WOW, IT'S FRIENDS WITH FLAIR FRIDAY!

When I was making cards the other day, I wanted to make some sympathy cards.  I always struggle with making sympathy cards.  I had the background paper by Basic Grey that I wanted to use, but then the challenge was to find some paper that coordinated with it since it was a weird color.  This paper from last year's winter collection by Fancy Pants coordinated beautifully with it.  I used some of my favorite crinkled crepe ribbon by Creative Impressions ( I think that is the brand) to give it even more color.  The stamp is from Bevy of Butterflies and I used my Creative Memories circle punch.  The ink I used is a Powder Puff chalk ink.

I also made some cards that could be sympathy or get well cards.  This card used one of the BEAUTIFUL big butterfly stamps from the Butterfly Beauty stamp set.  The background paper is from a baby collection by Little Yellow Bicycle, I think.  I bought a bunch of this paper when Cat was having a big sale since the colors are fantastic, it is a varnished paper with lots of texture, plus it works for travel, ocean, and lots of things--LOVE IT!  The rose paper is by My Minds Eye and the cardstock is by Bazzill.  The butterfly is stamped on a scrap of paper that I had.  I used a punch by Stampin Up to punch out the sentiment, which is from the My Thoughts are With You  set.  I love those sentiment collections since they are wonderful to grab when you want to make a bunch of cards.

I'm going to link this to the Friends with Flair hop as well as Cat's WOW Wednesday hop.  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win from Cat or Unity.  Two chances to win--FUN!!!!  Go back to Cat's blog and Unity's blog to check out everyone else's creations and leave more comments for even more chances to win.  

WOW, IT'S FINISHED !

This is the lapbook album that I've been working on for the past several weeks.  This album was inspired by an album designed by Kathy Orta, aka Paper Phenomenon.  I also used Rachel's modification of adding a chipboard cover and one inch spines.  I definitely want to give credit to these ladies for coming up with the design of the structure of this album.  I used a Tim Holtz die to create the cupid and heart on the front of the album  I used Viva Decor "Ferro" on the heart and arrow.

When you open the album, you see this page  It has space for a large photograph  The scrolls above and below the photo mat were made using the Viva Decor mother-of-pearl modelling paste and a stencil.  The two "folders" you see peeking out of the side pocket on the left are actually mini albums:

I made these using a Coluzzle template and blade set that I have had forever.  The bottom mini album has a cascade album inside to hold lots of photos.

As you "turn" the page, you come to this page, which has a place for another large photo and two more of the folder mini-albums peeking out of the pocket on the right.

These mini albums were made the same way the other two mini albums were made.

The back side of the page has another flap and some tags slid inside a pocket.  The flap has a spot for another photo on it, and the tags will hold three to six photos.

As you flip that page you see this flap with room for another vertical photo and it then another cascade album is revealed, as well as a spot for a "landscape" photo - there are two of these, one on each side of the album.

That flap also opens up to show more places for you to put photos.

This is what it opens up to on the opposite side.  

Paper from numerous manufacturers was used in this album.  One of the things I enjoy most about scrapbooking is mixing and matching paper collections.  The main collection I used was an older collection from SEI.  I supplemented it with paper from My Minds Eye, Echo Park, Bazzill, Little Yellow Bicycle, Pebbles, Heidi Grace, and BoBunny.  I used washi tape on the hinges inside the album and some cloth tape on the outside from Oriental Trading Company (it is similar to 7 Gypsies Gaffer tape).  I used punches by McGill, EK Success, Fiskars, WeR Memory Keepers, and Martha Stewart to create some of the embellishments.  There are not very many embellishments because this is a gift to a non-scrapbooker and I wanted to make it easy for them to adhere their photos.  Plus, the addition of the photos will significantly increase the thickness of this album and if there are very many embellishments it would be too fat.  

Several people asked me about teaching this as a class at Cat's.  Cat and I talked about it and the class will be on Saturday, August 24th.  I will begin working on the sample album this weekend using a current paper collection at the store.  Stay tuned for more details about the class as the sample is created so that we can share photos of it and will be able to give you a price.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment.  This post is linked to Cat's Creations WOW Wednesday and you will be eligible for a prize just by commenting  

IT'S A SKETCHY FRIENDS WITH FLAIR

This is a layout I did of my son's trip to Canada last year and a trip to the botanical gardens.  I used Little Yellow Bicycle's "Escape" collection and used my Creative Memories cutting system to cut the circles.  The title uses some mini alphabet stickers from My Little Shoebox and Thickers.  The pedestrian sign in the upper right hand corner is from Basic Grey and I colored it with my Gelatos and the tags hanging from it are by Creative Imaginations.  The epoxy stickers on the left hand sign are by Creative Imaginations.  The doily is from Dollar Tree and I used my Stormy Sky distress ink to color it and distress the edges of my circles and paper strip.  The embossed white paper behind the picture is by Bazzill.  No stamping on this page, but the facing page has some Unity stamps on it.

I used the same collection, a larger doily, and the same distress inks on this page.  In addition, I used a bingo stamp from an older kit of the month that is no longer available, I believe.  The stamps that I used for the circles behind the brads are from the February 2012 SMAK kit.  LOVE those kits!  The paper I stamped the bingo stamp on and the journaling block beneath it are both by Creative Imaginations.  The brads are by My Minds Eye, the quotation is by Cloud 9, and I used crackle accents on the quote square. .  I love how you can create such great embellishments with your stamps.  The SMAK kits are so fabulous for scrapbooking, but there are some great stamps included on the regular kits of the month as well.

Both of these layouts were created using Sketches from Sketch Inspiration.  The top layout used sketch #338 and the bottom layout used sketch #339.   I love the sketches from Sketch Inspiration and they have a weekly challenge...stop by and check it out!  In addition, my local scrapbook store, Cat's Creations Scrapbooks, has a weekly blog hop called WOW Wednesday with a prize awarded to a random participant or commentor.  Join us if you can.  We would love to see your work.