Spring Mini Album

Hello again fellow crafters & welcome to May!  Finally here in the North East Coast I can honestly say that Spring has arrived.  On that note, I've decided to post this 'Spring' themed mini album.  For this mini I've joined two fabulous manufacturers to create one very colorful mini album.  All papers used for this mini is by Authentique & the mini acrylic & chipboard album is by Clear Scraps. 

The paper is from Authentique's Petite 'Spring' collection & the mini album is the Spring Mixables album.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with a mini that consisted of both acrylic & chipboard pages--the possibilities are so many with this combination & the clear nature of the acrylic pages adds such a wonderful visual appeal.

I've highlighted the cover of the mini by first going over the edges with a pink Sharpie Oil Based Paint marker which is a permanent marker.  Any time you want to work with acrylic, it's best to use permanent markers  and/ or permanent inks such as Staz-On.  Next with a thin paint brush I've applied a thin layer of clear dry adhesive & spread Diamond Dust onto the adhesive.  Once dry you get that 'crystal' effect all along the border and since the Diamond Dust is transparent & the adhesive dries clear, you'll see the pink Sharpie line peek through.

Here's a closer look at the cover edges.  You can also see the border of a chipboard page behind the acrylic page.  I've covered all of my chipboard pages with designer paper, sanded the edges in order to smooth them out and then inked all the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  Finally I added dots of either Stickles or acrylic paint along the edges to further dress them up.

I've decorated the acrylic pages mostly with images that were cut from the Authentique papers & with rub-ons.  In this photo you can see the different designs that are created with the acrylic & chipboard page combinations.

The doilies is what will hold my photos.  I've yet to take the photos that will go into this mini!  I just know that once I do--the mini album will be prepped & ready to hold them.  I may journal or tell the stories of my pictures on the inside of the last page of my mini or I may simply decide to add more photos here.  I haven't quite decided yet.

Isn't this umbrella & banner the perfect touch to a 'Spring' themed mini?  When I saw these images I knew I had to fussy cut them out and arrange them onto my front cover.  The mushroom bird & bird's nest are from my stash.  These are little embellies I find by sometimes taking the time to go through the .50 cents or $1.00 clearance bin at my local craft store.

Isn't the design of this album creative?  The chipboard page is actually cut in the shape of two flowers.  I've positioned my doilies on the following page so that when I adhere the photos, they'll peek through the center of the flowers that will 'frame' them when you're on this particular page.

As you can see I added dots of either Stickles or acrylic paint along just about all the borders of this mini.  I think it helps the edges stand out a bit more.

This mini can hold approximately 6-8 photos--it all depends on how you design it.  I've added tulle & ribbon to the rings holding my mini together.

Thanks for stopping by & I hope you've been inspired to create a few 'Spring' themed projects!  Enjoy the rest of the week.

Baby Mini Album

Hello once again fellow scrappers & happy belated Thanksgiving to you all.  Although it seems that everybody is pretty much already in Christmas mode!

Today's post is a mini album that I made for Clear Scraps.  I've used their new Acrylic Recipe Stand 4"x6" Kit & their Acrylic Mini Word Album Baby.  What better way to use both these items than for a mini album showcasing my newborn baby boy.

I've embellished this album in numerous ways!  Here are just a few: ribbon, alcohol inks, stamps, Stickles, Liquid Pearls, paper, lace, transparent elements, flowers & more...

As always, the cover lends itself to be decorated the most.  For the album title of 'Baby' I've embellished the acrylic with alcohol inks.  In my opinion alcohol inks really do add the best & most unique texture to acrylic.  To keep with the color theme of my album which is white, blue & yellow--I used Sunshine Yellow, Sailboat Blue & just a bit of Silver alcohol inks.

In this close up you can really see the texture the alcohol inks gave the acrylic cover.  In person, you can certainly appreciate it much more.

To make my cover stand out more, I highlighted the edges with a white Sharpie paint pen & dots of White Opal Liquid Pearls.

One of my fave embellishments lately has been mini glass vials.  I've added one here filled with blue & yellow seed beads.  I tied some twine around the neck of the bottle.

The flowers on the cover are a combination of mulberry & beaded flowers.  I spelled out my little boy's name with some square alphabet beads that I found at my local A.C. Moore craft store.

I added dimension to my album by adding transparent elements that fall off the page.  Don't be afraid to add embellishments that go beyond your page--this is what gives your project extra dimension.  My transparent elements are a combination of Hambly Screen Prints & Fancy Pants Designs.

I've used ribbon all over this mini album.  I've tied a couple of wide, sheer organza ribbons to the rings holding my album together & I've also cut snippets of ribbon, folded them in half & adhered them to my cover as shown here.

I've punched a couple of holes into the base of my album and run ribbon through them...those are the ribbons you see peeking out from the sides in this close up.

I guess you can say the first photo I had of my son was his ultrasound--so I began my album with this photo.  I've embellished the inside of my album mostly with flat embellishments.  If I add embellishments with too much dimension--my album will become too bulky.  So I've used mostly transparent elements, stamps, Stickles/Liquid Pearls & flat flowers to embellish my pages.

Oh yes, almost forgot.  I've also used a couple of paper piecings.  I've had these puppy, blue bird & yellow duckling paper piecings in my stash for many moons now.  I always knew that one day I'd have the perfect project for them--this mini album was it! On most of the acrylic pages of my album I've added some kind of paper piecing and rub ons to embellish it.

As you can see in this close up--my photo behind the acrylic page peeks through.  That's the beauty of acrylic!  My little guy was just 1 day old here.  :-)

You can get some really unique & creative projects done by strategically placing items on or behind acrylic.

Here's another acrylic page decorated with a blue bird paper piecing and white flourish rub ons.  Again you can see my photo peeking out from behind as well as the script stamping I did.  The script stamping looks like it's part of the acrylic page--but it's not.  I've added the stamping to the page holding my photo.

Behind each page containing my photos I plan to do some lengthy journaling/story telling.  Just conveying my thoughts & feelings on the new chapter in my life.

Here I'm showing several more pages from my mini album.  As you can see, rub ons is what I've primarily used to decorate my acrylic pages.

As a side note--I love the little yellow duckling paper piecing!  :-)

My album still has several blank pages.  I'm in the process of taking & developing pictures of my son--however, the album is pretty much prepped!  All I have to do is add my photos as I develop them and add a bit of flat flowers, stamping, rub ons and/or transparent elements to add a bit of visual interest to my photos & I'm done.

Also, I'd like to note that on all of my pages I've randomly added dots of either Stickles or Liquid Pearls along the edges.  This helps further define the borders of my pages.

To the bottom of my album I've adhered some light blue lace & a bit of white pom-pom ribbon.

Thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit!  I hope this project inspires some of you to get creative with acrylic mini albums.  Enjoy the rest of the week!

Family Heritage Mini Album

Hello once again fellow scrappers!  Today's project is an 8x8 chipboard mini album that I made almost a year ago!  I have just never gotten around to posting it--till now that is. 

Like most moms, mine has an album full of family heritage photos.  For me, it's been the only way to get to know my ancestors such as my great grandmother or great aunt.  They all passed away long before I came into existence.  I decided to take several of these photos--scanned & printed them out to create this mini Family album that I can now pass down to my future kids. 

I really enjoyed creating this album.  It's full of ribbons, stamping, laces, bling etc.  I primarily used papers from 7 Gypsies and the mini album itself is by Maya Road (if I'm not mistaken).  It's very thick chipboard--so my album consists of a few pages only. 

There's a closeup of my flower cluster found on the cover of the mini album.  It's full of ribbon flowers, mulberry paper flowers, beads and even a handmade beaded flower.  I make these beaded flowers myself & you can always find them in my small Etsy shop. 

The very first page shows my grandmother and my mom.  My mom was just 3 years old here!

Bottom left is my aunt.  If you take a close look at the corners of each photo you'll see a number.  That number corresponds with a number found on several tags that I included with this album.  The tags say who the person in the photo is & if available, states the date the photo was taken.

In both the bottom left & right photos you'll see some of my tags peeking out.

Top left is my grandmother & across from her are her four children--consisting of my mom, two aunts & my one uncle.

Top right is me & my grandmother!  My grandmother played a very big role in my life--all the way through her passing at 95 years of age in 2006.  I miss her dearly every day.

Bottom left is my grandmother again with one of my cousins.

Top left you'll find my grandfather, mom, aunt & grandmother.

Top right is my great-grandmother with two of my aunts.

Bottom left is my grandfather's sister which--if I'm not mistaken--would make her my great aunt. 

Bottom right is my grandfather again with my mom.

All of these photos (except for the one where I'm with my grandmother) were taken in Chile which is where my family is from. 

As you can see from the photos--I went stamp crazy!  I love embellishing but since this is a mini album I couldn't add too many embellishments with dimension or else I wouldn't even be able to close the album.  So I added flair to it with lots of ribbons and stamps!

Thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit...enjoy the rest of the week.

Mini Owl 'Love' Album

Good evening once again fellow scrappers! Today I bring you my first shaped mini album. I'm very happy how it came out! This tiny album measures about 3" inches in height. So when I say it's tiny--I mean it's tiny! :-) I used the Mini Owl Album by Clear Scraps.

I have to admit that I was very much inspired by Irene Tan (Scrapperlicious) when making this album. I took many of her tips & techniques to make this small little treasure. It's funny how something this small can utilize so many different techniques. I'll be highlighting a few of these techniques in this post.

This was also a DT project that I made for Stamp Enjoy.

I made the black & red beaded flower seen on the cover. I have these beaded flowers in a variety of colors available in my small Etsy shop. So if you like them--feel free to stop by.

First technique tip is the black flourish seen on the cover. I used Tim Holtz's Elegant Flourishes die with grunge board. I cut the flourishes in several pieces to use throughout the album.

TIP: To get that 'shimmery' look on chipboard or grunge board I first painted the flourish with black acrylic paint. I then heat embosssed it with Star Dust embossing power by Stampendous. In person this gives of a very shiny look!

The 'Love' stamp is by Stamp Enjoy. All the edges of the album's pages were inked with Tea Dye distress ink. I also randomly applied Silver Stickles along the edges of the pages to further dress them up.

Rub ons were also widely used throughout this mini album as well as flat flowers in order to avoid making the album too bulky.

The album is primarily about family & the love that is shared amongst family. I went online & found several quotes that went along nicely with the theme of my album. I then printed them onto cream colored cardstock, distressed the edges & inked them.

TIP: In this photo you'll notice that the page is see-through. This entire album is clear acrylic. I covered most of the pages with paper but I left a couple of them without paper. Instead I covered these pages with alcohol inks & ran them through my Big Shot in order to dry emboss them. This techniques gives off a completely different look.

I also randomly applied ribbon throughout the pages of the mini album. I punched holes through the acrylic with my Crop-a-Dile & then tied pieces of ribbon through these holes.











The floral stamp seen here is by Stamp Enjoy titled Balisier. TIP: If you don't have enough room for a specific stamp or if you want to place the stamp in a difficult spot try stamping the image on a transparency or acrylic & cut it out. This way you can place the image any where you wish. Just make sure you use glue that dries clear when adhering the transparency. Also to further dress up your images--add a bit of clear Stickles such as Crystal or Star Dust as shown in this screen shot.

Thanks to all of you who stop by. I truly appreciate your visit. I hope to have the time to make more mini albums. These make such wonderful keepsakes that can be passed down to many future generations.