Labor of Love - Finally Done!!!

When my little (step) brother died a few years ago, I knew that I'd want to create an album for my step-dad. After my mom gave me all of the pictures we could salvage last spring, I was thinking I'd be able to create the album in a month or two, tops. Well, here it is 10 months later and I'm FINALLY done! I didn't realize how hard it would be to create it. Every time I'd sit down to do a layout, I'd want it done perfectly and that really prevented me from inspiration and completion.

I was surfing Teresa Black's "Fabulously Artsy" blog recently and stumbled upon her Memories post. It was just what I was looking for to help tie in the final page! I lifted the idea and applied it to the layout that I started way back 10 months ago when I started the whole project, and I love how it turned out. (Thanks for the inspiration, Teresa!)

This layout uses the Free Spirit papers & Stickease from CTMH, CTMH stamps & inks, plus a little Cricut action for the title and a clear "unforgettable" sticker from Creative Memories.

Here are a few more of the layouts in the album. It's been so long ago that I started and I used a bunch of stuff from my stash, so I don't know all of the companies I got supplies from. (Like on this Baby Steps layout.)

For this Father/Son page, I had a sheet of patterned paper that had all of these fun circles on it. I didn't have enough to use it as the base of a two-page spread, so I cut some of the circles out and scattered them around the layout. It was time consuming, but the finished product turned out fun.

The Giddy Up page is one of my all-time favorites. It's using cowboy themed paper from Stampin' Up. I "lassoed" orange twine through the Cricut letters and added eyelets to the pre-designed sheriff's badge thing in the corner.

The Look at you Grow layout was another where I took circles from one patterned paper to tie my layout together. Luckily these circles fit into my Creative Memories punches. I added CTMH Outdoor Denim to the edges of the circles to have them match the original patterned paper.

This is another layout using Stampin' Up products - this time from one of their page kits. The letters are CTMH Color - Ready Alphabet Stickease.

This layout was used with all Making Memories products. I love the little chipboard crown - way fun.

The Senior Prom/Graduation layout featured paper and stamps from CTMH, silver ink, and a fabric flower I had laying around. The glitter letters are Making Memories and the glitter swirl is K and Co. (I think!)

Thanks for looking!

More from the baby album...

Here are a few more of the layouts I'm doing for the baby album I blogged about earlier.

Usually when I give a gift album I create two page layouts, but for this one I'm doing a one page spread for each month of the first year, plus a layout for mom and a layout for dad. I'll tie it together (I think) with a layout that matches the first one with the zoo animals for the first birthday. It's been difficult trying to do gender-neutral layouts, since the parents decided not to find out the gender of the baby, but hopefully these will do!

This layout will be for January. It's using papers from Stamin' Up and the All Bundled Up stamp set from Close To My Heart. I paper-pieced the gloves, earmuffs and scarf using the same paper pack. Ink was a save-me from my friend Christine - she said she got it at Wally World forever ago.

This layout is for February. It's using mostly Dollar Spot paper from Target (my favorite fun cheap finds usually come from this area!), plus a chipboard heart from Close To My Heart and sparkly stickers from Making Memories.This layout features more paper from Stampin' Up's Bella Rose collection. I love the reds & browns! The stamps, ink, flower & brad are all Close To My Heart and the rub on is Stampin' Up.This cute layout is from Close to My Heart's Free Spirit collecction. I added Liquid Glass to the round Stickease to give them a faux - epoxy sticker look. Everything here is CTMH.

February club fun!

Here's the Unforgettable layout we completed at our monthly club meeting yesterday. It was inspired by another CTMH crafty chick - Heather Gerard. {Almost} everything here is Close To My Heart.

I used my fancy new Boho Blossoms punch from Stampin' Up for the little orange flowers - much easier than having to cut out stamped images. I added pewter brads to the centers and popped them up with pop dots.

I slip-knotted the satin ribbon through one of our new Foundry Bookplates and did a little ink distressing to finish it off.

If you enjoy projects like this, join us for our next Club meeting, Sunday, March 15th from 12:30-5 p.m. at my home in Glenwood. We'll be creating cute Easter pages using the Emporium paper packet.

Dreamy color combos

Brown, pink and blue are my favorite color combos so I was really excited when I saw the new Unforgettable paper packet from Close To My Heart!

This card was relatively easy to make - I used the Aspiration set from Close To My Heart. To get the dual colors for the branches and leaves, I stamped the image first in second-generation Desert Sand ink. I used Cocoa for the main branch color, but first, since the leaves are on the same stamp, I gently swiped the brown off of the leaves with my finger (though, if you don't like getting messy, you could use a slightly damp Q-tip or the tip of a twisted paper towel to wipe the ink from the area you want to miss). I stamped my image slightly off-set to create more of a 3-D feel on the card. Then, I used Juniper for the leaves, doing the opposite as I did with the Cocoa (swiping the green off of the branches).

Once all the stamping was done, I used my trusty Water Color Wonder crayons from Stampin' Up to create a water-colored looking blue sky. I added pewter brads and White Daisy Just Blooms to the branches and we were done with the image. I also direct-to paper distressed the cream base using Blush ink, then once it was matted, added a pretty satin ribbon to tie it all together.

Now that it's all done, I think I'm going to save it for a graduation card for my cousin (yeah - one card ready!)

More baby gifts!

Here's a little layout I did for yet another girl who's having a baby. Since she & her husband don't want to find out what she's having, I'm going with a gender-neutral album filled with pages for first holidays instead.

This layout uses almost all Close To My Heart products.

They've got a jungle theme going on in the nursery, so I figured the first and last page of the album would feature my all-time favorite image stamps - these animals are from the stamps sets Life's A Jungle and the giraffe is from Nursery Bash. I used the monochromatic-side of the plaid paper from the Aspen paper packet, and the green striped paper is from the Emporium Creative Basics kit. The scalloped circle frame is from last November's special - Dazzling Die Cuts. Baby is spelled out using the Large Friendship Alphabet set and covered in Liquid Glass - be careful when you use the Liquid Glass, because it makes your paper curl! I had to go back and re-glue my letters down. The words on the journaling block are from Tiny Typewriter and the dotted journal lines are from the Priceless Love set (another really fun one!)

I water colored the animals in with Stampin' Up water color wonder crayons and a blending pen.