Creative Juices

So when I originally started this blog it was supposed to be a good mix of rambling and creativity! Unfortunately I haven't been as good about keeping up with the creativity part. After seeing this post on Ali Edwards blog I have been itching to get those creative juices flowing again...Here are some of my favorite layouts from the album I seem to be stuck on! Our engagement party album from 2007 YIKES!

I don't know what it is about this page but I absolutely love it!


I've finished two other albums with pictures from other functuions we had and each one ends with a feeding picture of the two of us and the quote "True love stories never have endings".

I am thinking of maybe working on a few albums at a time instead of just trying to finish this one since I seem to be stuck!

For my Scrappy girls

I know it's been ages since I've posted anything crafty on here but I do have a few things in the works I promise! I just wanted to share this sweet deal from www.peachycheap.com....

How fun is that kit?? The price is even better so hurry over and order one before they are all gone!

Trick or Treat...Something Sweet!

This was the second part of the present I did for one of our friends that just had a baby.....You can see the first part here. This was for their mommy, a mini brag book that she can carry in her purse. I had to cut out the faces because I am not sure about posting their pictures.

And here is the CUTE bag I found in the Target $1 bin to put it in....Funny I liked this better then and of the regular gift bags the had!

Hope you guys have a great Halloween :) After our dinner guests leave I will be making 3 batches of brownies (one with a Symphony layer, one with frosting and sprinkles, and one triple chunk) and three trays of mini cheesecakes in preparation for tomorrow! I hope everything goes well and will have updates on Monday!

Mini Books

My grandmother is the eldest of 8 sisters and 2 brothers and my wedding was a chance for 9 out of 10 of those siblings to get together! The picture above is all 8 sisters together for the first time since my grandmother got married! Can you imagine?? With my great grandparents passing away in the last year all of them have had such a hard few months leading up to the wedding and I knew that even though they were getting together for a happy occasion emotions would be hard to control over such a great loss....
When I found out they all would be coming I wanted to do something special commemorating my great grandparents for each of them. I brain stormed ideas but nothing really came together until I found a tutorial on how to make a mini album using one 12x12 piece of paper. I don't remember whose blog I saw it on but I sincerely thank you for posting the tutorial. The book was the perfect gift because it was small enough for them to carry it with them daily, and whenever they felt a loss they could pull it out and look at it. There were tears when I handed them out but they all loved them! These pictures aren't that great because I only had a few seconds to take them since my henna party was going on downstairs! (Each one had the their initial on the front.)

After the wedding I made a few more of these per request. My mom didn't want the ribbon in hers so I made hers with a magnet so it stays shut in her purse.

I made two others which I don't have pictures of one for me and one for my cousin Amy which are similar to the first ones I made....I love having a little piece of them with me whenever I feel like I need them......I only met my great grandfather twice, once one I was very young and then again a few years ago. I was lucky enough to be able to spend my great grandmothers last few days with her and to have her bless all of my wedding outfits. Despite having such little time with them their personalities were so loving that not a day goes by that I don't remember them, and I wore the bangles they blessed for me at every event of the wedding. Not a day goes by that I don't think of them and I know they are looking over me from wherever they are....

Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails

So along with the arrival of a baby girl we also had the addition of a sweet little boy to the group...Since his older brother is only two I thought it would be nice to take a little present for him to when we went to visit....

I basically covered a childrens board book with scrapbooking paper and then used the Making Memories Childs Play line for the lettering....I was pretty pleased with it UNTIL I tried to seal it....Has anyone else used the Modge Podge Paper Product Sealer?? Even though it was sitting outside drying for like a day and a half some of the pages stuck together...and I had to do some touch ups before I could give it to them...does anyone have any suggestions on a better way to seal things? I don't normally however since this was for a two year old I thought I should so he would be able to carry it around wherever he wanted...Any ideas for the next time around??

Sorry I had to cut out the pictures because I wasn't sure they would want them posted! Happy Friday!!!

Quickie

Work is super busy right now and I STILL haven't gotten around to uploading pictures off my camera....This is a quick album I put together for Jay's Aunt I only had about an hour before we had to take her to the airport so it is super simple. I found a cute album at target in $1 bin (I love their $1 bin!) and added the little design on the front cover. I thought when I picked it up that it was 4x6 album so as soon as I got the pictures I would be able to put it together and add some stickers and rub-ons right onto the protective sleeves. But that would be too easy! When we got the pictures I realized the album was a 5x7 and here I was with a bunch of 4x6's. Since I was so short on time at this point I just cut up some double sided paper and put a picture on each side and put it into the sleeve. Nothing exciting but she loved it so I guess that's all that matters :)

Kiddie Fun

This was another project I put together for my sister-in-law. In this case the boys gave it to her for Mother's Day but this is easily adaptable to something they can do every year on their birthdays also. It's basically a short interview with space to put a picture and a hand print from that day. It's a fun way to see how kids change over the years and for them to see how much their hand print has grown. I guarantee when they get older it's something that the whole family will look back on and cherish. I designed a simple template in photoshop and had it printed 12x12 then I just picked up a fun album from Target to store it all away easily. The cover page was also fairly simple, again I just designed the template in photoshop printed it out and glues it to a sheet of designed scrapbook paper. The good thing about this is you can easily change around the design and questions to suit your needs and your kids.....

For some reason the colors came out much darker in the picture then they are in actuality.
Sample Template

I'm Back

This is a project I put together a while ago for a lady I work with who wanted something fun to do with her daughter. It is a premade album with all the fun accessories to glitz it up. I designed the cover and used cardstock to make the pages inside. With all the accessories I have I chose ones that I thought would compliment the colors I picked for the base. I hope she and her daughter enjoy putting it together as much as I did picking out all the fun goodies!

Too MUCH to do NOT enough Time!

This probably wasn't the best time to start a blog considering that I am super busy at work and in the middle of planning a wedding!! Anyhow I have tons of ideas floating around in my head and NO time to actually follow them through! This is something I put together for Jay with all the details from the day we got engaged :) I created the Master Card front and Back in photoshop and resized and edited all the pictures in photoshop also.

Here are pictures of it all together, it's actually the size of a credit card. I also made a little pouch for it which jay fondly calls his "man pouch" :)

Mini Album in a Tin

This was the second part of my sister-in-laws birthday gift....It's a miniature mint tin that I stole from my brother to put this together.....
At first I thought about painting it or adding paper over it but then I just decided to go with the Las Vegas Theme.... The cover says "This family is always a sure bet" and the rest of the pictures fan out like a hand of cards with all the family on them....The back of the pictures are scanned in images of actual playing cards....I used the King, Queen, and Jack of hearts....I cut both sides out and glues them together and then used a round corner punch to make the edges....I used eyelets to make sure the holes in the corners were secure and then tied together with a fun ribbon....

I got so into it that I even decorated the inside of the box :) All the pictures and images were resized in photoshop...