...more stuff

Here is another project I finished (finally) over the weekend...





This mini album has a funny story behind it...basically it is for pictures of a scarf I made for a friend that my friends and I all take on our vacations...it is the Traveling Scarf.



Each page of the album is a pocket that I cut out using my Silhouette, that way each picture of the scarf on vacation is kept with the postcard my friends sent me.



And then on the next page is the picture of the scarf...this is a picture of me and my friends at Lake Tahoe)



I stapled ribbon to the top of each postcard, so it sticks out of the top of the album...I used the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher for that....totally love that stapler!



I used Tim Holtz book corners (not sure that is the real name for those) on the front and back covers...I love the way they look!



And I gathered up all my travel embellishments for the cover...this was the first time I really used the clear acetate pieces like this...I love the layered look!



All in all I am super happy with the way this came out...and I cut a bunch more pocket pages than there were pictures so I am ready for all our future travels!

Here's to traveling!

Finishing up...

I had a whole weekend to myself...and had great plans for finishing up all the lingering projects I have hanging around...

I won't bore you with the looooong list, suffice it to say, the list is only slightly shorter now...

But it is shorter!

I put the final touches, i.e. journaling and binding, on my Tahoe Bike Trail mini album...

You may remember little June Bug helping me with this back in August...


Well here are the final results!






I used SEI papers and embellishments from their August Kit Club (sorry the papers are exclusive to club members...and even then, I just checked, and the kit is sold out).

The book is 6" X 8", and it was fun to mount the pictures edge to edge on the pages.




I inked up everything! Patterned paper, pictures and pages! Unfortunately, it got a little messy, and some pages are a bit smudged.


I used some free downloadable travel themed embellishments on the pages...I think they are from Scrapbooks Etc. online...


I also pulled out my bag of bling...and added something to just about every page!




My fav little embellishment is this cute water splat from Cloud 9...I just love it!


And I think I am in love with making paper rosettes! This was my first one and I loved how it turned out...although it took FOREVER to make...I just started using my score board to make them and have cut the time from 30 minutes to about five!


And a quick update on the kitties...everyone (except Lizzy) is getting ready for spay/neuter on Thursday, and then ready for adoption!

All healthy as horses...and eating me out of house and home!

Little Lizzy is still not quite 2lbs, so she won't be available for another couple of weeks...the better for me!

Ain't she sweet!

Frugal Friday: Home Made Transparencies

I decided to join in the fun of another year doing the Ali Edwards December Daily album…I enjoyed it last year and am really looking forward to this year’s mini album. After looking at Ali’s instructions for getting the foundation of the mini album together I saw that she used a lot of transparencies. I don’t have any of these…so I whipped out the Michael’s coupon and took a trip down to the store. Well for $2 a 12X12 sheet, and I needed about 12 sheets….that was really gonna add up! Not to mention, the selection of transparencies was pretty slim….what is a cheap girl to do?


No question….break out that old box of transparency film I bought about a hundred years ago and get to making my own.

I only had about 5 sheets left in the box, which originally had 50…so you can imagine how long I have had this! I tried two different approaches to making my transparencies.

First, I opened up the program Print Shop on my computer, but MS Word would work just as well, and imported all the Christmas themed images I could find. Truth be told, all the images came with the Print Shop software…and if you can get your hands on it I recommend it…it is really easy to use and comes with oodles of copyright free images!

And then simply printed out the sheets! Too easy!




Secondly, I felt like I wanted some transparencies that just had one overall pattern…so I broke out the Staz-On inks and my Christmas themed stamps. First I cut the 8 1/2” X 11” sheets in half, since this would eventually be the size of my mini album.


I inked up my stamp…


Placed it on the rough side of the transparency…be sure to resist the urge to “wiggle” the stamp at all so that the image doesn’t smudge…and them lift straight up…


I started with my biggest snowflake stamp and then moved down the line to my smallest filling in all of the area.


I played around with a few other stamps and ideas and came up with these transparencies…
So in the end, they aren’t quite like say a good Hambly transparency, but for the price they will work and I had a lot of fun playing around with them!


So was the experiment worth it? Here is the tally:

Cost: $0 (again, I had everything on hand…but a box of transparencies run about $25 to $35 for a box of 50)
Fun Factor: This was pretty neat!
Time: Varied, but not too long.
Skill Level: Intermediate (a steady hand is a must)

So there it is, Home Made Transparencies! Easy Peasy…and Cheap! Cheap!

Halloween House

I came across an article in Scrapbooking.com magazine a week ago that had this most adorable Haunted Halloween House mini album by Camille Serra McClelland...so cute!

This is Camille's Halloween House...


I had to try one out for myself...and although not completely finished yet, I am having an absolute blast putting it together!

This is my version...


Camille's album is made of acrylic, and although I read through her instructions for making an acrylic album...I decided to go with chipboard.

I love that the front door opens!


I used Cloud 9 papers for the majority of the album, with a few scraps of this and that thrown in. The fence on the front is painted wood...adds some more dimension...

I added a spooky tree to the front, covered with Black Diamond Stickles.


And an old fashioned lamppost coated with Enamel Accents (a new favorite!) and Platinum Stickles.


All the windows are filled in with transparencies...

And my favorite part...the Vampiress in the top floor window! She was cut on my Silhouette at 2.25inches tall...I L-O-V-E how detailed the Silhouette can cut (when the blade is nice and sharp!)...she is four VERY tiny parts glued together...


I can't believe I had the patience for this!

I still have some more spooky things to add...moss to the front yard, a bat weather-vane and all the pictures and embellishments to the inside pages...I will post more pictures when it is all complete.

This was so fun to make...I have already started making patterns for different houses (my house included) and can't wait to get started embellishing them!

Halloween Hellos!

A couple of weekends ago I spent three wonderful days crafting at a friends house on the North Coast of California...


I can still hear the fog horn in the back of my mind. Simply a beautiful house...simply a beautiful weekend...


With only one minor set-back...

Hot Chocolate and scrapbooking don't always mix...be forewarned!

Anyway...minus a couple of side-trips and a made dash looking for some Mikes Hard Lemonade, we spent the entire three days crafting! How glorious!

I finished up my "Halloween Hellos" that weekend, and finally got them in the mail earlier this week.

I think they turned out cute, and were super fun (if not a bit messy) to make! (all complete with their own matching envelopes!)

Here are the "Witching you a Spooky Halloween" Cards


These witches legs are a modification of a cut file for my Silhouette. Complete with glittered tights.


I popped up the glitterd spider and added Stickles for his web thread.


And I added Enamel Accents (from Ranger) for the witches boot heels.


And these are my "Happy Howl-o-ween" cards.




And finally..I made a few "Fall" cards...just because this cut file was so neat to glitter!


Well tonight is the big kitten weigh-in again. We had two kitten reach the two pound mark last week...and I think they have all doubled in size this week!

I am still trying to get a good picture of Snickers...so I will check back in a few days with weight updates and new pictures!

Frugal Friday: Mini Album

Okay, for this week I am going to do something different...actually something I didn't think I would do...that is, post a link to someoneelse's tutorial. But the more I contemplated my schedule (hectic) and the more I watched the video (totally cool), I realized I needed to be frugal with my time (if that makes sense) and just let you all see this awesome tutorial.

This crafter, Laura at The Paper Trail, is my new guru for recycled crafting and found object scrapping. She is the queen of frugal!

Her mini album is made from nothing but found objects, recycled bits and baubles (including plastic grocery store bags!) and a bit from her stash!

I watched the video a couple of times, and am completely amazed at how lovely her "Happiness Found" album looks!

I compiled a list of all the found/recycled objects, and can you believe it, there are 14 different things!

Here's the list:
corrugated cardboard
scrap paper
plastic grocery bags
bread tabs
UPC code from FedEx package
old floral arrangement
blue jeans tags
twist-ties
tin can lid
pop can tab
Capri Sun juice pouch
fortune cookie fortunes
library card pockets
concentrated orange juice top

This is the link to the video 'walk-thru' of the mini album

And this is the link to the video about the plastic pages...so awesome!

It inspires me to try something similar...just walk through the house and see what I can find to use in a mini!

Kitty Update

Well, this batch of kitties has been a bit of a trial.

We thought we had panleukopenia (a feline version of parvo)...but thankfully it wasn't! Unfortunately, we lost a kitten to "fading kitten syndrome".



...which I think is a completely unreasonable and inaccurate name for the syndrome. Basically, fading kitten is simply that...a kitten that fails to thrive and eventually passes. Well, in reality the name should be changed to "helplessly hopelessly unable to save your kitten syndrome"! It was heart breaking, but thankfully wasn't anything contagious and all the other kittens are doing fine.

In fact, our little Buddy reached his two pound weight goal and was sent off this Tuesday to be neutered and adopted out! He's a real cutey!



And we picked up a new member for the gang...Snickers (sorry, no picture just yet, I don't think she has stood still for more than two seconds since Tuesday!)

The sister to our little lost kitty was quarantined for ten days...which was actually a blessing in disguise for her. She was so shy yet aggressive to handling at the beginning of the quarantine, but by the third day was rolling on her back for belly rubs. She is now one of the friendliest kitties we have. Oreo is just a doll!



And little Lizzy finally made it over a pound! She is currently weighing in at about 1lb. 4oz....and growing!



I will update on Monday (or Tuesday...or Wednesday...given time) everyone's new weight...we have our big weekly weigh-in (real Weight Watcher's style) on Friday evenings...oh, what fun!

And for anyone in the Farifield, California area looking to adopt a post-kitten pre-teen cat...I have the scoop on four very adorable loving hand-raised spayed/neutered vaccinated and well-adjusted cats! Just send me an email!


Beaver...a super sweet cat! (this picture is about a month old...but he is still very handsome!)


June Bug...with Beaver in the background and either Whitey or Grizzly in the foreground...

Remember...spay and neuter your pets!