Nest Mini Album

I am a Cricut DIVA today!!!

I took a chipboard/burlap mini album from Michaels, a 6x6 American Crafts Color Crush paper pad (also from Michaels) and added my Gypsy to create this fun mini album.  

I flipped every other page so I would have two pages with the same papers together, then two pages with burlap.  Doing this makes the pages more bulky, so I purchased bigger rings.

I made this album with my friend Robin in mind.  She just opened a shop in March called Robin's Nest where she sells re-purposed items.  She is quite talented and her shop is doing very well!!

I used a bird from Sophie for the cover.  I sized it to 13.53 inches (2.42 inches using Real Size as this cuts with a bird cage).

I used Storybook for the font and sized NEST at 1.13 inches.

I used a piece of paper from the paper pad that was all different shades of green with a watercolor pattern.

I added the linen lace to the bottom and some gems.  It still needed a little something that I found a little later....

I found the sentiment "this nest is blessed" on 3 Birds on Parade for the first page of the album.

I sized it to 1.59 inches and cut it out of pink (light and bright) cardstock.

I pop-dotted it to the bottom of the photo mat so you can slide a photo behind it.

I added a bird from Sophie (shown two photos below) and I also pop-dotted it on the corner.

The next pages showcase birdies from Straight From the Nest sized to 1.25 inches.

I made a pocket using my ATG gun to put tags for journaling.  You can also tuck in extra photos and momentos.

I found the leaf wreath with bird on Lacy Labels and sized it to 6.35 inches.  I cut the wreath out of green patterned paper and the birds out of hot pink and dark blue-green papers to match the patterned papers in the album.

The word "Family" is from Letter Envy and I sized one for the cover at 1 inch and one for the inside page at 1.47 inches.

I like how the wreath frames the photo mat.

This tree came from the Heritage cartridge.  I sized it to 5 inches and cut it out of the dark blue-green cardstock.

The tree was perfect for the back cover!

Here you can see the bird is pop-dotted on the cover.

I added the word Family to the cover.  I have a theme with each mini album I make.  Even though many people get that a Nest is like a House for a family, I did not want people to assume I lived with all birds!!

I tied some ribbon to the rings to finish it off.

Thanks for being a DIVA with me today!!

All Because Two People Fell In Love LO

Hi! Today is my day to Guest Design over at She's A Sassy Lady!!

I am so happy that my mojo came back!!!  January was a rough month for me.  We made the decision not to go on our annual family vacation with my two brothers and their families.  My brother has a work conflict.  We have been going for 13 years and this year was going to be our last one.  Not meant to be.  

Then my Uncle passed away.  He lives alone and was home by himself when he passed.  His good friends went looking for him a few days later.  Uncle Howie was the black sheep of our family ~ different from us.  He lived by himself on the river.  He had a simple life and as we went through his things it seemed to me that he had a great life.  I never really felt that way when he was alive because I kept comparing him to his siblings.

My mom (his oldest sister) died 23 years ago next month.  I was 20.  It was awful and I was angry for a long time.  She would have been an awesome grandma, but it was not meant to be.....  I grieved for over 5 years before it seemed to get better.  That scab was ripped open a bit when we went through Uncle Howie's photos and momentos.  I put together a board for his memorial which was held Saturday at his favorite watering hole ~ perfect place if you ask me!  

As I went through the photos, I came across one of a young couple and thought the man was my Uncle Mark (mom's other brother).  It was my grandpa and grandma.  They were sitting at a picnic table with a music box (their version of an ipod with speakers) and it looks like my grandma is playfully biting my grandpa's ear.  Not at all how she acted when I was around!!!  This got me thinking that if they had never met at the cafe where she worked as a waitress, I would not be here!!!  And just like that my mojo came back and the scab started to heal once again!

I started with the photo and some paper.

I saw a card on Pinterest that had the word LOVE on a mini banner and liked that idea.  I made a 2 Layer banner from Birthday Bash sized at 1.77 inches.  I got the font for "all because" from Art Philosophy and sized the letters to .85 inches.  I got the font for "two people fell in" from Nursery Rhyme and sized it to 1.15 inches.  I got the font for "Love" from Calligraphy Collection and sized it to 1.35 inches.

I cut out the scalloped flag in burgundy patterned cardstock, the top flag layer and "all because" in gold metallic paper, and the rest in black cardstock.

I used this shape from Lacy Labels at 10.38 inches.  I cut this out with sheet music paper that I found at Michaels.  This shape can also be found on many other cartridges.

I cut out a lacy mat for my photo that I found on Sophie (my grandma's name) at 4 inches.  The lace border is from Sophisticated.  I welded two together and sized them to .88 inches.  The swirls are from Heritage sized at .88.

Here is one of the mats with the cuts on it.

In order to make my title look straight and evenly spaced, I use the negative piece from my cuts as a template.

I adhere the letters and then slowly peel back the template ~ perfect every time!

Here is a close up of the burgundy patterned cardstock.  I punched out three circles, crinkled and inked them up and created a flower.  

I stuck a pearl to the center and used some black glittered chipboard flowers to accent it.

Here is my Love Banner all put together.

I curved the "all because" around the burgundy circle I added to the background.

Here is my completed layout of my Grandparents when they were young and first in love.  I am grateful they were!!  I am also grateful they jump started my mojo!!

Cat Tails

I am working on a scrapbook for my friend Beth.  Her cat Flower passed away recently.  I asked her to write down some stories about Flower and then I created some cats to represent Flower.  I have to say I am having so much fun making this album for Beth and her family!

I used Storybook for the title.  I used Christmas for the window.  I cut the shadow out of a wall paperish kind of paper.  I cut the window out twice.  I pop dotted the second window on top of the first for a little dimension.

Some of you may have seen this sneak peek on facebook.  I wanted Beth to see what I was working on.  Flower loved to sit on Grandma's slippers and sleep on Beth's feet.  I took the cat from A Child's Year and welded the shadow image to a pair of slippers, then flipped the cat and welded one to a pair of shoes.

I used the laptop, books and notebook paper from Locker Talk, the cat from Paisley on top of the books. 

I welded two trees together from the Heritage cartridge and cut it out in two different greens to create the bush. I used the cat looking up at the bird from A child's Year.  I cut the cat out of white and green and just cut the green cat and shovel off the grass.  I glued the cat down first, then the bush.  I trimmed the extra bush parts off the edges of the paper.  I added a little brown ink to the grass and bushes.

Here they are again.  Since Beth did not have pictures to go with these particular stories, I created my own!

Watch for more pages to come!!

Gifford Farm layout

Tanner took a field trip with his preschool class last spring to Gifford Farm.  I am working on paring down the number of photos I put in his scrapbook as I tend to take way too many!!  Here are the top 7 photos!

I used Cherry Limeaid for the font.  I use Heritage for the windmill and the barn & tractor on the next page.  I used Old West for the wagon wheel.  In the photo, I put the wagon wheel right over the one on the cart.  I used it to ground the three photos together.  I cut out the windmill in red and silver with the intent of creating a layer, but ended up just gluing the silver on top of the red.  The boot and cowboy hat were cut out from scrapbook paper.

In this layout you can see the paper.  It came from a paper pad called All About Boys (I think) and I found it at Michaels.   

There was no shadow feature for the barn, so I cut out a second barn in black and used Hide Contour to hide all of the inside cuts.  In order to ground the barn with the photo mat, I used two different greens from my scrap pile to create this fringed grass.  I inked them with a brown stamp pad.

I am working hard at using some of my non-go to carts!!!