Paper Bag Album - Fall Beachy-ish

I took a class last night at my local scrapbook store. The woman teaching the class is a doll. She offered up all sorts of goodies from her stash for us to use. Extremely generous of her. Anyway, we were to choose the papers ourselves. I wanted a Fall colored album and found papers that made me happy.

It took a lot of effort on my part to get the structure of the album together. I tend to talk quite a bit when placed in a room with other women. Go figure. I work with mostly men all day. It was HEAVEN I tell ya. The estrogen was flowing last night. I made two new friends. Who like to play with paper and glue too. I see playdates in my future.



Anyway, here is what I came up with:

Album Cover

I didn't punch holes for the binder rings like the teacher wanted us to do. Instead I scored a piece of the cardstock and wrapped it around the front and back cover to make a spine.

Album cover with flap open

Inside pages 1 and 2.
The orange piece is a little page made from the bottom of the lunch bag.

Page 1 - Tag page sticking out
I used the inside of the bag for an additional page. Punched a half circle to make the page easier to see and get out.

Page 2 - Tag page sticking out
I did the same thing here for the tag page.

Another shot of page 2 open

Page 3 and 4
The pocket that the yellow tag/page is in is actually a bag that has been cut shorter.

Page 3 - Tag/page sticking out

Back cover

Ingredients: 4 lunch sized paper bags, 3 each 12x12 double sided patterned paper, 2 each 8.5x11 solid cardstock, embellishments, adhesive, paper cutter, assorted punches, ink (for distressing)

I can't tell you the name of the patterned paper. I usually don't keep track of these things. I don' t currently have a desire to be on any design teams, so I don't have a need to know. I also can't tell you which TV station is on which channel. Or who sings that song you are listening to. If I like something, I like it. I just don't know who makes, sings or acts in it. It's one of my charms.

Thanks for looking. If you have any questions, leave me a comment. I'll do my best to answer them.

A special thanks for putting up with my really bad photography. I have a class lined up. (I hope.)

Best Witches for Halloween

Happy Halloween all.

Halloween Party Sleepover Goodie Bags

Here are the finished goodie bags the girls got to take home with them on Saturday. I used the regular cellophane goodie bags from the $ store, inserted a piece of black cardstock to provide a bit of stability and then stuffed with all sorts of goodies. Including a gross candy finger, creepy spiders, stickers, and a mouse. I had a time of it trying to get the bags stapled, so I ended up putting two staples in before I put the topper on. I actually had to take out two of the items that the girls wanted to include. I just put them in a bowl during the party and let them snack. I kept the decoration simple because the girls are just going to rip the bags open and toss them. And I needed to spend my time on the mini albums.

The candy skull bracelets came in a four pack. I split them up into bags and topped them with paper to match the goodie bags. Which also matches the invitations. The monster seeds came in a 10 pack. Morgan and I came up with the instructions, printed them and bagged them. It was all her idea. She is SO my kid.

Giveaway - Buttercup Reedweb at A Thousand Sheet of Paper

Amy at A Thousand Sheets of Paper is giving away all of this yummy goodness. Go check out her blog. She is one talented lady. And generous too. New stamps are being released on November 2nd and to commemorate the event giveaways are running rampant. Get yourself over there. Now.

Halloween Party Sleepover Mini Album

I made 16 of these mini albums for the girls that attend the party tomorrow night. I will print the photos either Sat or Sun to finish them. My girls can take the finished albums to school next week to give to their friends. I used the same type of album as last year with a few differences.

Here's how I did it:

Supplies used for the Halloween album.

1 piece - Stiff felt for cover - 3x6 inches (folded in half)

2 pieces - Cardstock for pages -2.75x5.5

1 piece - Acetate for pages - 2.75x5.5

1 piece - 12 inch ribbon for closure

1 piece - 8 inch ribbon for binding

8 pieces - 2.5x2.5 background patterned papers

Embellishments, various

Simple directions to make the mini album:

1. Fold the cover in half and punch holes for the closure ribbon. I used my Crop-a-dile. It is easier to punch these holes before you add the pages. The Crop-a-dile won't reach the center far enough to get the holes near the spine. I just kinda eyeballed it. You could measure, but it won't really make that much of a difference.

2. Fold cardstock in half and adhere background papers.

3. Fold acetate in half and layer with cardstock pages. I put cardstock, acetate, cardstock.

4. Place pages onto cover, lining up spine. Center and punch two holes for binding ribbon. You can use a binder clip to hold the pages, but I held them in place when I punched the holes.

5. Thread binding ribbon through the two holes you just punched and tie. Trim ribbon if you desire.

6. Thread closure ribbon. (see photo of album cover)

7. Now decorate. I went old school, and used white glue to get the felt spider web to stick to the felt cover. A glue dot to add the plastic spider.

NOTES: I used stiff felt for the covers. It's what I had in my stash. I think if I were to buy them specifically for the Halloween album I would have gotten black or orange, but I had brown, so they are brown. I think it works anyway. I made them 3 inches square instead of 2.5. The larger size sure made things easier to decorate. I couldn't staple them together because the stapler wouldn't reach, so I punched a couple of holes and tied them with matching ribbon. I fussy cut Martha Stewart felt spider web ribbon and glued to the cover. Then attached a plastic spider with a glue dot. I used Halloween papers from Michael's, Recollections. I just bought a pad of acetate and was anxious to use it, so I added clear pages. I cut the ring part off of those little plastic Halloween rings (spider and bat) and used them to embellish. I used the scraps of patterned paper to make some of the embellishments. I used Stampin' Up stamps and Studio G stamps. Punches I used: 2" circle, 1.5" circle scallop, mini tag, 2" square, and Stampin' Up ticket corner. I used Studio G inks in black, white, purple and green. They sparkle and they were only 50 cents each.

I hope this was useful. Please let me know if you make one. I would love to see it.

Haunted House Design

I stumbled upon this site. It is Halloween year round. I will be visiting year round. I can't explain my attraction to Halloween. Any way the first challenge was to make a creepy treat container. I submitted this year's Halloween party invitations. And guess what? My project was chosen as one of the Gruesome Twosome. I am so thrilled. Go visit and check out everyone's works.

Blog candy @ Wendy's

You have got to check out Wendy's works. She is a very talented lady. AND she is hosting a give away.
She is giving a shadowbox creation to one lucky winner. But you will win just by checking out her layouts.

LOAD Day 5

Just a quick post to show off my nephew Aaron.

He's such a great guy.

I'll explain more about LOAD later.



Toodles. I'm off to bed now.

Order of the Opus Gluei Challenge #27 - Copy Cat

I love Paperback swap. I put books up for swap and request books I want. All for the price of postage. I posted a book from my youngest daughter. I got a request for it and sent it off. A few days later I got a reply that I had made several young girls very happy. (Insert big smiley face here.) After several emails, I had decided to make and send scrapbooking supplies to these young girls. They are in a home for children who have been removed from their homes for different reasons. Then, as I am apt to do, I kept thinking that a scrapbook would be a better, more finite project for these girls. So I am making and sending 14 kits to these girls. They are split into 2 groups. Younger and older. Yesterday I made the kits for the younger girls.

The front page in the album will have punched out letters. This is PSE7 text inserted to show what it will look like.

I know these look a bit blank, but they look pretty good when you have pics in place.

The white page on the left (below) will have some word punched out and glued on.

I just need to figure out which word would be GREAT for younger girls.

The ribbon on the these pages is real ribbon.

I think I will probably run it through my Xyron to make it easier for the girls.

And older girls.

Any ideas are very welcome.

I used the punches and dies that I have. And all the paper and cardstock is from my stash.

See ORDER OF THE OPUS GLUEI - CHALLENGE #27 - COPY CAT for more info.

Basically, I copied the format of an album I already have.

Again, I have used patterned paper for ribbon strips. I think it will be easier for the girls to glue down.




I really had fun making these kits. Again, the ribbon on the last page is patterned paper.

I have pics of some of the original album pages next to my altered versions on
ORDER OF THE OPUS GLUEI.

Thanks for looking.

Halloween Party 2009 - Invitations

For the last couple of years DH and I have let the girls have a Halloween Party. They each invite a couple/few friends to spend the night and we play games, eat snacks and watch Halloween movies. It is now a tradition. One which their friends actually ask about right about this time of the year.

This year I had envisioned a really creepy invitation. I wanted to put a candy finger with a string tied around with a tag attached with the party info and the message "Don't forget". It got shot down. Complete with disgusted sigh and eye roll. From each one of my daughters. I don't get it. Isn't it a great idea?!

Isn't Halloween supposed to be creepy?!

Anyway, I came up with plan "B". Matchbox invitations.

I let each girl choose two papers, then I stamped, punched and glued. Yes, I did it. I LOVE playing with glue and papers.

Once the boxes were assembled, they were missing something. So I gave the stamped spiders googly eyes and then glued a spider inside each box. Yay! I got my creepy factor in.

Spider is hidden under the candy. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I think candy corn is the winner, but I would rather have the M&M's anyday.

Looks innocent enough, doesn't it. ;-}

Yup. We are inviting 16 girls to add to my 3.

Talk about a scary Halloween.






Now all I have to do is print off the information, cut into rectangles, fold in half and staple to the bags of candy. Guess I should go buy more candy corn. It's pretty much gone. I have an unusually high level of candy-evaporitis-in-no-timis in my house. It is a supernatural phenomenon with no known cure.





Then I will have to make goodie bags and decorate. Fun-ness for me.

Opus Gluei Challenge #26 - Bling it on...

Opus Gluei has it's 26th Challenge up.

I can't believe it has already been 26 weeks. Half a year. 6 months.

I am so happy that we have stuck it out for so long. Sometimes we got the challenges up a little late, and sometimes we got the challenge up without our projects included, BUT, we did it.

Anyway, on to this weeks' fun...

Sometimes you get inspiration for a project from your product. As I did with my glittery Glitter box.

(Not a colorful euphemism Rosemary.)

The challenge was to make it blingy, shiny, glittery. I didn't have a clue, so i pulled out my stash of glitters and realized that the container was UGLY. I think that I will start using glitter more than before. Yup, just because it is in a prettier box. I AM that shallow. At least in this instance.

Glitter and embossing powder and Stickles. Oh my!!

It's just a plain paper mache' box that I covered with glitter sticker paper. And then decorated with the scraps.

Now to figure out something in which to put my flowers and dies and glues and .....

Caardvarks - 7 Days 24 Hour Challenge

For all the details and rules visit Caardvarks.

Join Caardvarks September 20 - 27th for seven, 24 hour challenges and prizes!

Grand Prize = A spot on the Caardvarks Crew Design Team!

Here's the sketch from today. Day 1.

Here's my first card. I just got the Studio G stamp today and was excited to use it.

You can't tell from the pictures, but the ink, also Studio G, has a sparkle to it. It's great.

The lace was a cream color. I inked it to get it darker.

I made this next based on a very, very, very loose interpretation of the sketch.

The chipboard reminds me of an ancient rune. It just has the right feel.

The color is off, the buttons are green, orange and purple. Same as the skulls eyes.

Here's the inside of the card. I love this bone paper. I think it's K & Co. I could be wrong.



Thanks for looking.

Halloween Blog Candy - Haunted House Mini Album Kit

Die Cut Diva's blog is giving away blog candy on September 18th.

Check out this cool kit.

That makes this really cool album. Just go here and follow the directions to enter.

I would say good luck. But, I really like this little album and want it for myself.

BWAHAHAHA

Opus Gluei Challenge # 24 - Learning

All of us learn new things. We might not realize it, but we learn.

Right now I am learning to take care of me.

It isn't easy. I have to MAKE myself do things strickly for me.

As part of this process, and it is a process, I am taking a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking called

ME: The Abridged Version.

In the class we are making an entire album about ourselves. ME. I am having to learn again what matters to me. What makes me tick. What is important and what I like. AND I am having fun in the process.

So far, I have ALL of the pages created digitally.

That is to say that I have the basic pages laid out for each letter in the alphabet.

I only have a handful of them completed.

Getting them all done will take me a bit of time as I have to limit my time spent on this project to 20-30 minute chunks of time.

I will get it done AND I WILL get the pages printed and put into an album.

(You can see the "a" page in the below post.)

ME: The Abridged Version

This is my first page for this album. I have all the papers needed for this class. Except for the background paper. (Rosemary, I know you are thinking "How in bloody hell does she NOT have background papers?", but I don't. I want kraft and I can't find mine. I know I have it somewhere. So being the impatient soul that I am, I decided to play with PSE7 and see what popped out. I am THRILLED with the outcome.

Cathy Z is a GREAT teacher. She is teaching/leading us on how to get a book about ME. Okay if you were taking the class yours would be about YOU. But since I am taking it, mine is about ME. ME ME ME.

I have always wanted to do a book about me. With stories that my family can read later in life and get to know me a bit better. So when Cathy offered this class, it was a NO BRAINER.

Now that I have the first page done digitally, I have to find something to do with all the other patterned paper I just cut into specific sized pieces. Hmmm. Card sets maybe?????

Opus Gluei Challenge #23

Flowers. So many different thoughts come to mind. I love me some flowers.
I made this card.

(Papers are all old Daisy D's. Stamp is Unity. A few dew drops and some thin ribbon. Card stock is unknown. I have had it forever. Sketch is from Sheetload of Cards. Read below for more info.)

Actually it is one of a set of six. I think I will make it a gift for a friend. We exchange gifts every year for Christmas. Not expensive ones. Just little somethings that say "I thought of you". So I am sending her these. I hope she likes them. But if she doesn't, she will be giving them away anyway, so no biggie. Right?!?!?!

I found this wonderful blog. Sheetload of Cards. I know that some of you have already been there, done that. But for me it was like striking gold this morning. I used their pattern from September of 2008. Yup. I went over there and browsed back to then. I would have gone further, except that none else in this family was gonna make these cards, so I had to save the rest for later oogling.

Caardvarks is a bad influence. In a good way. :-D

You know how there are a gazillion challenge blogs out there. And you know how you really want to "do" them all, but just don't have time. (the family keeps wanting food and clean laundry. really, the nerve. I wish they would just accept that I have needs. Creative needs. Anyway, back to reality.

I have a project to do for my own challenge blog, OPUS GLUEI. This week is flowers. And later today I will post a project. I had intended to work on it this morning. But, I slept late, then I had to check my email, and surf a bit. Well, one of my stops was at ALL THE GOOD BLOG NAMES WERE TAKEN. Lauren is uber talented and very funny. Go there, but not until after you are done here. She is one of the DT members for CAARDVARKS. (do you see where this is going?!) And they posted a new challenge yesterday. They have 3 sketches from which to choose. Make a card based on one of them and whiz bang you can post in the challenge. Don't get me wrong, they are ALL great sketches, but one of them SANG out to me. I was powerless to resist the call.

Are you ready for it?

Ta-da:

Here it is.

Isn't it great?

Isn't it the best sketch you have ever seen?

I was fortunate enough to stumble upon the Martha Stewart punch "drippy goo".

It too sang to me.

This sketch and this punch are meant to be together.

Don't cha think!!!

Oh, yeah. The card I made.

(I really kinda cheated. I made this ATC 2 years ago (don't remember the manufacturer of the stickers, Quickutz bats and Bazzill paper) and now my baby has a home. The ribbon is from the Target $ section from last year. Paper is from a Walmart Halloween stack from a couple years back and the green drippy goo paper is the packaging from a K&Co Halloween Die cuts. None of which were used, or harmed, in the making of this card.)

Okay, duty calls, and now I am off to get floral...

Pink Lemonade Pie - Stampin Up Style

I recently joined a Stamp Club. It's a group of ladies (Yes, I am taking the leap) that get together once a month to make cards and a few other projects. Well, the lady that is my Stampin' Up consultant, who I found through surfing blogs on the internet, Lisa, was just recognized as the 8th top seller in the USA. How cool is that!

Anyway, she is hosting a 6x6 recipe swap. Now being the #8 stamp seller in the country, she couldn't very well allow other products to be used is this swap. Yup, I used Stampin' Up products exclusively. Card stock is Rich Razzleberry (purple), Mambo Melon (pink), Dusty something or other (orangey) and Whisper White. Inks used to create the patterned look on the card stocks are the same names as the card stocks. Stamp set is something to do with Friendship. I used the little swirly stamp and the flower. Ribbon is something Curry (yellow). Patterned paper is the Razzberry Lemonade. I used a jumbo brad. I fell in love with them and had to have them after using them in a project at one of the Stamp meeting thingies. Oh, and the little white brad is from the white hardware kit. And you know me. I can't ever "follow" the "recipe", the staples are NOT Stampin' Up. But, I think it'll be okay.

(edited: Official color names are

Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo and Dusty Durango.

And the stamp set is Wings of Friendship.

Sorry if I threw you off.)

I want Candy...Notebooks

I saw these cute little notebooks on Etsy and thought,

"I can do that".

Famous last words.

I usually think that right before I make a huge mess.

And spend more money than I would have if I had just bought the item that started it all.

I can't help it.

It's a condition I have.

I made one with a box of candy we already had. My middle daughter loved it and wanted one for her friends. This was early June, before school got out. And I didn't have nearly enough to do, so I agreed. I let both of my younger daughters pick out some candy at the dollar store (I love that place) and then we stopped at WalMart to get some steno notebooks. (Office Max had them for WAY too much money)

I have to warn you that I am NO teacher. My "tutorial" is only intended to give you an idea of what I did. If you still have questions, please ask. I will do my best to answer them.

So, here's what I do:

I gather my tools:

(I am using several different candy boxes. Because that is how it turned out to be the easiest for me.

Just keep in mind that they are pretty much the same.)

I take the candy out of the boxes. Sample a few of them.

Keep others around for inspirational energy.

It's what I HAVE to do. Yum.

Peel the glued seams of the box apart.

Flatten the boxes and cut along the creases.






I trim the front and back panels to the same size. And set them aside.

(Save the pretty side panels for bookmarks. I do.)

I carefully bend the locking loop back on the steno pad,

and un-twist the wire out of the notebook.

I found I can get two notebooks out of one steno pad

if I bound the Candy Notebooks on the

short side of the candy box panels.

I cut the steno covers to the same dimensions as the candy box panels.

Then glue one of the steno covers to the candy box panel.

(Make sure to check the orientation with regard to the holes in the cover.

I made one notebook upside down because I wasn't so careful.)

While the glue is setting/drying, cut the paper by carefully

grabbing 10-ish sheets at a time and cut to size using a paper trimmer.

Once everything is cut, flip the covers over and

using my Crop-a-dile, I punch through the candy box

panels using the holes of the steno pad for guides..

Place the bottom cover, papers, and top cover together.

I use a couple of binder clips to hold the stack

together while I re-wind the wire back into the holes.

Once it is all the way in, I cut the wire with a wire cutter

and then use plyers to bend a locking loop back into the wire.

And whiz bang, you have a Candy Notebook.

(see first picture in post again. I forgot to add it here

and am feeling too lazy to delete all the pics and add them again. Sorry.)

With the leftover pieces I was able to make a bunch of smaller notebooks. I am currently using one in my purse for whatever. These little notebooks are a great way to use up those little left over binding wires from my bind-it-all. I usually have little sections of 4 just hanging out.

I was eyeballing a box of mac and cheese the other day.....

It wasn't because I was hungry,

it was because I have an extra steno pad

just burning a hole on my craft table.

Oh the possibilities!

Hope you have fun. Let me know if you make any. I would love to see them.