To Do Today (Mini?) Album, Part Two

Today I am going to share a couple of pictures of how I made this album.  I failed to take pictures as I was making it.  After I did it, the neighbors heard a loud "DUH!!!!!"  Hopefully this will make sense on how I made it.

 I found these gigantic envelopes at Craft Warehouse.  They have since discontinued carrying them…I bought every one they had since I found this out.  They measure 12 1/4" square…big enough to send layouts in.  But I didn't want to do that…I wanted to make an envelope album with them.  But, 12x12 albums are too big…I pared it down to about 8 x 12"(for the pages).  Of course the cover is a little bigger.

 The covers are made from the envelopes.  I cut them to the size I wanted and placed chipboard in them to give them more stability.  It worked like a charm.  Then I just used pieces of the envelopes I cut from the covers to create the spine, again adding chipboard to it for stability.

 I used a simple "Stack the Deck" binding by Laura Denison for attaching the pages.

Here's kind of a closeup of that.  The base pages are a full envelope that I scored 4" from the bottom edge.  The binding strip is attached to the back of the 8" side of the envelope.

 The above picture shows the front of the page.  I folded the envelope at 4" from the bottom, and cut off a sliver of the bottom to open it up.

This created a 4" front and back "first page" with a pocket to put things.

 The 8" side of the envelope (which is the "top" of the envelope) is already open.  I folded the envelope flap to the back of this page.  So what you have after you see the 4" page is an 8" page, again with a large pocket.  It is hard to see, but I created a file folder with kraft paper to put in each of these pockets created.  I think it goes along with the office theme, don't you?

Now we have turned the 8" page.   It is hard to see, but the flap of the envelope has been flipped to this side, the back side of the 8" side of the envelope. I took another piece of kraft card stock and attached it to the flap, thus making another page for this envelope assembly.

This shows the kraft card stock page opened, and attached to the flap of the envelope.  You can see the page, the flap it attaches to, and the back of the envelope (the 8" piece).  You can see the binding attaching the entire thing on the right.

That is the entire page assembly.  For each of the 4 page assemblies I made you will get:

A 4" page, front and back, with a pocket
An 8" page, front and back, with a pocket, filled with a file folder
A 7" cardstock page, front and back, attached to the flap of the envelope

LOTS OF SPACE FOR STUFF!!!

I hope this made sense.  I will get the video done soon, so you can see all of the decorations and the fun stuff I added to what's already here!

Stay crafty, my friends!

To Do Today (Mini?) Album, Part One

Here is my latest project.  I made the "bones" of this album ages ago.  Do you ever do that?  Come up with an idea, then between work and home and not knowing which papers to use you don't finish it?  I did.  At the last Creating Keepsakes convention I bought a kit with the October Afternoon paper line "9 to 5" in it, and knew this was the paper line I needed to use.  I had a few pieces of this collection from a past project I did, so I combined the two and came up with this.

It is not a mini album…it is a huge album.  By the time I got done adding all of the decorations and such, I could hardly keep it closed.  I made the closure with two bulldog clamps and tied ribbon to them.  This way the closure is easy to remove, but pretty too.

 The album has 4 base pages, but is FULL of places to put things.  And, believe it or not, it is made out of envelopes!

The next post will be about the base pages and how I put them together.  I sure hope you like it!  I am working on a video about the book as well.  As soon as I get it done I will let you know.

I'm not really sure what "subject" is going in this book, but it's ready when I do decide.  I am so happy with how it came out…I just love it!

Stay crafty, my friends!!

A DIY Lazy Susan that really works!

 I found this idea on Pinterest.  You can find the video here, on Alejandra's website.  She had a video that showed several organizational ideas.  This one was COOL!  She used two cake pans and marbles to create a simple DIY lazy Susan.  I LOVE IT!  I found these round cake pans, and got the marbles from the craft store.  They are supposed to be used for vases and candle decorations.

You put the marbles in the bottom of one cake pan, then place the second one on top.  Done.  I found these cool little metal buckets and tubs that fit perfectly into the cake pan.  I filled it with some embellishments that I am using for for an upcoming project that you all are going to LOVE!

Stay crafty and organized, my friends!

"A Documented Life" Mini Album Kit by Teresa Collins

I have had this kit in my stash for several years.  I "found" it again when I was reorganizing, and thought that I should just put it together.  I gathered my gear and went to work.  There are a lot of pictures in this post.  Hopefully you won't get bored!  I never follow the directions as written.  I added and changed a bit of stuff to suit my likes.  I hope you like it too.  I'll have a list of supplies I used at the end of this post.

I raided my stash and made this charm for the binding.

 I added some extra tags to the base kit.  I liked them.

 I used the title of a paper "Notations" as a label for this page.

 I had these 6x6" pages in my stash and decided that they needed to be added to this book.  I actually used three of Teresa Collins' lines of products in this project.

There are a lot of pages in this album, but I am going to have so much fun filling it up.  What do you think?

Kit:  Documented, by Teresa Collins.
Paper lines added:  Journal-it; Notations; and Hello, my name is.
The charm used:  7 Gypsies crystal; Tim Holtz pearl, bird, crown, clasp and jump rings; and a
                             Teresa Collins clock.
Bling:  K and Co., MAMBI, and Michael's.

Stay crafty, my friends.

The Desk Blotter Decoration Continues...

I love having the ability to decorate my desk blotter.  I use the same stickers that I use for my ARC planner, but I get to use the bigger stickers that are too big for my planner.  I love this one, I almost don't want to write on it!

Stay crafty, my friends!

April Arc Planner Pages

 OK, y'all, here they are, and they aren't too late this time either!!  My Arc planner is still doing a great job for me, and I am loving the decoration of it.  I am using up a lot of my stash, as well as getting some awesome new stickers that I may not normally use.  It is so much fun.  I loved the yarn stickers.  These made for a colorful week. 

These stickers are newer, by Heidi Swap for her new planner line.  

 This week I was celebrating my hubby's birthday, so I got out the old birthday stickers.

 For this week I didn't know what to do, and so I just used these stickers.  I was string to get myself in the mood for gardening.  (That is not my favorite thing to do.)

That's it for this month.  Thanks for looking.

Stay crafty and organized, my friends!

Fun Days Mini Album

Here is another half done stashed project that I finally finished.  I made this album a long long time ago.   The video was done in 2009, so I assume that's when I did the book.   I had the "bones" of the book done, meaning the base, pages covered and the tags made.  The book is a paper bag book, vertical style.  I did the decorations tonight.

I got the tutorial for this book from Kathryn Krieger on YouTube.  Her tutorial that is used is here.

I raided my stash of stuff and finished it tonight.  The original papers were by Chatter Box, the "Fabulous" collection.  I did use one page from DCWV.  I had the letter and felt stickers from that line as well.  I added the cover flowers (by Recollections), and the bling by ZVA.  The chipboard letters were by Chatterbox.  Here are the rest of the pages.

 This will make a cute album to cover a weekend of fun.

 Each bag has a tag, and each tag is double sided.

 I added little felt stickers to the tags at the finger pull spots.

I used some fun "suede" like paper that I got from JoAnn's for the spine cover of the book.  I used a Fiskars punch to edge it.

Thanks for looking.  It feels good to get this out of my pile of unfinished stuff to do!!

Stay crafty, my friends!