Summer Beach Mini-Album

WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY POST FOLLOWS!!





Hey guys! I'm really excited to share this new beach mini! I was drawn to the K & Co Tim Coffey travel line when I saw the map papers in this collection. I knew instantly I wanted to feature one of them on the cover of a mini and this came together exactly as I envisioned it in my head. I used a little tulle, string beads, gorgeous Primas, netting, and several of the chipboard pieces from the collection. The spine is covered in burlap and was a little challenging to work with in this way, but I think it lends so much to the beachy feel of this album. Definitely worth a little frustration!


This is an 8x8 album with 6 interior pages (a total of 14 pages including the insides of the front and back covers).
There's all kinds of interactive elements in this one, but I designed it with lots of space for the photos to take center stage on nearly every page. Each page has 2 small tags tucked inside and there are 5 larger tags throughout the album. I usually don't buy a whole collection with all the little extra embellishments, but this line had SO many nice extras that went perfectly with the papers--I couldn't resist! I used vellum pieces, lots of chipboard stickers, die-cuts, and border strips and mixed in a lot of other manufacturer's stamps like Waltzingmouse, SU!, and KaiserCraft.

Travel related scrapbooking is my favorite, and especially anything beachy and tropical. It's so much fun to work with and makes me dream about vacations!

I'll be making a YouTube video of this mini later on today and listing this for auction on Ebay Tuesday night (9/11). shhhhh.... don't tell anyone, but I'm making another one exactly like this to keep for myself. I'll drop in here again with the video and a link to the Ebay listing soon.

Have an excellent crafty week!

Hey there! It's been quite awhile since I've posted, but I've been busy working on a few new projects that I hope to share soon. I posted last time about diving into the PDF tutorial world, but I'm torn about it. I want to provide nice, clear, concise instructions on how to complete each mini, but the reality of it is I'm not sure if I have it in me. I like a lot of detail in my albums and sometimes there are so many steps to completing an interactive element that I wouldn't know where to begin if I was trying to explain it to others. Meanwhile, I was asked to join an artist group on eBay to sell my mini-albums. I've enjoyed listing them in my Etsy shop, but I never know how to price them. It's a complete mystery to me. If I list them too high, I feel like I'm being greedy and risk turning off a lot of people. If I list them too low, I feel like I'm not being fair to myself and my time and efforts.

So, by listing them on an auction site, I can set the minimum bid nice and low and let the buyer decide what they'd like to pay for my work. It's a win-win situation and one that I feel better about. I love making minis and I love sharing them with others, especially to inspire, but I don't want them to just collect in my home. If there's a market for selling them and finding them a new home with those who will enjoy them, I'm going to pursue that. I hope that doesn't make me out to be a greedy person. I have truly loved making this a little "business" and the pride and accomplishment I get each time someone likes my work enough to spend their hard earned money on it. I'm flattered and humbled at the same time.

With that said, I have a "take 2" on my vintage paper-bag mini that I did last year (my first YT vid ever) that's up for auction right now on eBay. I made this one with more of a focus on space for photos rather than all of the interactive elements in the first one. There's a ton of tags in this one ( I think 22?) and lots of pockets, die-cuts, etc.

Here's a link to the eBay listing: Vintage Paper-bag mini

Here's the video:



I'm currently working on a beach mini that I should have completed right before Labor Day weekend. I'm really excited to share this one! I also have plans to offer some smaller things in my Etsy store like individual embellished cards and tags. I have recently found a love for a little stamp company that's not my usual style and I think will make some fun and cute cards. I'm anxious to start working with them!

So, I haven't completely shut down the idea of mini-album tutorials, but I need a little more time to think about it and decide if it's something I can do well. Until then, I will keep sharing my minis on YouTube and hopefully keep inspiring with different techniques and ways to use paper lines!

Hope you enjoy the weekend and make time to get crafty!

Time for a Change

Happy Saturday everyone! I've spent the morning working on a blog refresh and I'm really liking the new look. It was time for a change and time for me to get blogging again and sharing some things I've been working on. I've been driving my hubby crazy as I've been making him get up and come look at the changes I've made and how I'm learning to edit html! I'm really not liking this new blogger interface and it's made using the free templates a real pain, so I've had to tweak the html code to fix a few things and it's not quite finished yet. One of these days I might actually pay someone to design my blog, but for now I love to frustrate myself and I get a kick out of figuring things out on my own (even if the end result is less than great).

I have a new mini-album that's in the final stages of completion and hopefully I'll get some pics up in the next few days. I'll also be doing a YouTube video of this one and it will be available in my Etsy shop soon.

I have a new addition to my shop that I should be launching this fall. I plan on offering PDF tutorials for purchase on most, if not all, of my mini-albums moving forward. The completed minis will still be for sale in the shop and I also hope to offer a limited number of kits to complete the minis.

If you've got a minute, let me know what you think of the new plans and the new look to the blog!

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

6x6 World Traveler Mini-album Video

Good Morning! Wow, I'm speechless! My World Traveler mini sold yesterday after a few hours! I plan on making several more travel minis in the next few months with a few different collections I've been hoarding, so keep an eye out for those. I'll try to get them uploaded to the blog here and YouTube before I list them in the shop.

I have a small gift album I'll be working on this week and then my next big project is a wedding type album using the G45 LeRomantique.

Here is the YouTube video of the World Traveler mini. It gives you a better idea of the interactive elements in the album and I tried to cover most of the products/techniques I used on it.

Hope you're having a great week so far!

6x6 World Traveler Mini-album

Good Monday Morning!!
Here's a little travel album I just completed using the Teresa Collins World Traveler collection. Travel-related scrapbooking is where my true love lies, so this was so much fun to create! There's just something about working with map images, compasses, and vintage post card stuff that just makes me happy:) I guess not only does it remind me of vacations past, but more importantly it makes me dream of vacations to come!

I'll be shooting a video of this album hopefully later on today, but I wanted to get some still shots up and the listing in my Etsy shop HERE (and on the sidebar).

There's all kinds of little details in here, but I also designed it with the goal of vacation pics taking center-stage. So, there's room on nearly every page for a large 4x6 photo. Some of the interactive pages like the postcard, waterfall, and map page can hold a smaller photo on top of those elements, and of course there's room within those elements for pics as well.

The covers are chipboard and the 4 interior pages are pocket-pages like the one I recently did on my YouTube channel. This little baby can hold at least 45 photos!

I'm off to work on that video. Hope you have a wonderful week!

Graphic45 Steampunk Debutante Mini-Album Video

As promised, here's the video of my Graphic45 Steampunk mini which just sold in my Etsy shop this morning!! Honestly, I was completely surprised and caught a little off-guard that it sold that quickly. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm really excited that it did--and I'm definitely not complaining here--but I was hoping to get a few more minis done and listed in the shop before it was empty again!! And, I have to admit I'm a little sad to send this one off. It would have made a gorgeous addition to my coffee table:)

So, I'll be working on a few new minis over the next couple weeks. I can't wait to dig in to a new package of goodies I received in the mail this week! I'm staring at more gorgeous Graphic45 papers and thinking a baby album is due, the new BoBunny Weekend Market is calling my name, and travel albums are definitely on my mind!

Hope you're having a fabulous week!

Graphic45 Steampunk Debutante Mini-Album

I'm really excited to share this new mini!! This is an 8x8 album using the Graphic45 Steampunk Debutante collection and was SO much fun to make! I was a little scared to jump on in to this one as I've never done a Steampunk anything before, but I just focused on those gorgeous images and played with a bunch of metal and grunge. It really came together once I got rid of the fear!

There's all sorts of pull-out tags and pockets in this album, so I'll be uploading a video of it tomorrow to show these in more detail.

This album is for sale in my Etsy shop and can be found HERE

Hope you have a wonderful crafty week!

Baby Album using Simple Stories Baby Steps

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here! I've actually finished several projects but just neglected to post them to my blog. I think I've gotten a little overwhelmed with too many social media outlets!! I find that I've been focusing most of my attention to my YouTube channel and while I could apologize for that, I'm just gonna choose not to. For whatever reason, I find it a whole lot more interactive over there, easier to upload videos(can you imagine that?) and just plain fun to showcase my work in a video where I think it just does it more justice.

I still plan on posting here, but I've got to manage my time better and find a way to juggle the blog, the YT channel, and my Etsy shop all at the same time. I seriously don't know how some people do it! It's hard enough finding the time to devote to my hobby, but when you add in all of the time creating blog posts, videos, etc it can really get out of hand!

Anyways, here's a little mini I made for a friend who wanted a unique gift to give. I used the 6x6 Simple Stories Baby Steps paper pad and the cardstock sticker sheet from the collection. There's a few things here and there from my stash, but overall I just relied on the collection to create this.

I hope to have a video tutorial on the pocket pages I made for this album completed some time in the next few weeks.
Enjoy!

Halloween Mini-Album DCWV Ghosts and Goblins

Here's the YouTube video of my Halloween Mini. Come on over and take a peek at the pockets for journaling tags and the little details that pics just can't show!

Have an awesome day!!

A New Halloween Mini and An Announcement!

Ok, guys--lots of things to tell you about. First off, I finished this little Halloween Mini a few days ago and finally got a video up on YouTube. I'll post the link to the video tomorrow, but just wanted to share the still shots today. This paper was SO much fun to work with! The album is made with the DCWV Ghosts and Goblins stack and there's tons of stamping, heat embossing, embossing with folders, border punches used, etc. Lots and lots of details!

Secondly, I finally opened an Etsy shop! I'm not sure how many items I'll actually get listed in there, but it's a step in the right direction and this Halloween mini is my first listing in the shop! I've got some tweaking to do with the shop design, but I didn't want to delay any longer. I've been wanting to open one for about a year now so I'm pretty excited about it all. Hoping it will motivate me to create:) My shop is called SoMuchScrap and you can find it here. My husband named it and he thinks he's so clever. It's what he says when he stands in the doorway of my craft room looking in--only he drops the s from scrap.

And third, a little personal info that I'm SUPER proud of and just wanted to share---my son just left for Army basic training 2 weeks ago!! He's doing great and really focused and this military family is just super proud of his decision and the path he has chosen!

Hope you have a great day and get some time to create something awesome!!