You & Moi Scallop Notes

Okay, so one last valentine project to share - this time the little cards I made for my children.  I used a couple of the stamps from the 'You & Moi' set and the handy little scallop note cards that are in the current Summer Mini Catalogue. 

 

I stuck with baja blue for the boys, with a not so frilly stamp, and for Bridie - pink pirouette and a flower, of course.  

Both designs had a bit of silver thrown in as well, the image was popped up with dimensionals, and I added a little loop of ribbon to fancy it up.  I extended the front of the card with an extra white scallop, and finished it off with some more silver card.

Bridie asked if she could keep it forever?  Of course you can baby girl!

'I've got my eye on you' Halloween mini album

My big old monster eye that is!

Here is the first of my Halloween inspired projects.  Halloween candy inspired that is. Hayden was delighted to find an eyeball candy in amongst his trick or treat stash.  I was delighted to find the packaging that eyeball came in, and immediately claimed it as the perfect embellishment for a scrapbooking project.

I thought it was a bit too bulky for a conventional scrapbook page, but on the cover of a mini album it is just perfect, and I decided to go with an accordian spine album like this one.  Once the candy had been disposed of (thanks boys!) I was left with the plastic bubble, complete with red veins.  It was a quick job to punch out some circles of card for the eye, and pop those inside the packaging.  Best of all, the eye then fitted perfectly inside the 1 3/8" circle I had punched in a chipboard coaster. 

Originally I was going to cover the coaster with plain black card, but it looked a little too flat.  Instead I stamped with versamark ink and the sanded background stamp, and then heat embossed with clear powder.  It looks a bit too shiny in the photo, but is better in real life, and looks like a reptilian monster skin.  The back cover also has the embossed sanded look.  Inside it is black pages, and that is as far as it got - the printer ran out of ink before I could print the photos, so completing the inside of this little halloween memory book is still on the list of things to do.

So far I am loving this little project, and would love to do some more - I can see this in green, for dinosaur lovers.  I will confess, that while buying groceries today, I did keep an 'eye out' for some more of those eyeball candies.  No luck though, so it is looking like I might have to resort to cleaning the kids bedrooms, in the hopes of finding more discarded candy packaging...

Scrapbooking with Kids - Bridie's Turn

As soon as Bridie (who turned three last month) saw that the boy's had their own scrapbooks to make, she of course wanted one of her own. I had pretty much figured that would be the case, but knowing that her one is more likely to have - shall we say - 'additional journalling and embellishments' added with time, courtesy of Miss Bridie, I was keen to make it a quick and simple little book. That way, it would be easier for me to let her do her thing with it, and actually enjoy it, rather than me hovering over her ready to say the words 'put that pen/scissors/sticky tape down now!'

Bridie wanted to help make the book too. So that was another reason for quick and simple! To start off I let her choose a patterned paper (from the 'retired pile' - stuff like that isn't important to kids!) and then we gathered some card to match. I trimmed the pages so that each was slightly longer than the previous one, and then to add a girly twist we punched out one side using the eyelet border punch. We then scored each page about 2cm from the opposite 'spine edge' just to make it easier to open the book when it was done. Lastly we punched holes along the 'spine' and used jumbo eyelets to hold it all together. That was the base of the book done.

Here is a quick look at the back of the book too. By attaching more jumbo eyelets at the back, inside of the first ones, you can make the back of your book look just as neat as the front.

When it came time to decide what to put in the book we encountered a few problems. Asking Bridie 'what do you want to scrapbook?' resulted in answers like 'my scrapbook'. Asking her 'which photos she would like to stick in there?' was also a little broad. So I ended up making an executive decision, and suggested we should make the book about our visit to Disneyland a few months back. She thought that was a good idea (whew!). From there it was much easier for her to choose her favourite photos from a much smaller selection, and we printed them out 'wallet size' here at home. I did the cutting out, and then we sorted them into piles - princesses in one pile, minnie's house in another etc. Together we stuck them all on. Bridie especially enjoyed putting the double sided tape on the back of the photos.

We attached all the photos at once, just so we don't lose any of them. Writing 'the story' though, is a process I am hoping we will be able to stretch out for a few days. That is a really interesting process in itself. Bridie chose which page she wanted to write about, and which colour pen to use, and then she tells me what to write.

Although I am sure that I would have written how much fun it was to visit Minnie Mouse, and how much Bridie loved exploring her house, I had definitely forgotten that Bridie had pretended to eat Minnie's food, and hadn't realised that it had made such an impression on her. Another reason why I am really enjoying these projects with my kids.

An accordian spine mini coaster book...

Once upon a time there was a boy who went to a cartooning class. The boy loved it, and wanted to spend almost every moment after that, designing, creating, and mass producing comic books, which he intended to sell to his family.... I am guessing that is just the first chapter of that story, rather than 'The End'!

For my part, I decided to make Hayden a special little coaster book, that he could turn into a limited edition Hayden Jones comic. These little books are easy to make, and a great way to use up those scraps. Some of you have done them in a class or workshop with me before.

When it came to decorating the covers, I wanted to keep them simple (not knowing what story Hayden would be telling), but not completely blank. One of my favourite stampsets in the new catalogue is the 'Once Upon a Time' set. This set may not be quite as versatile as some of them, but it was one of my must haves (and I cannot quite explain that myself!) This was the perfect project to get some ink on it for the first time...

The verse on the front cover - Once upon a time - is actually one long stamp. I used sticky tape and my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp it in two shorter lengths, so it would fit the cover better.

Why sticky tape? Use it to cover the part of the stamp that you do not want inked up, ink the entire stamp, remove the sticky tape, and stamp as usual. The part of the stamp that was under the tape will remain 'clean' and will not leave an image. As for the back cover? 'The End' of course!

This is what the inside of the mini book looks like (pre-cartooning). The spine of the book is an accordian fold - the number of pages in the book depends on the number of mountain folds, and can be adjusted to suit. A length of ribbon sandwiched between the double coaster covers prevents the accordian spine opening out too far, and also doubles as a way to hold the mini book closed.

These little books are great for mini scrapbooking projects, and make wonderful gifts. The colour used in this one is Baja Breeze (card, ink, ribbon, and patterned paper).

A work in progress

So it is probably not good blog etiquette to show stuff that is only half finished. But too bad. This is what I was working on yesterday, and it would normally be about this point that I would be running to my Mum's to show her what I had been doing. So here it is Mum - what do you think? Cute huh?

A hand bag.

But not just a handbag.

It can also cut frozen steak!!

just kidding about the steak, of course...

for a moment there I just felt like I was talking about Ginzu knives

- BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE...

Inside this super cute little handbag is a mini scrapbook album.

(that bit is true!)

I would show you, but then you would see that it really isn't finished, and instead is actually filled with blank, (soon to be filled!) pages.

so here are some closeups instead...

I used the carousel notes from the Summer Mini catalogue for the top of the bag, and covered soft sky card with some of the afternoon tea paper, also from the mini. Jumbo eyelets were used for the holes for the handle, and the bottom of the bag, and I love them. I love how even the inside looks neat and tidy. The back bit that usually looks like ... the back bit, actually looks almost as nice as the front. I should have taken a photo of that too - maybe next time.

The bag is held closed with punched circles of self adhesive magnetic stuff (what do you call that stuff Isabel? I am having a mind blank!) - stuff I got from Isabel anyway, that I punched into nice neat circles.

It was the first time I had really used any of the stuff from the mini catalogue - what with the chaos of Christmas, and then packing and moving, the summer mini stuff has been neglected by me. But I had had this idea for a wee while, and finally sat down and tried it out. I want to try it out with the ginger blossom papers and guava carousel notes too, so now I have all the measurements worked out, it should be quicker this time. I will keep you 'posted' on how that goes.

And Campbell has requested I make him one - but a boy one. I am thinking maybe a backpack? He asked me where it was just before, so maybe the backpack will get done before the ginger blossom bag?!

A little birdy told me

Well, not so much a little birdy, as a couple of sneak peaks on the SU demonstrator website, and some rumours from those lucky ladies who have managed a look at the new catalogue already. There are apparently a few new birds in the 2009/2010 catalogue, in the form of stamps, chipboard and patterned papers. I for one am getting VERY impatient. Not sure if the sneak peaks and rumours are helping, or making it worse, but hey, I share them with you anyway!

AS for the birds and other stamped images in this little project (which some of you have seen already) - they come from the old faves 'carte postale' and 'rough edges alphabet' which will not be in the new catalogue - retiring at the end of the month instead.

This little accordian album was first shown to me by a clever lady named Rachael Knight. It can be used as either a card with a difference, or a fun little stand alone (and stand up!) scrapbooking project - perfect to make as a gift, or for people who want to try some scrapbooking, but are not keen to get started on an album. Once it is done it is done. No empty page protectors to taunt you!!

Half a piece of A4 card, some scraps of patterned paper and card, and some decorative bits and pieces (stamps or other embellishments) and you are good to go. This is a project that even I can get finished relatively quickly, so you all know that you can too! I have done this project as a class before, so have some instructions filed away somewhere. If you would like them let me know, and I will see if I can dig them up.