Friday, March 4, 2011 - after midnight....
I have been working diligently this week on this mini scrapbook album for some soon-to-be new members in our family. My husband's 2nd cousin and his wife are expecting twin baby girls. The baby shower's tomorrow and so I got this done just time for my mother-in-law to take up to give to them (it's several hours away). Needless to say, my scrapbook/computer room looks like a tornado went through there. I'm too tired to clean it up tonight, so it will have to wait 'til tomorrow.
This album may have taken a lot of time and work, but I really enjoyed the process on this one. There's a lot of firsts for me with this project...
The first time I used my Cricut Design Studio software & my Jukebox. My husband had gotten Design Studio for me this past fall when he got me my Cricut Expression. Design Studio lets you weld things together and you can use multiple cartridges together. We have it installed on the laptop, so I can design a project from anywhere in the house. Then it hooks up to my Cricut with a USB cable when I'm ready to cut the project out. There's no manual telling you how to do things, so I have to learn as I go and watch YouTube videos. Thank goodness for YouTube. lol!
This is my very first mini scrapbook album.
My very first project made with my Cinch that I got for Christmas. (yea!)
This was the first time I ever cut chipboard on my Cricut and used my deep cut blade. I learned very quickly that the thinner the chipboard, the better it works in the Cricut. Because of this, I will be saving cut-down cereal boxes, chipboard from packaging, and such in the future. Although I used the nice thick acid-free chipboard for all the frames in my Big Shot. Since steel-rule dies cut through pretty much anything like butter. I had gotten a 25 pack of 12x12 nice sturdy acid-free chipboard last year from Scrapbooking Alley for only around $6. I also learned that despite the recommended settings for cutting chipboard with the Cricut, that mine works a lot better if I have my Speed set on low, Pressure on high, and if my deep-cut blade is set on "6". Once I added the cardstock-weight patterned paper to both sides of each chipboard page, it became very sturdy. I then filed and inked all the edges.
Without further ado, here is my very first mini album....
This is a shape album. Each page is a little longer than the one before it. It measures 5-1/2" high by about 11-1/2" long. I used the rectangle from the George & Basic Shapes cartridge and welded all the images on the edges of the pages from New Arrival. I just kept stretching that rectangle for each page. I learned how to do this by watching tutorials on YouTube. If you want this cute baby cartridge, you better get it while you can because it was recently discontinued. I got mine last spring on sale at JoAnn's....
All the patterned paper is from the DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Girl stack (I used both 8x8 and 12x12 depending on what size page I was working on). This is really nice cardstock-weight paper with glitter accents on some of the papers. I love DCWV.
The edges of everything in this album were inked with either Worn Lipstick or Shabby Shutters distress ink by Tim Holtz.
Here is a close-up of the cover. The title - "twins" is popped up on foam tape and it and the double hearts were cut out with Bazzill Bling cardstock. The flower border was made with the flower bed deep-edge Martha Stewart border punch. The chipboard dress is from K&Co. Butterflies were made with a couple different Martha Stewart butterfly punches (classic butterfly and 3 in 1 butterfly punches). I tied lots of ribbons, felt rickrack, lace and white tulle on the binding. And I made the charm that's attached to the binding using sparkly pink and clear glass beads I got at Wal-Mart and some jewelry findings like eye pins and jump rings. I attached a couple small charms to the end - a lock and key and used a lanyard clip to hang it from the binding. The album was bound together using my Cinch. :)
Here's the first couple pages. The tags and chipboard frame were cut out on my Big Shot with some steel-rule Sizzix dies (my latest addiction). The tags are for putting a picture on the front and then I stamped journaling lines and a little baby-related image on the backs. I tied some fibers to the tops of the tags and added a little heart w/rose charm on each one using a teeny safety pin and jump ring. The chipboard "Z" is for the family's last name that I'm giving this to. It comes from the same chipboard pieces box as the dress on the cover that I got from Ollie's Bargain outlet some time ago. I also used my Big Shot and tiny heart embossing folder to emboss the pink part of the stroller and the cardstock that I covered the chipboard frame with. I'm sad to say that my beloved i-Rock broke on me right after I got done blinging up the stroller. I went to turn it off, and the button popped off and so did the little spring inside. :( However, I did call Imaginisce and they are sending me a new one. :) Diamond Stickles were added to the tiny embossed hearts on the stroller.
Pages 3 and 4. Another Sizzix die frame. I used the part from the middle of the frame to make a little accordian fold-out for three pictures and three spots for journaling. The little chipboard sticker on the cover is by DCWV and says "cute as a button". I got these sets of chipboard at Big Lots some time ago. It's so nice to be finally using a lot of the stuff I've had in my stash for awhile and putting it to good use. I secured this accordian fold-out with a tied satin ribbon. There's two tags inside the frame that are for more pictures (fronts) and journaling (backs). The top corners of the tags were made with my cloud/scallop Corner Chomper (I rounded the bottom corners). The flower was made with my retro flower punches and DCWV glitter cardstock. The light pink button in the center of the flower came from a package of Basic Grey buttons I found at Big Lots last month.
Pages 5 and 6... The poem is printed out on vellum using the Curlz font. The filmstrip chipboard frame was made from a Sizzix die. I painted it first with old paper distress crackle paint by Tim Holtz. Then with baby pink acrylic paint. Then sprayed it with a couple coats of sherbert Glimmer Mist for some sparkle and glimmer. Again, the two tags come out and are for pictures and journaling. Butterfly punch is by Martha Stewart. I blinged it up with some Diamond Stickles. The top corners of the tags were punched with my eyelet lace Martha Stewart corner punch. The bottom corners were rounded with my Corner Chomper. Bling brad is by Making Memories.
Pages 7 and 8. Chipboard frame by none other than a Sizzix die. I covered it with glitter cardstock from one of my DCWV matstacks. Two tags inside. Top corners were punched with yet another Martha Stewart corner punch. Chipboard piece is from a DCWV chipboard set I got at Big Lots. Flower came with one of my i-Rock stencil/bling/flower sets. Brad by Making Memories. The strawberries part is tied with some Bazzill sheer polka dot ribbon, it flips up and has room for 3 photos altogether including the front. I used my Tim Holtz On-The-Edge die for the bottom edge.
Pages 9 and 10... Chipboard flourish was cut out with a Sizzix steel-rule die. I made a couple photo mats with journaling spots stamped on the backs and tucked them into the flourish. The corners were made with the stub/deco Corner Chomper. The envelope was cut out on my Cricut using the Wild Card cartridge. I used a 12x12 piece of patterned cardstock-weight paper from the Nana's Nursery stack. Used Fit-To-Page to cut the largest envelope I could, which came out to 5" and ended up fitting this mini album page perfectly. The flap of the envelope is held shut with some velcro. The mother of the babies can put whatever she wants inside. Aren't those twin baby girls that I cut out with the New Arrival cartridge just too cute?? The faces were stamped using my new Peachy Keen everyday face stamp set.
The last two pages I left plain since they are the roomiest and the mother can add pictures to these pages however she wants.
The back of the album. I added another short poem about twins that I printed out on vellum.
And a few more close-ups...
I hope you enjoyed me sharing my very first mini scrapbook album with you. I plan to make more of these to give as gifts to people in the future.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. We are going to be getting a lot of rain here tomorrow and then some snow on Sunday (hopefully not too much though).
Good-night and thanks as always for stoppin' by,
