TECHNIQUE TUESDAY - A Gift

I love doing first year albums. I'm not sure why I do the ones for gifts while the ones for my granddaughters' albums are still not even started. That is one of the first To Do items once I'm in the new space.  In the mean time, here is my latest album.

My sister needed a special gift for a young man who's wife is expecting a little girl in the next few weeks. While we were having our Saturday morning visit on-line, she told me she was cruising etsy for a gift. I pointed her to albums I've done in the past HERE and HERE. A very low price was agreed upon, a feeling for what she was after in terms of theme and I was off.

I am always still amazed how a plain album like the one above I found on clearance becomes this:

The cover is padded then covered in unbleached muslin. The ribbon and the roses are from Paper Studio. I fell in love with the lace and although you can not see the elegance of that wide heritage lace very well on the cover, the same lace also graces the opening of the front and back cover. I wish I had purchased more of that as well as the narrow lace trim set off by the burgandy ribbon on the left edge.  You will also notice three butterflies. Those were punched from DCWV shimmer cardstock. I layered a soft pink over a vanilla cream then accented the body with a crystal tear drop from Studio G.

The album ties together with the burgandy ribbon as well as a matching white ribbon I died with a alcohol mist I made using SU Creamy Caramel.

Here is the welcoming page:

This page as well as the photo pages you will see in a moment also have the leaf accent from the SU Bird punch. I stamped the image in SU Bravo Burgandy.

Here is the 2-pg layout:

And the individual pages:

The burgandy and pink cardstock are 8.5 x 11 from Hobby Lobby. The burgandy is textured. I can't remember the name of the swirl. I will look that up and insert. The background paper is also 8.5x11 from Hobby Lobby.  The lade trim is Ecru spool lace from The Paper Studio. 

I added three pearls from Recollections to balance this side out. The 4x6 photo mat is accented with the same Ecru spool lace. 

We were to meet my sister on Saturday for lunch. Saturday morning she texted wanting to know if I had remembered to make a card. My husband was in his usual form, and manning my phone while I put the final touches on the album at the hotel. He texted back 'what card?' Not realizing HE was the one texting her and not me, she went into a panic. Thankfully, he did not leave her in that state for too long. Here is the card I made - to match the album.  The sentiment inside and out came from the new SU set - B.Y.O.P.

Things are a bit crazy around here this week. Bob has carpal tunnel surgery on his right wrist on Friday morning. Between pre-op and surgery for him, we have also been trying to get some last minute things done while he still has two hands. As soon as the right is healed (approx. 3 weeks) they will go in and do the left. 

I also need to make a run to Springfield tomorrow. The weather was so gorgeous last weekend (70s) we hung our coats in the closet at the hotel... and left them when we packed up Sunday morning. If the weather had  been cold, we would have remembered them when we loaded up the truck. Because I hardly ever use the closet, I did not think to check there when I packed up the room - yep, my fault. Thankfully, this Baymont is like a 2nd home for me. The only place I stay when I go to Springfield. I am on first name basis with everyone from our new manager to the breakfast gal. I called to let them know our coats were there and they already had them on hold with my name on them. LOL

WELCOMING BABY! - Shabby Chic 1st Year Album

I finally got to make time last week to play. And I had so much fun creating this shabby chic album for my niece, Cheyanne. I've never worked in shabby chic before so this was fun to play with. I should have done an 8x8 but I am happy with how the 6x6 turned out.

This album was originally brown. I removed the plastic cover, took the posts out allowing me to dismantle the album. I used hot glue to adhere the unbleached canvas to the front and back covers and wonder-under for the spine piece. I did the inside covers with April Lovely cardstock by Core'dinations. If you've not used this cardstock before, it has a beautiful canvas texture. I chose April Lovely, Mystic Gray (which actually has a sage green tone to it) and Picket Fence. I found them at JoAnns Fabric and Crafts.

I raided my vintage lace and trim sewing tub for soft textures. The cover has 2 different layers of lace plus a strip of white/ pink daisy ribbon from The Paper Studio. All of the flowers are from Recollections except for the antiqued one in the center. That is made from 6 scallop layers punched from book pages and inked with SU Caramel. The baby buggy is made from 1 and 1/4  scallop circles punched from SU Pretty in Pink and GP White. You will find the directions HERE. I added the mini flower punch 'spokes'.

One of the embellishments I used throughout the album was the mini butterfly punch from SU. I punched some from GP white, and some from DCWV Shimmer Matstack. Some of the white ones I brushed with ink or stickles, others I left plain. For the body I used Recollections teardrops or The Paper Studio gemstones. The pink ribbon is pink grosgrain from Paper Studio bobbin.

The inside cover is stamped with an Innie Outie stamp in SU Regal Rose. I've layered the stamped GP white mat on a sheet from DCWV Garden Party. I loved the hints of the pink tones I had in the Recollections flowers. Then these were layered onto the Mystic Gray.

Here is a sample of a 2 page layout. There is a spread for each of the first 12 months of little Libby Ann's life. I used the Picket Fence for all of the 6x6 bases. The titles are printed on GP white using the MEANINGFUL font. You can download it free HERE. Each title mat was layered onto the April Lovely then Mystic Gray.

The journaling box is corner punched with an EK Success decorative corners - Lace. The pink ribbon decorative strip is layered with a soft green print from the DCWV Garden Party slab.  On the facing page, I brought in some of the vintage lace (no, that isn't paper). The photo mat is large enough to accommodate a 3x5 photo... just the right size for a 1st year picture. The concept is to see the subtle changes the child goes through from month to month that we often don't see as they occur. The only embellishments I used were the flowers from Recollections (there were 3 each of 3 color tones in the package) and the butterflies.

I know Cheyanne liked the album and I loved having the opportunity to give her a head start on documenting little Libby Ann's life. Of course, her grandma (my SIL, Kelly Sue) has a new camera and has been taking tons of pics of the mommy-to-be and is a paper crafter so I know there are more albums in their future.

Tomorrow is WOYWW. Are you sure you want to see the mess I left in the wake of this album as we headed out the door to OK last weekend? Come back and see me. I'll show you what I bought while we were there.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

Scrapbook for Little One

Today, I'm going to share some pics with you for a special baby album I put together last week. When I was first introduced to on-line baby showers, I thought they were the coolest thing. I still do. On-line showers, also known as Virtual showers, are great for when family and friends are spread across the country. They allow everyone to attend regardless of where they live.

If you're not familiar with this party scene, they're easy and fun.

As with any party, you need a hostess. In this case, someone who can be organized as it does take a bit more planning because once you've sent out invites and have an RSVP list, you'll want to send small party favors to the 'guests' ahead of time.

Plan a time to hold the shower and send out invites to everyone, along with a chat link if necessary, along with any links to baby (or bridal) registries. It's also good to include personal wish lists, colors/ themes and in the case of baby, if you know the gender.

Everyone makes or purchases their gift and has it sent to the honored guest ahead of time. If it is a handmade gift, take a couple of pictures before you package it up. When purchasing on-line, have a link handy in your files.

On the date/ time of the party everyone meets in the chat room. As the honoree opens a gift, she tells who it's from. While she's sending packaging and gift wrap flying, the person who sent the gift posts their pictures or a link to the purchased item so everyone in attendance can ooh and ahh right along with her.

Heather's was the second of these showers I'd attended in a two month period. I did the same gift for both Heather and Toni with a slight modification. Toni does scrapbook as well as make cards so I knew I could send her the page components and she'd be good to put it together on her own. I did the basics of the layouts and left room for Toni to add her own personal style. This is a sample of the components I sent to Toni (from an earlier post):

Heather on the other hand is a self-proclaimed non-scrapbooker. So I wanted to send her a completed album. All she had to do was insert photos and journal about the picture. This is what I came up with for Heather:

The entire package

Inside Title page for important information

The First Month 2-page LO

Three Month LO

Because we didn't know the gender of either baby, I went with neutral tones for both of them. However, with Heather, we knew she had the Amazon Jungle kind of theme going so I borrowed the Animal Kingdom Cricut cartridge from Maggie so I could make some cute animals to accent the album pages. I LOVE this cartridge and had fun doing the layering/ paper piecing of the animals. I've made several extra animals to use in Abby and Adrian's albums before shipping the cartridge back to Maggie.

For Heather's album I used SU Certainly Celery, Daffodil Delight, Very Vanilla and Soft Suede cardstock along with varying other colors for the animal piecing.

The components for this album are really versatile. I first got the idea early last year when I did a Page LO component swap hosted by the same gal who coordinated both of these showers.

You can check out my original post HERE for the details.

Creative Blessings!