twist to use wood embellishments. Again, I modified the sketch to fit my needs/get a couple more pics onto a smaller page! We have four photo spots and two journaling blocks, my thought being that the outside journaling can be "normal" milestones and the inside block is for things about their hospital life the first month. 

Check out my little Studio Calico wood veneer tab! It was the perfect size for these TC stamps that came with the paper kit. 

And the outside of the book, I intended to ink the back but forgot that I hadn't until I'd already taken the photo. Oops, but you get the idea. 

Scrapbooksteals Sketch

Paper Secrets Sketch

You'll be hearing a lot about this book in the coming days, I want it done before their "Baby Get Together Thing" the first weekend in May (shower after baby is born, baby still in hospital so whatever you want to call it). It is also the reason I haven't posted much this week, just planning it to this point has taken a lot of my crafty time and last week I was getting my stash together for the upcoming sale. 

Don't forget that tomorrow is Friday, so that means a new Scrap Your Story Challenge!