My Favorite Things Mini Book

Welcome to the My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Challenge.  This month, we were challenged to make mini books.  My kids love flipping through these things, they're fun to have just a mini scrap book to celebrate a special trip or event.

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The base of the book is made from one 12x12 sheet of cardstock.  I cut it into 4 x12 strips and then scored each strip at 4 inches.  I secured the strips back together with scor-tape leaving me 7 panels to cover.  (If I was feeling particularly ambitious, I could have finished off the back panels as well.)  Quick note: I've used a TON of products in this post today, rather than link them all throughout the post, you'll find links to everything at the bottom of the post. Thanks!

I'm using the sentiments from the Behind the Camera Stamp Set and Die-namics, though I'm not using the actual camera die itself today.  I added these fun divider tabs with the Traditional Tags STAX Die-namics - the small sentiments are a simply perfect fit.

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The front cover has been embellished with the First Class Friend registration mark and the small "signed sealed delivered" element.   I used a few of the petals from the new Layered Rose and finished off with a painted wooden button.  The Rolled Flower was cut from Felt and then I cut two Royal Leaves from corrugated cardboard, painted with White Crackle Paint.  Once the leaves were dried, I gave them a generous coating of distress ink too.  Do you see this fun lace trim, oh my word, it is Lace Washi Tape, fully self adhesive lace.  Love it!

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I used the die that is usually the lens of the camera die for a fun tab across the top of the page.  I love how it peeks out across the top of the book so you can just see "capture this" when the book is closed.

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Here's a look at the book on the inside. All these photos were taken on a beach walk after dinner. It was the perfect chance to play with my camera and get some good photos of each of my guys.  Up first is my husband and his mini-me, my younger son. I've got a Mini Tabs Foursome Die-namics poking out underneath the photo, I'm going to add a bit of journaling, but I'll spare you my hen scratches.

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Up next is the photo of my older son.  He's been fantastic at letting me use him for my photography experiments this summer.  (I use my younger son for action shots because he never sits still!)

I used the Mini Wavy Pennants and the pole from the Mini Pennant Die-namics to add a little flag element inspired by this card from Lisa Johnson.  "ACK" is the airport code for Nantucket Island, just to note the place where all the photos were taken.  I've got another Mini Foursome Tab here for some journaling later.

The right hand panel uses one of the larger sentiments as a focal piece.  I've stamped to the top half of a Circle STAX Die-namics and then added two small Fishtail Flags STAX finished off with a button and the anchor from the Sea Charms Die-namics.


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I'm usually the one behind the camera, so it's rare that I'm actually *in* a photo.  I got all the settings in place and then handed my camera off to my husband to take the picture.  I wish I'd planned ahead with the tripod so we could have a family beach photo. Oh well, there's always next year....

As you can see, my hair went crazy curly at the beach no matter how much hairspray I'd coated it in.  I added one of the Photo Corners and then attached a small heart (from the Notched Tag Die-namics) cut from MFT Felt. 

My sister snapped this one of my hubby and I watching the boys playing in the surf.  Floppy hats are a great way to protect myself from burning my part (I seriously do it all the time! OUCH!) and taming those crazy fly-aways. I added the sentiment "Together is the Best Place to Be" from the My Favorite Sentiments Stamp Set.

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Phew, that was FUN but in the process, I've made a compete disaster area. Off to watch some DVR'd television and clean that mess!

Be sure to click over to the MFT Blog for links to all the MFT Designers with Mini Books to share with you today!

Here are the links to products used in today's post:

Behind the Camera Royal Leaves Layered Rose Photo Corners Rectangle STAX Mini Wavy Pennant Traditional Tags Circle STAX Sea Charms Mini Tab Fishtail Flags MFT Stamps Die-namics First Class Friend Rolled Flower Vertical Greetings II Jody Boosters Fossil Pink Paislee: Indigo Bleu Scor-Tape

InLinkz.com

Scrapbook Challenge

My good friend Erica is my Stampin' Up Demonstrator. She's the one who got me hopelessly hooked on stamping and is running a scrapbooking challenge for her clients. She posted a sketch for a two page spread and is looking for submissions. I tried hard to follow the layout she'd posted, but my photos didn't quite match up with the sketch. So here's my loose interpretation instead.....

My older son, is a huge ham. Loves the camera, and is the king of funny faces. He's at the perfect age to have just SO much fun in the snow. Too bad we've just had a cold icky winter, not a ton of the white stuff to play in. He did however have a half day of ski school and loved it. The pocket on the right hand page holds his "report card" from ski school.

The photos of this page aren't the best because I'm taking them at 12:30 AM E.S.T. What is wrong with me anyways? Honestly, I've had these pages in my head for days, fooling with them on paper, and finally got it to work out the way I had envisioned it. Maybe NOW I can sleep.

details: background "Snowflake Spot" stamped in craft white on bashful blue. "Snow" is bashful blue big deal alphabet which I then overstamped with the little snowflake from the snowflake spot with craft white "fun" is whimsical alphabet in old olive. Old olive and always artichoke used for matting the photos. Scraps of the Holiday Mini Designer Paper (of which I have a lot in my "stash") used as accent paper.

Before you can scrapbook....

...you have to have pictures!

It isn't the taking of pictures that's my problem, I have SO many. Its the actual printing of the pictures that is the problem. I load them to shutterfly, but then never place an order. Then I'm annoyed when I get to my six month club meeting to build pages, and I don't have any photos on hand. So, I've ordered a SLEW of pictures. Still won't have them in time for my scrapbooking meeting on Monday night, but at least they'll be here soon.

With the sickening amount of stamps, paper and ink I own. You'd **think** I could get around to a scrapbook page now and again.

I'm going to set a goal for myself of posting one scrapbook page here at least every other week. I'm just a nervous nellie about having my boys photos up here, so I'm going to have to hunt for some crafty ways to post the pages. Any advice, what do all you blog stalkers out there do?