Back to the Basics

Hi everyone,

Well it's been a crazy summer for me.  Crazy in a good way, but still crazy nonetheless!  Between summer camps, day trips, paperwork for my fiance's business, planning our summer vacation, building up my etsy store, and trying to keep things posted on eBay, it's been busy.  Oh, and don't forget doing the laundry, making it to twice weekly yoga classes, walking the dog, and whipping up all those homemade meals, too!  LOL!

Anyways, last week I got the inclination to put aside the album I was working on and have my go at a 2 page layout.  Not a far stretch, I agree, considering that's what I normally make for my local scrapbook store's design team.  But putting together a layout once a month for a store display isn't quite the same as making one that will actually end up in a scrapbook.   Once I got myself going, I couldn't stop!  I think I'm up to eight since last Thursday, which is pretty impressive considering my schedule.  So here's a look at some of them, let me know what you think:

Gettin' Happy with Scraps

I promised to give you a look at this Friendship album... well, here she is! I fell in love with the beautiful MME papers that I used on my last acrylic album and decided that the bits and pieces left over deserved to be properly used up! This 5x5 inch board book was covered with Studio K papers in pinks and oranges... I added some K & Co. scraps (the pink print on the cover), plus the MME leftovers which are beautiful and have the most subtle sparkly accents. You can see them in the photo below (the dotted and floral papers on the photo mats).

I machine stitched all the photo mats, which were layered onto Bazzill cardstock. The edges of the album pages as well as each photo mat was lightly inked in a warm gingerbread color.

This pocket page was simple to create ~ you just need a good, strong adhesive to make sure it stays! There are 3 pull out journaling tags tucked into the pocket. I also used DCWV sticker quotes throughout the album to emphasize the friendship theme.

Prima flowers were delicately layered... do you see the gold accents on the orange petals? Yummy Primas! I could seriously shop for their flowers all day long and never tire of drooling over all their prettiness. :) The flower centers were made with gold colored bead caps and brads.

Some subtle stamping and pretty ribbon finish off the album nicely. It's very soft and pretty... and not a bad outcome for some leftover papers, huh?

I've been busy!

So I've been REALLY BAD about keeping this blog up to date. So sorry! I've been working on a lot of scrapbooks lately, including 4 custom orders this past week! As always, you can use the link on the right hand side of this blog page to go to my current eBay listings, or to search all of the Making Lemonade Design Team's eBay listings. I'm tellin' ya', these girls have some serious talent and I am humbled to be a part of their group.

Okay - now for some photos of my recent work so you can see that I really haven't been slacking, LOL! I only posted 2 photos of each piece. If you'd like to see the rest, just email me and I'll be happy to share them with you.

First up, this bright and colorful Summer theme album. I love the little flip flops on the front cover, don't you?

For this camping album, I used my Cricut to cut out some trees and grasses that really gave this album it's personality. The paper is the DCWV Green Stack which is made from recycled paper - a perfect fit for this album that celebrates the outdoors!

This was my first attempt at a "hodge podge" album. I don't know if that's an actual term, but that's what I called it. LOL! I basically took a bunch of shaped chipboard albums, took them apart, and mixed up the pieces. Each page of this Friendship album is a different shape, with a butterfly for both the front and back covers. It's kooky, crazy, and really FUN!

Ah, graduation... many moons ago for me, it seems. Here's an album to preserve that much-anticipated event. I tried to keep it more neutral, but I couldn't just look at black and white. I had to add the tan, and then that led me to choose these papers that also have muted navy blues and reds in them. And well, you see how it turned out!


I think that's about it for now. I have lots more photos to post, but need to pack my bags for the long Memorial Day weekend. I'm heading to a motocross track in north Florida for some fun in the mud! Perhaps that will be my next scrapbook theme... hmm...