Mini-Palooza: Heart Mini

This mini is all about family. The sweet and subtle florals in this line are perfect  for those moments in time that should be remembered forever.

Under the tree reads "Our family has grown."

Comparison: Same Photo, Different Results Part 4

I hope you've been following along with this series! If you've missed previous posts, go back and start with Part 1.
This week's post is on several photos of a dog. Pets are such a large part of our lives- it's important to remember them!
For this Cherished Memories page, premium papers were used with coatings- the heart paw print paper has glitter coatings in various spots and the diamond paper has a lovely subtle sheen on it. I handcut extra hearts to use as embellishments and then cut each and every letter along with the pawprints on my die cutting machine. I hand-adhered the two layers of the title "Melody is...". Next, I used various colors of pens to write on the journaling letters and adhered those one by one. (Let me say, the adhering of each teeny letter one by one took forever!!)

 Here are the same photos on a Keepsake style page. I toned down the colors to really bring out the beautiful coat of the dog. I also left the photo in the field at its original size to make it the focal point. The black & white mat under the large photo is flocked- the black parts feel somewhat like velvet! Lavender was picked for the mats and the dog's name because of the dog's lavender collar.

My last example is the Simplicity page.
I kept this page even more monochromatic than the last one. Once again, I chose not to crop the field photo. This time I used green and black to go with the grass and the dog's coat. A custom die-cut title continues the relaxed, open feel of this page.





Come back next week for the next installment in this series! Thanks for looking!

Eyelets in the Carpet

(Or: My joys & struggles working at home)
I've been doing a lot of research, reading and thinking about my business over the last few weeks. I've been reading lots & lots of the articles on Etsy's Quit Your Day Job series. They're encouraging and thought provoking and even a little envy provoking all at once! (Can I just say... I'm drooling over the photography!)
For a long time, I thought I'd work in an office. I liked the idea of the busyness, the organization- even the administrative type duties. I worked in lots of different types of jobs- I nannied, I did food service, I did retail. A few I loved, a couple I hated, most I simply didn't care about one way or another. Finally I decided to get into the office arena. I went to school (and paid way too much for it!). I finished and went into offices. I discovered that I liked the job part well enough. But I was slowly coming to realize that it wasn't really the job duties that I hated. It was the working for other people that made me cranky and gave me migraines on a near weekly basis. Even when I liked or at least didn't mind the people I worked with, deep down I knew this was not where I wanted to be for the rest of my life. The longer I did it, the worse it got.
Fast forward a few months to now. I'm mostly working from home on my own business. Part-time, I assistant manage a crafting store where I can take my work with me and get a little done away from home. As far as having an outside job, it's definitely the best! And when I'm working at home? I may not take days off- other than the occasional no technology weekend- since I check at least my email and a few other things at least once a day. But I love it. I'm relaxed. I sleep better. My migraines have dropped to one or less a month.
And I have eyelets in the carpet. For me, this sums up where I am today. Let me explain. If you've been around for a while, you know I've been planning a studio makeover for... well, just about forever. The plans have been finished and ready for months now. In the meantime, my studio has gotten  more and more disastrous. (Try putting something away when there is no room for it anywhere!) When I have lots of orders and projects to complete, I take over the house. There are materials on the coffee table and the kitchen table. In a 2 bedroom house, that's pretty much the entire place! I am so grateful I have a patient & supportive man who doesn't mind (much) when I do this. This is how eyelets end up in the carpet, though- that and the awful containers they come in when you purchase them! Who designs containers for teeny tiny pieces that won't stay closed if you look at them sideways?
So why hasn't my studio been finished before now? Mostly because of me. When I set aside money to buy the materials for the furniture and everything else, I inevitably see new paper lines or run out of something that I must have right away. It is so much more tempting to create than to buy nails and glue and sheets of wood. I don't look at a piece of wood and see everything it could be the way I do with a sheet of paper. Even though I grumble about my mess on an at least daily basis. And regularly have to search for things. Constantly clear off my desk so I have room to work. Let's not even discuss the mess that my ribbon boxes are in... The cats are sure enjoying that, though! Don't think I'm unhappy- I'm not. I love working in my pajamas. I love listening to whatever music or tv show I feel like having on. I'll be over the moon when I am busy enough to do it 100% of the time. For the next couple weeks? I am going to do my best to buy studio makeover materials and nothing else. Yesterday, I bought spray paint and a gallon of my furniture color. Next up? Either some wood or some hardware, I think. Because when my studio is finished, I'll be able to find anything. Anytime. There will be no eyelets in the carpet. No materials on the dining table.
So there's my confession. I dream of- need- a beautiful, well organized room. But I have an excruciatingly hard time getting there. I'm hoping for some advice, thoughts, encouragement. What kinds of things do you struggle with?

Mini-Palooza: Easter Mini

Easter is coming up right around the corner! Pick up this mini to remember every precious moment! To purchase, please go to this mini's Etsy listing. Let me know if you have any questions!

Comparison: Same Photo, Different Results Part 3

This week's samples are from a beach trip! If you're starting with today's post, be sure to go and take a look at Part 1 and Part 2!

 First off is the Cherished Memories style page. I used bright, summery colors and lots of cute beachy embellishments. I hand sewed the scallop border around the entire page. Hand sewing that much is pretty time consuming! To finish it off, I hand cut the banner and used the same color of thread to "hang" it across the page.

 Presented here is the Keepsake page. The colors are slightly more muted to focus on the almost black and white look of the photos. Rounded corners on the layers under the photos mimic the circles on the background paper. I cropped the photos to show the joy of a summer beach day.

For the Simplicity page, I kept the photos at their original size. I chose a deeper blue that brings the eye to the photos. Then I added sand-colored custom cut photo corners and a journaling spot. Can you find the seashell embellishment?





Thanks for coming along for this series! I hope this is showing the different styles more clearly!

Mini Palooza: What goes into a mini album!

Maybe after all these photos of minis, you're wondering what exactly goes into a mini. Today I'm going to use the "Love" mini from a few weeks ago and show exactly what went in to every piece.

A similar blank album.

First, I start with a blank chipboard book like this one. Most minis come with 4-6 sheets of chipboard which gives me 8-12 pages to decorate. I take the binding rings off and choose how to decorate my backgrounds. Usually, I will scan the shaped pages into my computer. Then I use my die cutting software to trace the shapes and cut them out of paper. My die cutter makes things much easier, but it still usually takes me 20 minutes to two hours to do the tracing step. This varies so widely depending on the album. Some have every page cut in a different shape and some have all the same shaped pages. On this particular album, I didn't need to do that step. I chose instead to paint the "love" cover. Since the remaining pages are rectangles with curves only on the corners, it was fairly simple to cut the paper myself. Before I covered it with paper, I painted the love cover with several different types of paints to get my sparkly pretty pink/red color. Then I painted the edges of each of the rest of the pages- pink is much better than cardboard brown! 

See the variations in color on the cover and the pink edging?

Once all that was dry, it was time to start covering the pages. I cut each page out of different patterns of paper. Depending on the time available for the project as well as other factors, I pick my adhesive. If I have lots of time or I think the book will be handled a lot, I use a liquid adhesive to adhere the papers. It takes more time to place papers and adhesives using a liquid as well as extra time for each side of the page to dry. Otherwise, I'll use a regular adhesive. Now that the papers are adhered, it's time to make sure they fit perfectly. Here's where the handiness of my die cutting software comes in! When I have a difficult shape with lots of small areas and curves, using the software to design the cuts means my cuts are usually pretty spot on. No matter how perfect my cuts are, though, there's always a spot here and there where the paper doesn't quite fit the way I want it to. So now I take some sandpaper and sand it down to meet the edge of my chipboard. Doing this right without removing too much does take

Edges after both sanding & inking.

quite a while- especially doing both sides on every page! After that's done, sometimes I use an inkpad to ink the edges of the pages. On this album, I used various light brown and pink colors to ink. This keeps the look subtle while adding a nice frame effect to the page.
Finally, I can begin to decorate the pages themselves. (We're a good 6 or more hours in already, and we've barely begun!) One by one, I start adding photos mats and embellishments. Minis generally have room for 20 photos at the absolute max. They also have many embellishments, especially more dimensional types like the fabric flowers I used on this one. This is because you don't have to worry about the weight of a full 12x12 album sitting on one and crushing it, or worse, ruining other pages around it.

I started cutting mats for each page and then inked the edges of all of them. I chose different colors of inks depending on the colors on the page. Then I added my ribbons, transparencies, frames, flowers, and all the other embellishments. Each page takes a good chunk of time to get it the way I want it. When each page is finished, I put the binding rings back in and double check to see that everything is perfect!
Total, this album took me somewhere in the vicinity of 15 hours to do! Once we add in the materials costs, you'll see why the cost of a mini can vary so widely. I am sure to be careful to price according to both my materials costs and my time. If you ever have questions on the pricing of a particular mini, please feel free to ask me about it!
Album- $7
2 packages ribbons/flowers- $12
Paper- $8
1 package frames- $5
1 package metal embellishments- $5
1 package clear acrylic embellishments- $2
Misc. acetate and paper embellishments- $3
Now add in a few extras that I used from my stash (such as the wire words, bling and felt heart), adhesives, paints, and inks. We're over $40 for the materials alone. Throw in the labor and we're close to a regular 12x12 album! Every mini is worth every second- They are completely one of a kind! Nowhere will you find a mini that duplicates any other. That is why I love giving them away! They're small enough to easily sit on a coffee table and show off those special photos. I can be sure that no one else has gifted one like it, too!
Have a happy Monday- I'll be back next week with more minis!

Comparison: Same Photo, Different Results Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I shared the different ways I scrapped my "Winter Beauty" photo. In this one, I'll showcase pages of a boy gardening. Ready?

First up is a Cherished Memories style page. Muted greens put the focus on the boy and the garden. Look closely- loads of sewing around the page in many places make this page oh so special! A few different layers add some dimension as well. Keeping the page monotone really makes the red hair pop, too!













Example two is a Keepsake page. The text and flourish pieces were custom cut for this page. I still kept the colors pretty monochromatic to highlight the photos- especially the one on the far left!

This final page using these photos is a Simplicity page. The clean white background keeps distractions to a minimum. I cropped the photos much less on this page, too. Simple floral borders bring the eye down the page. 

There's part two! Come back next week for part three!

Mini-Palooza: Baking with Will mini

This is one of the few minis that I made just for me! Brandon & our nephew Will had lots of fun one afternoon baking some cookies.

This page is supposed to be blank for me to add in some journaling. :)

Comparison: Same Photo, Different Results

Scrapbooking is an art form. As such, a single photo can be used with many different materials for unlimited numbers of effects and moods. This is part of the reason that I use the three different styles of albums- each photo could be scrapped simply, ornately, or anywhere in between. You can pick what style suits you the most- then we'll go into the colors. I pick colors from the photos- colors that are in the photos, that contrast with what is in the photo, and colors that suit the theme of the photo.
I'll be doing a series comparing different ways of combining photos and papers. This should more clearly differentiate between the three different styles for you! For this first one, I'm going to use a photo I took last January. This is one of my favorite photos. It was taken in a parking lot in the middle of town, though it looks like it was taken in the country. The frost was so thick that it was coating every single branch of every tree- utterly beautiful!

These first two examples fit into the Cherished Memories style. They have lots of hand made embellishments and additions as well as specialty papers and lots & lots of time!
Example 1: I decided to pull out the hints and tones of pink with the coated fuchsia paper. Repeated layers of black and various shades of fuchsia bring the eye straight to the photo. Hand cut flowers surround the flourish frame.








This example keeps to the cooler blues and whites and grays that are in the picture. In this, the background page has a light sheen to it. Then I cut the snowflakes and the "Winter Beauty" title and glittered all of the pieces. The photo mat has a special glitter technique that is also soft to the touch- handmade, of course!

This page is a Keepsake style layout. I kept the white and blues from the above page and added a very soft pink to pull in the pinks of the distant trees in the morning sun. To add detail and interest, I punched the corners of the layered papers with a snowflake punch and punched the entire border of the pink paper.

In my last page using this photo, I went completely out of the box! This one is a Simplicity style- every paper used was a solid color piece of cardstock. I kept it very simple and yet so stunning. The orange was chosen for the the bright sun that was coming up and throwing orange and pink hues onto everything. Then I used slender pink and blue mats that bring out the colors in the photo.


Keep your eye out for the next post in this series! I have several to show and more in the works!