Card Challenge and Share

This month at Scrapjazz.com, Nora is hosting a card sketch challenge.  This is what I came up with:

I really enjoyed making this little card, it was simple, but very beautiful.  I really wanted to showcase the background stamp on this card, which is why I think the sketch was so awesome - it's perfect to showcase your large stamps.  If you would like to play along - here is the link for the thread for this month's challenge:
http://www.scrapjazz.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/323154/

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy crafty inspired day!

Supplies: (Cardstock) Bazzill, Recollections, Stampin' Up! Garden Green; (Ink) Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip, Stampin' Up! Marina Mist; (Stamps) Stampin' Up! Petite Pairs, Stampin' Up!  Sweet Floral; (Dies) Spellbinders Lacey Circles, Spellbinders Circle

Another Home Decor Min Album Scrapbook Frame

I love mini albums, but to be honest, I've been making TONS of them lately.  And although I love them dearly, they get very tedious SOMETIMES.  And unforuneately, or fortunately, I was feeling the monotony of mini albums during recent assignment at Scrapjazz for an album with the theme of "friends." My thoughts revolved around how to take the concept of an "album" outside the box of an album, and well I came up with, why not lay the album out for display?  This translated into this:

I took a backless frame and a piece of thin canvas board from the craft store to create it.  The canvas was covered with a shimmery cream fabric which I then overlaid with lace.  This was then placed in the back of the frame.  I took 4x4 pieces of chipboard that I had left over from a previous project (yay leftovers!) and covered them with various scraps from my scrap box.  I then found small photos of my me and my friends, and created mini album layouts, using random bits and pieces of left overs - some of the embellishments came from a junk tub that I keep on my desk.  And because I am going through a "everything with banners is better phase" I decided that this piece had to have a title Banner Style.  This is the finished product:

 

And a close up of the fun banner pieces that were also made with left overs and random alphabet pieces from American Crafts and Pink Paislee:

 

 The pennant shape was cut from the Pennants SVG file from Lettering Delights and can be found here.  The Octagon shape was cut using Spellbinders Dies, and the rope is from Stampin' Up!  All the paper that I used in this project are left overs from my scraps.  Pretty awesome huh?

A Mother's Day Envelope Mini Album

A few months ago, I created a mini album with my mother in mind as part of my Contributor duties at Scrapjazz.com.  I figured that I would also share with you here what I created - since not all of my lovely readers are members of Scrapjazz.com.  So, here is what I came up with:

 This is a quick and simple mini album that I made using some Junk Mail Envelopes - yep, I didn't have to purchase something special, I just turned something I generally find rather irritating and annoying into a delightful experience.  In all honesty, I like getting junk mail now because I know I will have an envelope in the mailer that I can repurpose to something I actually want in the mail!

 

I had the same page spread repeat through out the album, so the first page of the album is the front side of an envelop, when you flip the page, you are get the above, one envelope with the flap to create a large packet and a large flap and then the opposite page consists of two envelopes.  I folded an envelope at an uneven split, to create two pockets, which I then adhered to another envelope that I have sealed and then trimmer a sliver off one end to create a long large pocket.

 

 And this photo above is what the front side (side without the flap and pocket) of the envelopes look like.  I organized the mini so that I would have the fronts facing one another to give a more open space, just for variety.

For your added reading pleasure (if you have continued to read this far) pop on over to scrapjazz and check out my full article, which also shows you how to use the Bind-It-All.  Mother's Day Envelope Album with Bind It All

A Vintage Paper Bag Mini Album

A few months ago, I wrote an article over at Scrapjazz.com about travel themed mini albums.  As part of that article, I put together a fun little Mini Album fashioned after a vintage suitcase.  Here is what the cover looks like:

I wanted my cover to reflect those fun vintage style suitcases that are hardcased with the corners, the beautiful leather straps, and covered with stickers from the places the suitcase has traveled to.  I love those suitcases and always conjure up images of exotic international travel.  I made the buckles using a Stampin' Up! Decorative Label Punch.

Here are some photos of the inside (which I neglected to upload before I posted, sorry girls!):

And some close ups of the pockets, tags, and details:

Isn't this paper line just gorgeous?  It is the Simple Stories Destination paper line and when I saw it I just thought "OMG, I HAVE TO HAVE THAT!"  And it was perfect for this project.  One of the things that I did to give this standard paper bag album some more pizzazz, I used a border punch to create a beautiful border between the pockets, and I also used this awesome tutorial to create the folded flaps.