Love Mini Photo Album - Butterfly Challenge

Evening Everyone,

For all who have left me their lovely comments, I've not been ignoring you! It's just that Blogger has been playing up most of today and I haven't been able to get into my dashboard, post anything or even comment on other blogs ... so frustrating!!! Goodness knows what gremlin(s) caused the problems but it all seems to be working fine now :) And that means I can finally share this little photo album with you which I'm submitting to Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge # 18 - the remit for which is to use 3 design papers with butterflies.

The album has been made for a friend who got engaged recently so as well as butterflies there's hearts and flowers too. I've used both sides of a double-sided patterned paper plus one single sided sheet to create it so hope that counts as three DPs and that I'm not breaking Mrs A's rules.

At last I've been able to make good use of some very romantic themed peel-offs (NBUS) ... never had the right project to use them on up till now.

Even the back is embellished with a heart.

And there's a heart motif in the upper left corner of each photo mat ... both sides.

I've explained how I make these little albums before - here - so I won't go through it again but here's a list of the materials used.

• a 12"x12" sheet of design paper - SEI Bridgeport Gazebo - this is a thick double-sided patterned paper - one side embossed and with a silver finish, the other with a butterfly and flourish pattern in shades of white and grey
• a 12"x12" sheet from Docrafts Papermania Vintage Notes -  a pale blue self-patterned design paper
• a sheet of grey smooth cardstock A4 size - Papermill Direct
• a corner rounder punch
• a sheet of romance themed peel-offs and a sheet of edging peel-offs from Craft Creations
• dies - Spellbinders Petite Labels One, Marianne flower set and the butterfly from an issue Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine
• glitter glue - Stickles Baby Blue
• the Tim Holtz tiny attacher for staples
• ribbon - white heart embossed (from stash)
• pearls - pale blue adhesive backed in various sizes (from stash)

My day, you'll be pleased to learn, hasn't been entirely wasted just because I couldn't blog/comment. Cushion number 3 is complete - will share it with you later - and I've been experimenting with iron-on transfer material - more of that later too :)

However, now that Blogger is letting me get back to normal I'll be able to do a bit of catching up and leave comments as I go this evening.

Hope you've had a great day.

Happy Crafting,

One Moment In Time - Mini Photo Album

Hi Everyone

Happy Monday to you all - we have dry and cool weather today which is heaps better than the wall-to-wall rain that is the norm. Hope you are enjoying good weather, i.e. for the time of the year, wherever you are and, if it's not so good, as if we need an excuse, then it's perfect crafting weather :))

As you might know, if you've been following my posts, I haven't been able to do much in the way of crafting for several days but, in true Blue Peter tradition, 'here's one I made earlier' - want to know more about Blue Peter and the origin of the phrase, here's a great article published in the The Telegraph. (for non-UK readers, Blue Peter is a famous and much loved childrens' programme.)

To celebrate her birthday in September our friend, Margaret with her husband, Brian, took a coach trip to the Highlands. The pick-up and drop-off point was here in Ayr which gave us the opportunity to meet up and catch up on all our news. I made this mini album in which she could keep her favourite photos from the holiday.

I chose a colour combination of teals, creams and browns with just a touch of green, rust and amber to mirror the colours found in the lochs, hills, glens and forests they would have seen on their trip at that time of the year.

There's four pockets with reversible photo mats - space for eight photos altogether.

To make the album I raided my stash and used a 12"x12" sheet of each of the following - Fancy Pants True Papers collection, True-Blue; The ScrapCake's One Moment In time collection, If You Seize That; Papermania's Boutique Paper Pack. For the matting I chose a 12"x12" sheet of Stampin' Up cardstock, Early Espresso. The trim was punched with one of my two Martha Stewart edge punches - I forget its name. 

The embellishments consist of brown ribbon, Prima flowers, Papermania gem brads, a metal flower brad and   the amber gem flourish from cArt-Us Christmas.

I've made a number of these little albums now and they are always popular with the recipients because they can be slipped easily into a bag/purse, don't weigh a great deal and hold just enough photos to show to folks without boring them rigid :))

I'm off to the docs ... again ... you'd think after my experience on Friday that I deserved a break! This time with a rash all over - I'm itching and scratching, pretty much like a cat does when it's got fleas!!!

Take care and have a great day whatever you are doing. 

Happy crafting,

A Fun Mini Album for my Granddaughter

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all well today and that the sun is shining in your part of the world, as it is here in Ayr.

Today's share is not something newly completed but a mini album I made for my granddaughter, Shari-Ann, two years ago for her 7th birthday. I did take photos back then but they were of such bad quality I decided not to post them.

However, at the weekend, on a visit to my daughter's, the album, with a few losses and additions, was brought out so I grabbed the opportunity to photograph it once more.

The main part of the album is made from the insides of toilet rolls, flattened by putting them through the Cuttlebug and decorated with brightly patterned papers - most of which came free with a magazine.

I notice that a ribbon bow has come off, but otherwise it is very much as I made it - I've promised that I'll take a replacement bow up on my next visit.

This side shot shows how the labels fit inside the album pages. Here's a few shots of the pages.

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3 & 4

Pages 5 & 6

Pages 7 & 8

All the embellishments were chosen to reflect my granddaughter's interests at the time - the beach, dolls, cats, dogs, ladybirds, well she loved all bugs in general, and even pirates ... there to remind her of visits to Pirate Pete's, Ayr's children's indoor play centre.

Labels - side 1

The labels provide mats for photographs - the one in the middle shows her gap-toothed smile at that age :)

Labels - side 2

The back cover is decorated with a huge punched flower and a little journaling spot.

So there we are, an album that, apart from time and effort, cost very little to make and has the added bonus of recycling/upcycling cardboard that would normally be tossed in the bin.

I'm delighted to be able to report that my daughter is now scrapbooking :) Her first project is an album recording the pets she has had from childhood till now. Scrapbooking may be infectious :))

Unfortunately, I'm not joining in with WOYWW this week ... I'm a bit under the weather and wouldn't be able to fully participate and leave many comments, and that wouldn't be fair on everyone of you who visits and leaves their lovely comments. I'm off to the hospital next week to undergo an investigative procedure ... fingers crossed all goes well with that.

In the meantime, I wish that you all have a good day and a wonderful week.

Happy crafting,

Happy Days Photo Album

Hi Everyone,

It's been an odd week so far ... because of my sister's illness, the craft space has been neglected. Many thanks to all who left get well messages for Margaret ... crafters are all so incredibly kind and thoughtful.

And I've just heard that she is on the mend although she has a long way to go yet. The scan revealed that she has heart failure though it's not certain which came first, that or the infection.

Whatever, the treatment she is now on seems to be doing the trick, but we have been told it will be quite some time before she is well enough to return home.

Somehow I did  find enough time in the week to make this photo album for my daughter's 41st birthday today.

The album is made almost entirely with Papermania's Happy Days 12" x 12" paper stack and embellishments - all fifties style and very pretty. The only additional materials used were some cream cardstock, blue satin ribbon and vintage lace trim.

The base is made from one sheet of 12"x12" paper, as usual - you can see how here. For the pocket trims, I used the chevron pattern paper and cut along the blue stripes - it's a bit different from using a punch. Actually, my scissors were working overtime as I fussy cut a lot of the embellishments from the heavily patterned sheets in the stack.

The photo mats - cut to fit inside the pockets - are constructed from the cream cardstock and yet more of the patterned paper.

Here they are tucked inside the pockets.

Confession time - the lace trimmed wasn't planned. It's covering up a mistake I made trimming the red/blue patterned trim on one of the pockets - I held the scissors at the wrong angle and cut to much away :(

Here's the birthday girl showing off her first attempt at crochet - a cushion cover for her newly decorated lounge.

She's mainly self-taught, she watched a few YouTube demos - I only had to show her how to do the corners of the square and off she went  - now she has caught the crochet bug too :))

We have the Ayr Flower Show this weekend and normally we'd be going along but we've had to give it a miss this year. The weather has been appalling, we've had some really extra heavy showers today, so I suspect that the ground will be like a mud bath by now - such a shame for the organisers and all the folk involved.

Before I go, I'd like to welcome my new followers - hope you will enjoy popping in every now and again to see what I've been up to.

I hope you will all have a lovely weekend. Hopefully, life will now return to normal for me and I will be able to get into the craft room more over the weekend and do a lot more blogging too.

Happy Crafting,