"The Color Purple" Mini-Album by Esther

When you want to send something special to a friend, try the collage method on a shaped mini-album. I used a round tin to make a momento of a trip to New York. The trip was to go see the Broadway Play, "The Color Purple", so it was a given to use that color throughout the mini-album. The ticket stubs and other things from the trip collected were saved with this in mind. I found a tiny plate with New York at Scrapbooks Plus to add. There are plates for all states at the front of the store.

The personalized journaling was done on the computer and a faux ticket was made in just the size needed to show the sentiment. Vellum shapes were punched to overlap the papers.

The circles were formed using chipboard pieces that were covered with solid color cardstock in shades of lavender and purple. While gluing the chipboard together, a 3" piece of ribbon was used to glue between the pieces to fold for an accordion effect.

The pictures & playbill were printed in a smaller size to fit the circles. The memorabilia is glued on both sides of the circles. Remember to cut the shapes smaller than the tin, so they willo have room to fold with the ribbons.

I had to add bling to at least one page. The glitter paper & papers were adhered with red line tape to make sure there would be a good adhesion after being handled several times.Small dabs of glitter were added to pages using Stickles.

A 7" ribbon is used on each of the end circles for tying the mini-album together. It was placed into a decorated tin to make ready for gifting. What a personal gift to remember a special occasion.

This Little Piggy

The weather has been so nice lately that I took my guinea pig outside to enjoy some fresh greens...and there were so many beautiful spring flowers, I turned it into a photo shoot! Not many tips to share from this layout. It went together so quickly because I used several elements from the My Mind's Eye Die Cut sheet - a scalloped border, the journaling block, the parentheses, and two cute little floral paisley embellishments!
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Because I chose to put the scalloped border on top of paper with similar colors, inking the edges definitely helped the die cut stand out - and the vellum did the same thing for the smaller letters in the title. This is actually one of my favorite uses for vellum because it lets the background show through, but provides just enough contrast to separate the title. The die cut parentheses provided the perfect little frame.

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And don't you just LOVE the Heidi Swapp Foam Letters?!?! They are so thick and the adhesive on them is great. I always try to add a little dimension to my projects - there are pop dots under the paisley embellishments - but the Heidi Swapp letters just JUMP off the page - perfect for a title!

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I actually took waaaay too many pictures of my cute little piglet! I was going to make an exploding box for the rest (what a surprise, right?) but I think I will turn this 1 page layout into a 2 page layout when it comes home. I hope Debbie has ordered more of those die cut sheets...

A Little "Gilt" Never Hurt Anyone!

When I opened my kit this month, after drooling over all of the gorgeous Anna Griffin papers, I found that Sharon had thrown in a bit of whimsey for us to play with - mine happened to be a little golden butterfly...and it really affected my choices for my one page layout.

I started by matting the picture...the first mat is only 1/8" bigger than the pic on each edge. The thin line of solid teal cardstock (from Chantilly Lace) is just enough to visually lift the picture from the next layer I had planned. The floral paper for the second mat had such wonderful colors and golden tones that I cut it so there was a generous 3/4" showing on each edge. I added the corrugated Anna Griffin photo corners and then, using pop dots, I set it all on top of one more mat layer of the teal cardstock. Knowing I was going to use the butterfly on the page, I pulled out a gold ink stamp pad and swiped a layer of gilt over the photo corners. It really highlighted the texture!
Next, I selected a blue-grey paper with a subtle plant pattern for the background . I trimmed it to an 11-1/2" square and adhered it to another sheet of the teal cardstock. I dragged the stamp pad around the outer edge of the entire page, and then mounted the photo on the left hand side. I added some clear overlays from Wild Asparagus (the spinner display is in the front of Scrapbooks Plus) above and below the picture. I hand cut a flower from the patterned paper and placed it in the lower right corner.

For the title, I mixed some letters which I cut with my Cricut, with the really cool

wooden letters Sharon had put in the kit. I brushed on some gold metallic

paint and lined them up on the right edge - who says a title has to be horizontal?!? I love the look these dimensional letters give the page.

Finally, the butterfly, which started the whole page. It is on a pop dot and I made the antennae out of some golden ric-rac from the kit. For my journaling, I used a word processor to print on vellum - I know I could have handwritten it, but I just don't like my handwriting! Anyway, I created an incomplete list of adjectives to describe my daughter, my Pride & Joy...and they became the meandering "path" of the butterfly.

When I look at the finished page, I smile. It is a completely different layout than I would have created if Sharon had not included that little golden butterfly from Anna Griffin. I encourage you all to challenge yourselves - there is certainly enough "Gilt" to go around!!! (sorry, I couldn't help myself!)

"Poolside" Thickers - Love these Letters!

The August kit came with a pack of Thickers that I just love! The style of the letter is "Poolside". Why am I in love with them? The designer of this particular style was very clever because of how versatile the letters are.

I am sure that everyone, at some point, has had the same problem I ran into with my 2 page layout for this month...not enough of one particular letter. My title "baby brian's bouncy butt-erfly chair" meant that I needed 5 of the letter "B" but the pack only came with 3. Not a problem! Take a close look at the title below and you will see that the "B" in "brian's" and "butt-erfly" are actually the letter "G" turned upside down...

Still not impressed? Want another example? Take a look at one of my cards from this month...

Only the "H" and the "A" are really an "H" and an "A"...can you tell what letters I used for the "P" and the "Y"? If you guessed "D" and "H"...you are correct! (I actually had enough of the letter "P" but at this point I wanted to change it out just for the fun of it...and I found I like the flow of these letters a little better - the real "P" was a lot more square.)

And just look at the possibilities with the "M" amd the "W" ...oh, and the "F"... and does anybody else think the "L" looks a lot like a bracket?

I will be honest and tell you one little thing I generally do not like about Thickers. I have problems with the adhesive. The letters just don't stick very well. Of course, that is not usually an issue, because most scrapbook pages go directly into a protective sleeve and lay flat most of the time. Mine have to go up on the Design Team Wall, and gravity takes its ugly toll (grin). I am not ready to give up such a great product (I just love the texture Thickers add to my projects!) so I have already figured out a fix for the next time. I will just run them through my Xyron to add a litte more adhesive and I think that will take care of it!