Storing Photos With Ease

I made a little mini album to store all of the photos that we receive of Gracie with family members. A few pockets and we can tuck in all of the auntie and uncle pictures, all of the cousin shots, all of the cute hugs we see into one little album, so she can see how much she is loved.

I love this patterned paper. The birds are so cute and the floral print is just right. The journaling block was a free printable from Kaisercraft. Pretty and free, bonus!



To make the flower on the cover, I punched out hearts in two different sizes (7 at 1 1/2" and 7 at 1"). I adhered the points of the larger hearts in a circle and then adhered the points of the smaller hearts in a circle on top. Afterwards, just gently curl the edges around a pencil to make them more dimensional, add a pearl for a centre and attach to the page.









To make this fan photo corner just accordian fold a strip of paper and pull the edges around to make a rainbow shape. Adhere to the page and add a rhinestone.







Supplies: Kaisercraft patterned paper, rhinestones and pearls, Cosmo Cricket alphas, Doodlebug Designs alphas, Making Memories Alphas, Zig pen, Bazzill cardstock, and Bind-it-all coils

Make Your Own Ruffles, Curls, and Flowers

Want to add some variety to your pages? Try adding some dimension with ruffles, curls or flowers.



To make the pleated ruffle at the bottom of this page, simply cut a strip of double sided tape the length of the finished ruffle, leaving the protective back on. I use sookwang. Next, cut a long, thin strip of paper (I needed two strips, one 12" and one 6", because I wanted my finished ruffle to stretch all the way across the 12" page) and adhere one end to the sticky side of the tape. Carefully fold the paper towards you about an inch from the end, and then fold it away from you so that about a tiny amount of the paper strip overlaps. Press another inch down to the adhesive and continue this until you reach the desired length. If you're using two strips, just pick up right where you left off with your second strip, but tuck the ends under one of the folds so they're hidden.

The strip of paper above the ruffle was simply cut vertically to different depths and rolled back to reveal some of the back side of the paper.

I love paper bags. They're useful for more than just packing lunches. It may seem funny, but I love the texture they can add to a page. Here I used a paper bag to make my flower and my ruffle.



Making the flower is similar to making the ruffle. Start with a square of double sided tape and again, leave the protective backing on. Now, use the same folding technique as you used to make the ruffle, simply fold the paper towards you and then back onto itself while twisting in a circle, pressing down occasionally to adhere it.

A few new layouts

I worked on both of these at a scrap day with a bunch of family and friends. So much fun. I love that scrapbooking not only captures memories, but brings people together. How nice that I come from a crafty family.

There's something about babies in coveralls that just makes me smile.



Grab your pens, folks. Doodling is a really easy way to kick your layouts up a notch. It's easy and while there are templates out there, I think the end result is more eye-catching if you just let your creativity out and do it yourself. If you're nervous, it's easy to draw a simple line around a few elements to add depth and to draw your eye to each element. If you aren't sure, try some doodles on a scrap piece of paper.

Side note: Watch the texture of the paper you're doodling on. This is a textured cardstock, which is a little trickier to doodle on. Just press a little harder with your pen and use a ruler for straight lines.



This layout is a simple smattering of die-cut butterflies. I just liked the idea of lots of butterflies fluttering around like in a butterfly garden.

Baby Album Pics

I've received some emails requesting ideas for mini albums. This is a baby album I made a little over a year ago for my niece and it always makes me happy because I had so much fun making it for her.

It's chalk full of goodies from a number of companies, but the base is a Maya Road mini album, Kaisercraft patterned paper, Moxxie rub-ons, and Core'dinations cardstock. Some of the other companies featured arePrima, Making Memories, Basic Grey, Bazzill, American Crafts, and We R Memory Keepers.




Simply run a piece of cardstock through your paper crimper for a more dimensional look.




Feel free to doodle as I did on this pocket. Just grab a pen and add a simple border like I did here or a cute flourish. Don't be intimidated, I'm sure you had notebooks full of doodles in junior high, so we know you've got experience!




Make your own photo corners so the recipient knows where to place photos. This also gives you a bit of layering above the photos, which is hard to achieve when your not adding the photos as well. Another way to do this is to glue ribbon borders behind the photo mat and leave it un-adhered in the front. This way, they can slide their photo underneath.





Leave a standard border around the outside of your pages to minimize on rough edges. The chipboard on most albums is quite nice and adds an interesting texture to projects. I like the rough chipboard paired with these feminine colours.



Pockets are a great way to add extra journaling or photos to your mini albums without adding much bulk.



Hope you enjoyed!

Chasing Cheerios

Gracie turned 8 months old yesterday.We took her in to get weighed and she checks in at 18 pounds 5 and 3/4 ounces. What a little weed! She's growing like crazy.

Thought you might like this little video of her working on picking up Cheerios. Half the time she forgets to eat them, she just likes to chase them around her high chair tray and then celebrate when she gets one. Bailey is enjoying this as well.

Sebastien's 1st Birthday

We had such a great time at Sebastien's birthday on Saturday! It was a perfect day for a party by the lake. Great food, friends, sunshine, water and playground equipment - everything you need.

Our little party-goer:



And, I have never seen a birthday boy (or girl, for that matter) enjoy their cake as much as he did. Too cute!






Gracie had the perfect dress and hat to keep her out of the sunshine and was not much of a fan of the prickly grass or the hot sand, preferring her little blankie, where she could keep an eye on the other kids. Queen Gracie, residing over her subjects.





But, we managed to get her to the playground. All of those bright colours and laughing, running kids were just too much for her to miss out on.



Love those chubby, little thighs :)



And that adorable little face!

Playdates

We had a fun-filled week full of playdates, suppers with friends and a fantastic sun-soaked birthday party. Ahhh, summer. I've missed summer.

We had a few friends over for supper and got to meet Catriona, who is just a few months older than Gracie.

They usually played by themselves, but Gracie was watching Cat crawl around (moving forward) and was quite interested.





This one's my favourite. An action shot. I may not be able to crawl forward, but I can still attack!



One of Brad's coworkers was here from Ottawa instructing and he joined us for supper, too. He loved playing with Gracie (and Grampa's pie-that may be the actual reason he comes all the way to Alberta to teach).



On a side note, it's still burning hot here and lovely! We had strollercise this morning and it was +27 C when we were heading home at 11 am! Yikes! Got a little extra workout with that heat.

Hope you're enjoying it!

Hey Birdie!

Lots of companies are coming out with new lines at the moment and they are great! Great colours and patterns and textures..... I can't wait to get out there and see them in person!

One of my favourites is Kaisercraft's Hey Birdie line. It is really cute and versatile and it would go perfectly with all of my pictures of Gracie!

Check out their blog to see some great layouts and cards or check out the full line at their website.

Two page layouts

A few more layouts. These ones are all two pagers, which means I took so many photos of her in the span of a few seconds, I can't fit them on one 12 x 12 page.

I have a disease.










And, I may have created a monster....

Family Photo Attempts

We tried to take a good family photo on mother's day, but unfortunately, we're going to have to schedule another photo shoot... A few of them turned out okay, but we didn't really get anything fantastic.



Why is it that I look out of focus and Gracie's sticking her tongue out?



Why do we all have bare feet and why are my pants rolled up - in fact, why are our feet even in the photo?



At least, we had fun...

One day, we'll try again... maybe outside this time, with socks and shoes on...

Layouts

How long has it been? I've actually been pumping out layouts, lately, my creativity mojo is strong right now. I haven't posted many pictures, in awhile though, so here are a few of my recent layouts.






I'm nearly wrapping up Gracie's third album and I'm about two months behind at the moment! Can you believe that? I'm a stalker, paparazzi-esque mom with too much time on her hands, apparently. I'm guessing she'll have five, full albums covering her first year. Yikes! Let's hope that any subsequent children aren't too upset if I can't keep up that pace for them...

Still Loves Berries

I know I said that berries were probably a bad idea in Gracie's teething toy, but she really likes them....

So, we made a mess again.

How can you resist this face?